In this episode of the OutThere Colorado Podcast, Spencer and Seth chat about a suspected attempt to start a forest fire, improvements on Colorado's 14ers (and a celebration of hiking them), two animal attacks (bear and moose), a recent trail death, six things that are on our summer bucket lists, and more.
[00:00:05] Welcome to another episode of the The OutThere Colorado Podcast. Once again, I'm Spencer here with Seth. Greetings. We got Tim over there in the booth for the sound and the video for today. Midweek. Yeah, once again a lot of fun things to talk about, but how was your last week, Seth? Good. Went home to see family in Chicagoland real quick, in and out trip. Hence why we had no Monday up. Here we are on Wednesday doing our midweek tradition. That was fun.
[00:00:35] Got some Chicago pizza and lots of other good food that I'm trying to shed still. Got back and yeah, good to watch my Chicago Bulls. Get a good draft pick last night. Had some good tacos while watching that last night. Got some takeout from Moctezuma Mexican Grill here in Colorado Springs. I've never been. It looks delicious though. It just opened a brick and mortar spot off Academy and it was tasty. Nice. Lots of good flavor.
[00:01:04] Another food recommendation from Seth. You can always count on a food recommendation. Seth has great taste in food. Yeah, 4.8 stars over here once again. I have standards. Yeah. I was looking up after the fact and they're always highly rated. So. How about you man? What you been up to? Oh man, moving a lot of rock. Oh, I did that too. Undergoing a landscaping endeavor at the moment. So dealing with that. Did go to Mother Muffs on, you know, this is Saturday. That was a fun time.
[00:01:31] Yeah. Always fun. Yeah. Always, always good. But yeah, honestly, it's been pretty, pretty chill for the last, last week or so here. But dude, this hail that rolled through, man. For those of you who might not have seen the news this week has been full of hail in Colorado and it's probably going to be set to continue here. It's hail week. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And yeah, I mean, Colorado Springs got caught in it yesterday.
[00:02:02] I saw some hail that was, you know, about ping pong ball sized, we'll say. Kind of on the west side and downtown. And yeah, man, I saw a lot of damage on cars downtown too. So something to watch out for. And honestly, tonight might be even worse for some parts of the state. Maybe not Colorado Springs, but the National Weather Service mapping is essentially showing that
[00:02:26] a lot of the I-25 corridors is included in this kind of next level of risk. National Weather Service rates risk on from zero to five, right? With Colorado Springs, it's in that like two of five. But Castle Rock, Denver, Fort Collins, they're all kind of in that, you know, they're looking at, they're a little bit closer to that two of five risk, we'll say.
[00:02:54] But the two of five or the, yeah, the two of five risk for tonight is really in that kind of that northeast corner of the state. Fort Morgan, Sterling, Akron, Greeley's right on the edge there too. But yeah, baseball size hail possible. That's two? Yeah, that's two. Baseball size is two? Yeah. Well, it's one of the chances of the risk coming to fruition, right?
[00:03:19] Which, I mean, usually when it gets into that, even the one, even that like slight risk level, there's a good chance that some part of that area will get some weather. Generally, the biggest hail falls out east too, so. That's why I always got to keep that in mind. But yeah, the urban corridor is under threat. So along I-25, pretty much all of I-25 is at that yellow level of risk, which, like I said, the level one is kind of an understatement in a lot of ways.
[00:03:47] Like I start to get concerned when it's a level one risk. Parking garage business is booming. Yeah, right. I did drive down to a parking garage. I know you too. So I could get my car out of potential hail, and I was glad I did. But there was actually a line of people trying to get into this park. Yeah, trying to get into one of the downtown parking lots. Just a random time, but trying to get out of the hail. I would have had damage had I not done that. So pretty- Trying to get some yard work done at the end of the workday. Is that going to happen?
[00:04:16] Man, I need to as well. You mentioned rock. I got rock. Yeah. I have 150 bags of rock. I got two tons of rock. 130 actually, but yeah. How many tons of that? I don't know, man. It's probably similar. But yeah, dude, did you see the story out of Buena Vista where someone allegedly tried to start a forest fire? I heard about this. Yeah, kind of up in the area of those 14 areas. You got Belford, Oxford, Missouri.
[00:04:47] Was it Huron, I think, is out there too? Yeah. According to the Chaffey County Sheriff's Office, this report was received on June 14. The report came from National Forest Service firefighters who came across this scene where it looked like someone had tried to use accelerant to light some trees on fire and had even tied a water bottle filled with what they thought
[00:05:16] was gasoline in this third tree. And then this person apparently lit it on fire. It was discovered just west of Clear Creek Reservoir, right there along County Road 390. So scary stuff. I mean... People have terrible ideas. Yeah, right. And I mean, as of now, I haven't seen an update on any suspect being caught. So you kind of have to assume that... Yeah, the suspect's still on the loose. Seen anything about what that charge could be?
