Started at an empty 104st TH at around 3pm. I'd done the Gateway loop before, but had not been on the east side of the peaks. So I thought I'd march up to the Bell Pass trail, and see what I felt like from there. The hike down the Levee trail right out of the 104st TH was a pretty boring warm-up, but once I got to the Bell Trail I started liking it. The trail is in great shape and the closer you got to the pass, the steeper it got.

For those of you that do this trail all the time, they are changing around the top of it. I bumped into the two guys (and their trail building machine) that are redoing it. They started Wednesday and have about 100' of new trail cut in. They are doing away with the steep switchbacks just short of the Pass. I think they'll be there awhile.

At the top of the Pass the wind kicked up and it started dumping rain. I decided I had plenty of time, so it was off to the Windgate trail and make the loop back. The flowers are still doing pretty good up in the McDowell's.

When I hit the Gateway Loop Trail I headed south over the Gateway Saddle because I wanted to check out the Mines I saw on the way up the Bell Trail. The two I went to check out, both were fenced off. With the rain in the area there were some interesting sky's at night and a double Rainbow.