Our hike to Mt. Falcon

On Sunday, we met Sara and headed up to Mt. Falcon for a hike.  Originally Sara was going to take us to Herman’s Gulch, but no one was able to verify the snow levels at 10k feet and above, so we’re going to save Herman for another weekend….possibly in July.

When we first arrived at Mt. Falcon, I wasn’t sure what to expected, but Sara mentioned ruins and pieces of a story related to a Presidential Summer Home.  So, we headed down Castle Trail to figure out what was out there.

I was surprised by the number of bikers and trail runners out that morning and after hoofing it up some of those hills, I have a greater respect for the athleticism that it takes.

The first ruins that we came to were that of the house that John Brisben Walker built.  It burned to the ground after being struck by lighting in 1916 after his second wife Ethel died.

After checking out the ruins, we continued down Castle Trail until it intersected with Walker’s Dream which took us up to the second set of ruins.

Looking out from this point, you could see the ruins of the Walker home.

We headed back out to do some more hiking which included Old Ute Trail, Devils Elbow and Meadow Trail.

Somewhere along the way we ran into a wild bird who seemed friendly at first and then proceeded to “attack” Mike.  I thought that it was going to peck his leg, but thankfully he just got tangled in his feed.   Here’s the culprit…

Sara had her pedometer on and we walked something like 16,000 steps or close to 6 miles.  It got a little challenging at the end, but we all pushed through and rewarded ourselves with a little treat afterward.  Sara and I had a salad and Mike had a cheeseburger.

We’re already looking forward to our next hike with Sara!