[00:05:45] Oh, I don't know. Something serious, I'm sure. Arson of some degree. Yeah. The fire was out when these firefighters stumbled across this. So apparently this attempt was unsuccessful in that regard, thankfully. But yeah, members of the public have been asked to be on the lookout for anything suspicious that they might see. Or hear. Yeah. Yeah. Wackos. Yeah. Crazy stuff.
[00:06:14] But yeah, it could be bad too. I mean, you got to think about how much outdoor recreation's in that area and any sort of fire on that road. I mean, it cuts off a large portion of that. And then also, you're dealing with a lot of rugged terrain out there. So anything that would spread, I mean, it'd be difficult to fight. I was looking to do a little day trip to BV here pretty soon. Oh, yeah? What's a good little day hike at BV? Any recommendations? People listening have any recommendations? Shoot me a note. Yeah.
[00:06:44] I was actually just putting together a trip to BV for this couple friend of mine that has a young dog, right? As do I. Yeah. And they were like, what can we do? So I'm making the same request of you, man. So I came at, I mean, you can go on all trails and find a ton of trails in BV. But I came across this one that I've never done before, but Clohese Lake. Huh. C-L-O-H-E-S-Y Lake. Sounds like Game of Thrones character.
[00:07:13] Yeah, right. But you access it via Forest Road 381. Looks absolutely beautiful. And it sounds like you're kind of walking along like a Forest Service Road for a bit, but a pretty rugged one. Looks beautiful. And it goes to an alpine lake. So maybe not quite alpine lake, but it goes to a beautiful lake scene. So that was one that I mentioned, especially for a young pup where it's like, maybe they're not used to trail travel.
[00:07:40] Maybe they, you know, you need something a little bit easier while you're managing there. Yeah. I have such a worse of a dog, man. So I need like stuff too. Yeah. Also a lot of the dog friendly restaurants in BV too. Yeah. We wanted to go check out like, we saw something like a beach side, kind of like a beachy bar. Oh yeah. It looks like kind of a newer thing. Nice. So yeah. I got to look up some, and it is like a, I'm wanting to hit like a little lake, you know? I always think about lakes around BV. Yeah. So I don't think about that.
[00:08:10] I would guess that one's probably not too crowded just cause it's, I don't know. I've never heard of it before. Been there dozens of times. The Bina Viking though. Hmm. Go there for burgers. Okay. Yeah. They, they used to be kind of like a little, I don't know if you call it a, I guess, food truck, but they served food on this, like this outdoor area where it was just kind of like a communal gathering space. Now they have a brick and mortar, brick and mortar spot. So really good burgers and they have a dog friendly patio.
[00:08:40] Got it. But noted. Yeah. Then of course you also have Eddie line, which the one down by the river, not quite as dog friendly. The one that's in BV has a dog friendly area. So there's also some other news out of, um, Buena Vista, uh, some tragic news out of Buena Vista and breaking news. This, uh, information about this was just released today. Uh, but a man on a trail up there, um, on June 23rd was killed when he was crushed by a
[00:09:10] boulder that fell. Uh, I literally just saw the report about this this morning. Uh, apparently two men, uh, who were employed by or employed by a moving company, uh, stopped at rapid five and a half pullover. Uh, so this is near the Arkansas river. It's a long County road, uh, three 71 there in Buena Vista. Um, it was a spot that they had stopped at quite a bit for just kind of like a lunch after, after they would complete a job, uh, take a quick break, see some nature.
[00:09:39] Um, it's in the area of a popular camping spot as well. Um, but essentially at, uh, about 1 40 PM on Tuesday, uh, one of the men calls to report that his co-worker was walking up the trail when rocks dislodged and, uh, they fell on him causing serious injury. Uh, the victim was identified as Paul fresh, uh, 59 and out of Silverthorne.
[00:10:06] Um, he was, whenever, uh, whenever the emergency crews got there, he was still, uh, under this boulder. The boulder was estimated to be about a half of a ton. So giant boulder. Um, he did unfortunately succumb to, uh, the injuries that he sustained there. Uh, co-worker had minor injuries as well on his arms from trying to, to help free that victim. So a very tragic situation.
[00:10:31] Good reminder that, uh, you know, Colorado's terrain is not always, uh, as predictable or as, uh, sturdy and, and in places you might, might think it is. Um, all especially important when you're, I mean, this was just kind of a little trail that goes down to the river, it sounds like, uh, but especially important to keep in mind with 14 year season ahead, a lot of rocks up on Colorado's 14 years. And sometimes those rocks might not stay in place.
