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| Hiking | 5.27 Miles |
199 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.27 Miles | 2 Hrs 14 Mns | | 2.66 mph |
| 199 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | This was a lot of driving and not much hiking on this day. I ventured to the high plains of eastern Colorado to hike to 4 county highpoints:
1) Lincoln COHP (elevation of 5,960 feet)
2) Washington COHP (elevation of 5,420 feet)
3) Logan COHP (elevation of 4,940 feet)
4) Shannon Benchmark, the Morgan COHP (elevation of 4,935 feet)
I was on dirt roads getting to each of these hikes, and the roads were all well-graded and suitable for most any vehicle.
Lincoln COHP
(0.32 miles with an AEG of 12 feet)
I was driving north on an unpaved county road; the middle of the county road was the boundary between El Paso County(on my left to the west) and Lincoln County(on my right to the east). Fortunately I had the GPS coordinates for the Lincoln County highpoint, and I pulled to the side of the road and parked. The road was as flat as a pancake, so I really couldn't say for sure where the exact highpoint is. I walked down the road a bit, came back, and called it good.
Washington COHP
(0.13 miles with an AEG of 9 feet)
This one was basically a "mailbox" hike, meaning that the difficulty level is akin to walking from the front door of a house out to the mailbox. I drove east on County Road 4D, with the road being the boundary between Washington County(to my left or north) and Lincoln County(to my right or south). I parked on the right side of the road in Lincoln County, and walked across the road to the highpoint, which was in a grassy area next to a circular driveway for a ranch.
Logan COHP
(2.16 miles with an AEG of 89 feet)
For this highpoint, I drove north and went 3-4 miles into Nebraska; made a right turn on a dirt road for about 6 miles; then made another right turn going south back into Colorado. This road ended at a missile silo, and I parked near the silo. I was in Weld County, and I had to hike about a mile east to the Weld County-Logan County line. Once I got to a spot on the county line, I was at the Logan County highpoint. The hike was through a grassy pasture with the grass being between knee and waist high. The grass was somewhat sparse, so the hiking was not too bad. I then more or less retraced my steps back to the car.
Shannon Benchmark - Morgan COHP
(2.65 miles with an AEG of 89 feet)
After leaving the Logan COHP, I was driving west toward Fort Collins, where I was staying for the night.
I came to a junction in the road and had 2 choices:
1) go straight and go to my hotel in Fort Collins and have a well-deserved cold beverage
2) make a left turn on a dirt road and hike to the Morgan COHP
I turned left.
I drove several miles and parked alongside the road. The highpoint is on private property and I had requested and received permission from the landowner to hike across his property to the highpoint.
I walked across pasture land, mostly alongside some fence rows, until I got to the highpoint at the Shannon Benchmark. This highpoint was easy to find because the landowner had moved an old wooden grain bin at the highpoint. He had poured a concrete slab for the bin to sit on, and the benchmark and one reference mark were each on two of the corners of the square slab. I did not expect to see this in a field out in the middle of nowhere!
Synopsis
These hikes are fairly low on the excitement meter and won't get you a lot of accolades on the corporate social media, but I enjoyed driving around and seeing a part of the country that I would not have seen otherwise. |
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| Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there |
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