Two Tenths of a Mile

Written by and photos by Lisa Butler

(Saturday, March 23, 2005)

It was a cold and blustery day in a land about two-tenths of a mile from Pooh Corner. While Pooh and Piglet were basking in the sun of early spring, our heroes were facing the elements on the mountain. The Unity Snowshoe team was facing their toughest foe to date in the form of the trail to St. Mary’s Falls in Cheyenne Canon.
	Our heroes had planned to take their trek up the Crags on the first official weekend of spring. But Mother Nature dealt them a one-two punch with snow on Thursday and Friday. The Crags road is un-maintained and best in a 4-wheel drive under good conditions. So the location of the challenge was changed to meet at the Starsmore Discovery Center. From there, the team carpooled up to the Gold Camp Road parking lot and strapped on the snowshoes. Spirits were high as everyone started up the two-tenths of a mile of Gold Camp Road.
When we reached the portion of the road where it becomes a trail over the collapsed tunnel, we stopped to ogle the view of Colorado Springs. The canon looks down over town around the Broadmoor area. Everything was heavily dusted with fresh snow. So far the trail was somewhat traveled and reasonably simple to hike but we were about to reach the end of the portion of trail that was packed down.
When we came to the fork in the trail, we took it. Well, Alice and I took the low road, the others looked at the high road, and everyone decided we should take the middle road. Well, really Annie suggested it because she had done this trail before and knew where we should be going but that makes the story a bit simple, don’t you think? After we had hiked nearly two-tenths of a mile, people were beginning to need a rest break and a snack. So we visited and enjoyed some of those really yummy sports bars that become very hard in cold weather. We were starting to get chilly as the sweat from the strenuous climbing was freezing on our clothing. So we all thought it best to get moving again.
Further along the trail, Annie was captured by the thrill of the woods and made a snow angel to watch over us on our travels. The trail was getting steeper and someone finally said “Mom, are we there yet?” Annie told us we were two-tenths of a mile from the bottom of the falls. About two-tenths of a mile later, we came to a sign that, indeed, said it was 0.2 miles to the falls. So we started the steepest part of our adventure. No one seemed to believe us and they were considering a mutiny. After I told them they were all two tense they nearly threw me off the cliff. But by and by, we came to a sign proclaiming that the bottom of the falls was only 500 feet. The sign also said that the top of the falls was only, you guessed it, two-tenths of a mile further. No one wanted to continue to go up.
	We’d all been watching out for wildlife along the trail but with our chatting we were scaring most of it off, I’m sure. Then, we ran across one of the most elusive of all the winter creatures that live in the canon. I’m surprised we didn’t scare if off but there it was, a porcupine snowball. I’m pretty sure it was a baby and it seemed nearly frozen in place, perhaps scared by our trekking poles. Further down the trail we saw the Momma porcupine snowball but it moved too quickly for us to capture its picture.
Near the top of the hike, almost at St. Mary’s Falls, we found evidence that the Easter Bunny was getting an early start. Her tracks followed the same trail we were on and then turned off into the woods. We were so thrilled by the tracks that we barely noticed that we had arrived at the top. In fact, it was such a magical moment, coming so close to the Easter Bunny and all, that Annie walked right out into the middle of the falls without getting a drop of water on her.
	We all started back down after reaching our goal. John decided to take a dive off the side of the cliff after a stick or something. After we helped him back up, we offered to throw it again and though he has a spirit as happy as a golden retriever, he definitely wasn’t interested in repeating that move. The trip down seemed like a hop, skip and a jump compared to the hike up. Suddenly we were back at the cars, all thinking of hot things like seat warmers and rich coffee. We all decided to have a reunion at the summer Unity Camping trip and all decided we should bring… two tents.