[00:10:59] So always something to be aware of, um, just the shifting landscape. Yeah. Uh, you had, speaking of some 14 years though, to kind of move on to, uh, some, some better news, uh, you have some updates about some 14 or improvements that are underway and a pretty big event built around 14 years to celebrate the state's 150th. Tell us about that. Yeah. Where to begin? Maybe with, uh, once in a generation celebration of Colorado's 14 years as this event is being
[00:11:28] built, it's getting, it's being called simply summit 2026. Right. And, uh, this big idea being promoted by the state and being organized, uh, by Colorado, um, mountain club. Uh, uh, the idea is to have a team, small teams of people on all of the state's 14ers. Every one of them. Every one of them on August 1st, the state's 150th birthday.
[00:11:57] And are they counting 54 14ers or 58 14ers? I didn't see every 14 or whether you call it 54 or whether you call it 58 is my understanding. But, uh, yeah. So interestingly, this, uh, very thing was done for the state's 100th birthday. Really? That's cool. Or it was attempted back in 1976.
[00:12:22] And isn't it interesting to think about how much has changed across Colorado's 14ers in that time, you know, as a Colorado 14ers initiative, uh, executive director told me Lloyd Atherin, you know, like you think back in the seventies and especially for more, some of these remote and technical peaks around the state, like, you know, on a, on a weekend, especially, you know, even a Saturday, Saturday, like August 1st.
[00:12:48] Um, you know, you might not have people up there, uh, flash forward to 2026 and you'd probably expect to see someone on just about any 14 or around the state on a beautiful Saturday anyway. And anyway, that is August 1st. It's a Saturday. And, uh, right now, Colorado mountain club up on their website has registration for all these, for dozens, I should say dozens of 14ers.
[00:13:13] I think 40 plus are listed for the more technical peaks they've they're internally assigning small teams. That's my understanding. Um, but still you can find some high, some, some mountains that are, they're kind of listed for quote unquote hikes or quote unquote scrambles. Right. So there's kind of some spicier stuff. Um, each of these trips have trip leaders. Um, and it, it's a little finicky how they're going to be doing this.
[00:13:41] Obviously what's the, what's their main priority risk, uh, management. Yeah. And safety. So teams are very small. I mean, we're talking, you can count on one, maybe some others on two hands for how many people are going to be part of these teams. Several reasons for that one, uh, being some of these wilderness rules apply to some of these peaks. Yeah. Um, but mostly they just, as it was put to me, they don't want to have like a conga line of people going up these mountains. Right. For sure. Um, so how are they assembling these teams?
[00:14:09] They're inviting people to register and what that registration is, is essentially putting you on a wait list. That trip leader is going to go through, um, the names of people, um, who can kind of submit their background and information. My understanding that trip leader might even reach out and kind of learn some more about you. And then if there's more people who have registered than are being allowed on that trip, names are going to get drawn from a lottery.
[00:14:35] So, um, it, it, it's certainly not a first come first serve thing. They're being pretty careful about how they're, how they're putting this together. Um, and then of course, you know, who's to say what, uh, what that weather might be like on August 1st. Yeah. You know, uh, it's, it's just kind of interesting to think about all the factors that are going to go into pulling this off across all of these 14 years with all of their own sub climates around the state.
[00:15:05] You know, I really hesitate to say this because it sort of feels like putting out some bad juju. Um, but the fact is the fact is back in, uh, 1976 when they, uh, tried to do this for the 100th birthday of Colorado, um, that day before was the start of the big Thompson. What? Oh, wow. Yeah. So that's kind of creepy to think about. Um, you know, the deadliest natural disaster in Colorado history, man, killed something like
[00:15:34] 140, 140 something people. I didn't realize it's been, it's been 50 years since that. So anyway, that's just to say things happen out there and their main priority is safety. And if it means not getting everyone on the summit and it means not getting everyone on the summit. Um, other thing that is on their mind and it was on my mind too, when I was calling around about this, like, I mean, people see this event and maybe they're feeling especially inspired to get up on a 14 or that day.
[00:16:05] Right. Um, Saturday, if people, you know, they already might be thinking about it. And if people are hearing, Oh, there's this celebration of the 14ers, I want to peripherally join this. Right. Colorado mountain club is kind of carefully addressing that concern. You know, as, as it was put to me, it's not like their prerogative to tell people what to do and what not to do, but they are sort of putting out that message of it's probably going to be a busy day on the 14ers already.
