Spirit Renewed on a 2015 Christmas Hike

Some how I have gotten away from posting my hikes here. Talk about them on Facebook, but need to keep this site more up to date. I have taken many hikes since my last post. Also considering putting them into a book format . . .

FB_Merry Full Moon Christmas_5271

On this Christmas day, I needed a “spirit renewing hike” badly.

The day was gloomy and it had snowed during the night.

I had seen the full moon and hadn’t expected to awake to snow on the ground.

Web_Wild Clouds_Blue Sky_5797

Started out just walking around town. Then the sun came out.

FB_1 Xmas Hike_BlueInvite_5793

I headed up the street towards the water tank trail to see how icy or deep in snow it would be.

Not to bad.

FB_1_Xmas Hike_BlueSky Trail_5578

Realizing I didn’t have the proper shoes, no water or a pole, I gingerly started up the trail.

There were places it was a bit more snowy and icy than I felt totally comfortable, but then there were areas the snow was barely covering the trail.

The weather changed soon after I started the hike, but not too cold.

FB_2_Cloud Shrouded Mtn_5580

Sometimes I like to test myself and make sure I no longer experience vertigo when looking down from heights. So I walked overĀ  to a cliff and looked back down to the path below.

FB_3_Look Down Cliff_5597

And I was just fine. So hiked on a bit farther.

Then I spied one of my favorite things to photograph: Rusty objects.

Web_Rusty Object in Snow_5656

I played with this for a while.

Web_Rusty Twins_5618Web_Rusty_5645-5629

On one part of the trail, I realized there was one other set of tracks. This set didn’t look like a deer as the first set of tracks I had seen when starting out. And they were very fresh. Began looking around me more to be sure nothing was waiting for me . . .

Web_Tracks_5590-5679

And when it started to snow I turned back and began to head back down the trail. Still a bit wary of spotting a creature that I might not like being alone with in the mountains.

Tried to capture snowflakes falling. Not an easy thing to do. But did catch a few in the photos.

FB_5_Snowflakes Path_5746

And then there were some lovely pine cones to capture.

Web_PineCones_5709-10-11

They reminded me of winter flowers blossoming in the trees and on the ground.

Web_PineCones_5703-12

Hiking down, there was a great view of downtown Manitou Springs.

Looking down upon my town made me think of these words:

“O’ Little Town of Manitou Springs . . . how still you lie below.”

Oh Little Town Of Manitou

My Spirit was renewed as I remembered how I love this little town . . .

Web_Blue Sky Gate exit_5778

So I headed back to my home.

Blue skies showed up for a short time.

Web_Wild Sky Transition_5814

But not for long.

Web_Wild Sky Transition2_5805

And the sky was very strange. “Mama always said, Don’t look into the sun.”

Web_Sun Behind Clouds_5724-36

But I couldn’t help taking some photos of the sky with sun brightly behind the clouds.

And will try to capture the full moon Christmas night, but finding that challenging for my camera.

Merry Christmas 2015 and to all, a good night!


Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.