[00:16:34] And, um, maybe a weekday could be a better day to celebrate the state's birthday. Um, they're also putting out this campaign called find your own 14er, which is aimed at inspiring people to get outdoors however they please, you know, but certainly doesn't have to be on a 14er. So yeah, there's kind of some careful messaging that's going on that that's going into this, uh, pretty, uh, amazing, uh, effort really. Yeah. No, that's, that's cool.
[00:17:03] And yeah, I mean, August, August 1st is going to be a very crowded day regardless of every year. That's a crowded day. Yeah. It's a Saturday, it's peak 14 or climbing season. Um, yeah, I mean, I, that's, it seems like that's inherent that there will be a lot of people at a lot of the trailheads. Yeah. So people should be aware of that, you know, especially when we're talking, you know, front range peaks like beer stat and grazing Tories and whatnot, um, you're probably going to be seeing, uh, full parking.
[00:17:33] So just have that in mind. Um, we're not in the business of telling people what to do and what not to do on this show either, but you know, maybe that's a lot of people. That's not your preferred, a preferable day for you to make a 14 or maybe I'll just say that. Yeah. That's, that's very fair. Yeah. Um, we'll get, let's, let's take a quick break from 14 or news and let's get into, uh, since we're, we're not in the business of telling you what to do, but we are in the business of recommending things to do. Yeah.
[00:18:00] Uh, let's get into some summer bucket list things. Yeah. Some summer bucket list recommendations. Seth has a list of 150 of his favorite spots, um, and recommendations for summer. I have a list of 102 things that I'm recommending for summer. Uh, we thought it would be a pretty cool idea to just kind of every week on this show, go through a few of our favorites. Um, just kind of go back and forth on, on what's on our list, uh, what we've done in the past that we really love.
[00:18:28] And yeah, maybe you'll, uh, maybe you'll leave the podcast with, was something on your own list as well. Yeah. I like this. I think this could be a fun little tradition, man. Yeah. Kick us off, Seth. What's, what's something on your list of summer bucket list items that you're really proud is on there. That I want to do this summer. I'm going through the list right now, man. What do I want to throw out there? Um, all right, here's one St. Elmo. Yep. I haven't been to St. Elmo.
[00:18:57] That's why you've never been. We can call it the most accessible ghost town. Yeah. In Colorado. One of the best preserved ghost towns too. We were just talking about Buena Vista. I mean, here's an itinerary, uh, item for sure. If you're doing that part of the state, my understanding, easy drive in. There's a, what is there? Like a little market that is inhabited still. The little trading post. There's homes up there too. Like if you keep going, I think there's some homes. Yeah. Um, but yeah, dude, that's a, that's a great one. I mean. Where the heck have I never been to St. Elmo?
[00:19:25] I think it is a gravel road up there. So give people a heads up there. Um, but yeah, it is a, uh, it's a fun, fun little spot and there's some educational signs and things like that too. It's right along Chalk Creek. Um, let me get the, uh, what is it? I think 292 is the road that goes up to it. Uh, kind of like a little bit South of, of BV, um, out by, uh, Nathrop. I want to say. Yeah. Uh-oh. That's a pronunciation. Is it? Nathrop? Nathrop? Nathrop? Nathrop?
[00:19:55] Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. To continue our, uh, to continue our conversation from last week. Lord have mercy. Yeah. St. Elmo goes down as a great spot. There's also, uh, some rumors that it might be haunted. Mm-hmm. So. St. Elmo. Yeah. St. Elmo. I'll check it out. Apparently a, uh, a woman has been seen in the windows of, of that spot. Um, I've been up there once and the store was not open when I was up there. Snow cam linger a little bit late into the season up there. Obviously it's at a pretty high elevation, probably around like 9,000 something feet.
[00:20:24] Um, maybe 10,000 feet, but yeah, it's beautiful. There's a cool little church up there if I remember correctly. Lots of chipmunks out here. Yeah. There are a lot of chipmunks that are, uh, don't feed the chipmunks, but, uh, they are accustomed to humans and, and tend to swarm you. So, um, yeah, that's a cool spot for sure. What do you got? Number two. Number two. Hmm. Let's find something on this list. Coming right up. Yeah. I was going to say St. Elmo was on my list. It's number 11 on my, on my list of 102. You know what?
[00:20:54] I'm going to say, I'm going to throw this one out there. Um, this one's very remote. If you're going to visit it, you need to make sure that you are, uh, packing out everything you bring in. Um, you need to make sure that you're following the parking rules and, and just really taking care of the land. Uh, but the devil's causeway, man, out in the flat tops wilderness area. Yeah. Whenever I think of it, I always think of that picture of you on it. Yeah. It's a very epic looking photo. One of your more epic photos, Spencer. It is a, it is a cool place for a photograph.
[00:21:24] It's, uh, this really narrow land bridge and it's at about 11,600 feet of elevation and you're able to walk across this land bridge and there's some massive drops on each side of that. Um, when I was up there, there was a marmot that popped out and kind of scared me. Um, well, I'm like at the narrow stretch too. So, uh, be ready for, be ready for marmots. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's, it's probably like three to four feet wide, so it's not like extremely narrow, but that's pretty narrow, you know, and it's rugged, it's rocky.
[00:21:52] Uh, you're not exactly on a trail, but the flat tops wilderness in general, that was one of those spots where, um, the first time I went there, just realizing that this was in Colorado, you know, it's, you don't expect it and it's just, you get up on top of some of these plateaus and it just, as far as you can see, just flat mountain, you know, um, absolutely beautiful. Um, and like I said, it's, it's just different than a lot of other stuff that you see in Colorado.
[00:22:19] So, uh, the devil's causeway hike, it's about six miles out and back, or I think I did a loop when I was there, uh, about 10 miles round trip. Definitely important to make sure you know the forecast when you're doing this because you're up on a plateau, right? Like you are the lightning rod on a giant flat piece of rock. So, um, yeah, you gotta, gotta be careful and heed the weather. Uh, but yeah, very, very cool. Yeah. He started a Stillwater Reservoir Trailhead. Stillwater.
[00:22:48] Yeah, that's right. Um, yeah. What's number three? I'm thinking of staying in the Northwest part of the state, staying in the flat tops wilderness with the place that's often called the cradle of wilderness, the place that inspired the wilderness act of 1967, I want to say. Um, and that's Trapper's Lake. Mm-hmm. Um, it's beautiful, of course, absolutely gorgeous. Uh, I, I stayed overnight there. I do believe that the lodge is still operating out of there.
[00:23:18] Trapper's Lake Lodge. Um, and so there's your little luxury getaway attached to it, right? Where I remember the stars just being stunning there, right? But even more than that, beyond the beauty, I mean, just to be able to, uh, think back and reflect on a 1919 visit from a young forest service man named Arthur Carhart, who was just so inspired by this place to think of places where man should be a visitor, uh, who does not remain.
[00:23:48] Right. Um, that was his idea of wilderness, right? This place where I think there was a proposal for roads or housing or whatnot. And he said, no way, man, that can't happen. Those are his exact words. Um, so anyway, I think that's just, uh, uh, that's gotta be on a Colorado's bucket list to have the crate, the cradle of wilderness in the state Trapper's Lake. Yeah. You just gotta think how many other places have been protected by his mindset as well. Just all around the state, all around the country.
[00:24:18] Um, what was 1967, right? The wilderness act? I believe so. So that's number three. All right. For today's episode. So number four for me, um, is a place I've never been and I've always wanted to go. Wilderness act maybe was 1964. 1964. Okay, cool. Anyway, sorry. Oh, you're good. Um, yeah. Number four, a place I've never been, but I've always wanted to go, uh, out by, uh, is it Kinnisberg? Kinnisberg, I would say. The wild animal sanctuary.
[00:24:47] Kinnisberg, I think is what it's called. Kinnisberg, yeah. Um, they have this elevated walkway that's a mile and a half long and you're going over like grizzly bears and lions and tigers. Bears, oh my. Yeah. Bears, oh my. Um, and I've always wanted to do this, not just because I love animals and all these animals are rescued from things like some of the, some of the, uh, tigers are there from Tiger King, if I remember correctly, that, that show that was on really popular on Netflix during the pandemic.
[00:25:15] Um, but the cool thing about this compared to like your average zoo or rescue is because that, that walkway is elevated is you get to see more of the natural behavior from these massive apex predators because they're not just ingrained in their DNA. They're not like threatened by things above them ever. So they're not viewing you as a threat. They're just really this living down here in these, in these big habitats it looks like. And, um, yeah, so that's something that I've got on my list. Been there. Is it, is it cool? It's cool.
[00:25:45] Yeah. Yeah. It's different. You'd never think out on Colorado's Eastern plains, lions, tigers, bears, oh my. Yep. What are we up to? Number five? Number five. Maybe we'll do six. Okay. The Coors Bruy. I've never done the Coors tour. You've never done it? That's on my list too. I've never done the Coors tour. Yeah. That's on my list to go back. The Coors tour is totally worth it. Yeah. Like whether you love Coors or not, whether you love Coors Light or not, whatever. Totally worth it. Yeah.
[00:26:11] The brewery that, the brewery before Colorado was a craft beer capital. Yeah. Right. What? Going back to the 1870s. Yeah. Yeah. That's something I- Adolf Coors started this thing in Golden. Yeah. And that's something I throw on like every list for people that are visiting Colorado. You know, and I mean, I'll, I'll drink a Coors. I think I had a couple of, a few weeks ago. But I think the coolest part about it is that it's this macro brewery. Yeah.
[00:26:38] Like how many chances do you get to see just machinery making beer on that scale? Right. You know? Yeah. Cause you can always do like the craft, craft beer tours and stuff. And it's essentially like you'll walk into a room and it's like, here's this, here's this, here's this. This is very different. I think they describe it as the world's largest single site brewery. That would probably make sense. Yeah. The new Belgium brewery tour, or that one's really cool too, up in Fort Collins. I love the Odell. Yeah. I did both of those too. Yeah.
[00:27:07] And, and with the Coors brewery tour, you get, you finish in this little like onsite bar. Mm-hmm. You get a few beer samples, at least when I was there, that was the case. But yeah, and they, they make some stuff that you might not be expecting, you know, maybe a special variety of something there. So definitely worth checking out. That's a good one, Seth. What you got? What you ending us with? All right. So what is this? This is, is this six now? This is six. Okay. So the last one for the day, we'll say, otherwise this will just turn into an episode
[00:27:37] of Vita. We have so many to talk about. We were debating this segment. Yeah. You know, like, you know, do we want to throw out 150 things for the 150th birthday of Colorado? And then we're like, well, we, the show can't be dominated by this. Yeah. But here we are. We'll keep working through it. It's a work in, work in progress. Um, all right. So this is another one that I've never, I've never, I've never done. And I've always wanted to do it every summer and I just never get out there cause it's a little bit of a far drive from Colorado Springs, but I want to do a Palisade winery tour. Yeah.
[00:28:06] Definitely on my list. I want to pop by like, you know, maybe, uh, they, they have some companies that'll drive you around once you're out there too and shuttle you from winery to winery. But for just, you know, being the heart of Colorado's wine country and kind of this like unexpected way, you know, you'd never hear about wine in Colorado. Um, but yeah, the Palisade wineries look like a great little weekend trip. Get on a bike. Yeah. That's how I've always wanted to do it. Just bike around those country roads to the breweries.
[00:28:36] And there's something like, I think it's over two dozen wineries. I think that's right. I was thinking like 20 plus. Yeah. So just in little Palisade, which I always call a little slice of huckleberry fin, you know? Yeah. It's just nostalgic. It just feels like you're back in time. Yeah. And the history, as far as I understand the history of that goes back, you know, to some of the earlier settlers in Colorado who like built out this irrigation system. Right. Yeah. And made it possible to have these, these, uh, wineries where you don't have, um, you know, it's dry out there.
[00:29:04] So that caters to growing these grapes and, uh, you have the cool nights, but you don't really have as many freezes and stuff. So, uh, yeah, I've always wanted to see a really cool outdoor recreation out that way too. Um, good peaches. Good peach. Got a good peach. I was going to say. Yeah. You got to say it is first and foremost peach. I'm sure there's someone out there making peach wine. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. I love that. I think it'll be fun to do this every week. Yeah. We'll see.
[00:29:31] I don't mean to set any expectations, but, uh, yeah, I'm built. Like you said, I'm building out this list of 150 things on the 150th. Uh, we've also, we've also got something from Tim. Oh yeah. Producer Tim that Tim wants to mention. Yeah. Uh, the fluorescent fossil beds. Yeah. So that's a good one. Good call, Tim. Yeah. Um, very prehistoric spot. Reminder that we used to have redwoods in Colorado. Colorado, which is crazy to me.
[00:29:57] These massive fossilized stumps that used to be towering redwoods in tropical Colorado. Yeah. If you're going out there, definitely plan a little hike in that area too. Uh, don't just go to just see the fossilized redwoods. Cause then you are just kind of walking up and you see the stumps and you're like, okay. Yeah. But I think there's like 14 miles of trail. Yeah. At the national monument there. Yeah. I've done a little loop there. I think I saw some elk when I did that. Yeah. Yeah. Or check it out at night. Mm-hmm. It's one of the, uh, dark sky spots, right? Right. Yeah.
[00:30:27] They do events, star parties throughout the year. Mm-hmm. Last I checked. And if you're into beer on your way back or what have you, stop at Paradox Beer Company, I think is what it's called. That's like a destination brewery with a splendid view of Pikes Peak. Yeah. Paradox is up there with my favorites for sure. Mm-hmm. So like, weren't you going to talk about two different 14er things? Yeah. We got, we got some updates. Yeah. Three, maybe.
[00:30:57] Yeah. There's a third one too, but, uh, oh, regarding 14ers. There's, we have four more 14ers. This is the 14er episode. Yeah. Apparently. All right. Tell us about the 14er. Real quick. I always call around to hear about what's, what kind of work is going on in the 14ers. Just as it's time to climb 14ers, it's time to work on these trails that get easily eroded and, you know, long history of these old mining paths that organizations like Colorado 14ers initiative have worked to, uh, bring up to modern code, shall we say, you
[00:31:26] know, and harden these trails and make them more sustainable for those environments and protect those sensitive Alpine places. So, um, you know, I think probably the highest profile, um, project going on across the 14ers and has been going on now for almost a better, you know, better part of 10 years, eight years maybe now is on Pikes Peak backside of Pikes Peak Rocky Mountain Field Institute. Yeah.
[00:31:49] Um, has been, uh, slowly, but surely, uh, carving away at the new devil's playground route, which is going to be this new four mile stretch trending South of that really highly eroded hillside if people are familiar with that route. It's like a V shaped gully almost, you know? So they're rerouting away from that and tying back in kind of right before, uh, I think like a mile shy of the Pikes Peak highway. Definitely picture how that route's going to go. Yeah.
[00:32:17] So yeah, there's, there's been a lot of logistical challenges with this project since it launched, I want to say in 2019. And yet again, another challenge awaited them this season. They got up to their, uh, higher elevation base camp that they were planning to base camp at and their water source was just dried out after the dry winter. Yeah. Uh, so they're having to camp lower and hike like two and a half miles every day to the site. Um, getting close to about treeline. They're hoping this summer that they're going to punch above treeline and start working in
[00:32:47] the alpine there on that devil's playground route. So slowly, but surely happening there. And then, uh, any estimate on when that is completed? They're really pushing for 2028. Okay. So what I was told. All right. It's amazing what goes into these things. You know, like you hear like four miles of trail, but, um, it's not just a dirt path, right? Mm-hmm to build these, uh, these trails in such an environment, uh, sustainably.
[00:33:14] There's a lot of timber steps, a lot of rock steps, a lot of retaining walls that get built with some of that native timber and rock up there, you know? So it's really technical stuff. But like I said, there, there was my understanding is there, there was a lot of logistical challenges, especially around COVID getting things staffed up and, you know, um, and, and funding. Funding is always, uh, uh, central. And projects like these.
[00:33:39] So, um, another pretty high profile project going on has been going on on Shavano that's being led by CFI Colorado 14 years initiative. People have been following along over the past three or four years or something like that. Um, kind of a complex thing where they're like building, is it two or three like lower bypasses? Yeah. Um, to kind of get out of wetlands down low. And then there, um, they've been also building a higher stretch, like right around 14,000 feet right to the summit there.
[00:34:09] Um, so kind of two or three different crews that have been working simultaneously. And sounds like, um, that, uh, lower bypasses have been opened and the upper crew is finishing up at the top. And the expectation there is that that new route is going to be done by the end of the summer. Cool. So. Cool stuff. Yep. And then work on Mount Democrat. Um, we'll be on, people will see that this summer. Um, you know, people might remember that public acquisition of that land.
[00:34:38] Um, there's been work that, uh, organizations have been wanting to do on that decalibrand loop for years now and haven't been able to, cause it's private property. Right. Yeah. Um, so now that some of these parcels are becoming public, they're able to get in there and do some of that work. So we'll see that too. Which access to that peak might still be closed off. If I remember correctly, right. Isn't that really close? Parts of it, right. I thought that road up there was closed. Oh, really? Yeah. Maybe. I didn't hear that. Yeah. Fact check me on that. If you're planning. I think they were looking to do some work though.
[00:35:08] Infrastructural, right? Yeah. I think I know what you're talking about. I think it, I think it's supposed to open at some point this summer though too. So fact check me on that if you're planning on doing that loop, um, double check that that road is open so that you can get up there. Cause it was closed to both walkers and vehicles. I think. Man, not to go on a tangent on this, but in learning more about this, you know, when we're talking about like private land on 14ers, like I don't think people are aware and I don't think I'm fully aware of just the hodgepodge that exists out there. I mean, beyond. It's wild.
[00:35:38] Beyond Democrat. Yeah. I mean, these little mining claims that exists out there, uh, you know, for people over generations who have just had this idea, I want to have a piece of land on a Colorado 14er, you know, it's stuff like that. Yeah. It's really weird. Yeah. It is. You know? And, uh. It's literally patchwork. Just like. Total patchwork. You know? Um, yeah. Lloyd was, what Atherin was talking about, like just going through county assessors and
[00:36:04] trying to figure out who these people are and where the heck these people are. Yeah. I've heard that majorly. It's. Cause someone, someone buys the land a hundred years ago who even has it now. You know? Family members are not even aware. Yeah. Or is it any will out there? And anyway, it's interesting in the, in this context of some of the sustainability work that they want to do, but they can't because there's private and liability issues. Right.
[00:36:31] The 14ers initiative literally bought like parts of the summit of Chauvinau to do what they've been doing for a few years now. And it's stuff that they feel like that's, as it's been described to me, like that's like their next kind of era of business. If you want to say of like, it's been work on the ground, but they need to like make these 14ers public. Yeah. Yeah. It's an issue. It's worth a later talk, mate. Yeah. Uh, real quick. So you mentioned Pike's peak.
[00:37:00] You want to quickly say when the sunrise drive is. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's an interesting thing. Uh, July 4th. Oh, I didn't realize what a way to ring an independence day, uh, on the rare occasion. Pike's peak highway is going to be open, uh, super early for people wanting to drive up and catch the sunset. It's also going to be open later to, uh, uh, did I say sunset earlier? It's going to be open earlier to catch the sunrise and later to catch the sunset, which
[00:37:27] is an even more rare occasion to get the sunset by driving, uh, the train going up. Pikes peak is also going to be open early that money that, that, that morning. Very cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of a neat opportunity. Yeah. The hill climb race was this last weekend. Right. Uh, so you can drive the same route that they do on the hill climb race. There was a, someone was hospitalized from in a crash, I believe on the hill climb race. Um, last report I saw, uh, was saying they were stable though. So, um, so that's, that's good.
[00:37:56] Uh, I think that was named. Yeah. Patrick Colligan, uh, may have gone off the road. I think I want to say, but, um, yeah, reportedly, uh, awake alert and stable. So, um, but yeah, hill climb race was his last week. So that's another little quick 14 or thing. Presumably, hopefully people will be driving much slower if they're going to catch the sunset. Sunrise. Yeah. Yeah. I mean that, that road, you know, you're going 10 to 15 miles per hour.
[00:38:23] Um, did you see about the, uh, the two animal attacks that have occurred, occurred recently? Moose up in Teller County? Yeah. Moose up in Teller County. I was looking to do that loop too. Um, what is that? Lovell Gulch, right? Yeah. Lovell Gulch. I do hear about moose quite a bit. Yeah. Hiker with their dogs, uh, hiking, uh, during the evening, it was, uh, 645, uh, this past Monday. Uh, but yeah, moose, uh, moose came up and, uh, started to get a started trying to trample them and yeah. Um, yeah.
[00:38:53] Yeah. So they got away. So there were no injuries. Um, so that's good. Uh, yeah, the dogs were eventually, or at first they kind of went missing. So they, they were able to find those dogs after that attack. Um, so yeah, no injuries, uh, but still a good reminder to watch out for moose. It is in the Pikes Peak region. A lot of times people forget that moose are in the Pikes Peak region, uh, but they are very much everywhere. Yeah. They're everywhere. Their, their range has expanded in Colorado substantially.
[00:39:21] Um, there was also a bear attack that shut down a park in Golden. I don't know if you saw that. Uh, but yeah, essentially news broke that aggressive bear activity, uh, in quotes, um, closed Apex Park. It's a popular spot kind of just South of downtown Golden. Uh, apparently what happened though, as more of these details came out was this past Sunday,
[00:39:44] a, uh, a bear started, a bear had, that had been, uh, displaying habituated behavior. So like it was comfortable around humans and following humans in the area, uh, approached a female hiker on a trail, grabbed her backpack and then made contact with her leg. Uh, and then after that, the bear continued to follow her for about 30 minutes. Eventually she ran into a couple of other hikers that helped her scare the bear off. Um, and then once that bear was scared off, it kind of went across a little gully, uh,
[00:40:14] to another trail and started following another pair of hikers. Wow. So, uh, yeah, a situation where a bear is, you know, very, uh, comfortable around humans and no injuries in that, in that case either, but still, you know, it's easy to see how that can kind of go the other way. Uh, and that reminder, I mean, when people hear messaging from Colorado parks and wildlife about, uh, you know, securing trash and all that, if people wonder what, what, you know, the big push behind that, it's stuff like this, right.
[00:40:43] Um, it's about, yeah, making sure bears are not comfortable around people because if they get comfortable, maybe things like this can happen. So that's kind of a reminder there of what that messaging really is, is ultimately about. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I haven't seen news on it today, but, uh, at last report that park was closed while Colorado parks and wildlife were kind of assessing the situation, uh, trying to determine if they
[00:41:07] needed to, um, you know, like remove the bear, which is probably going to be the likely scenario. Anytime a bear threatens human life or safety, uh, those bears get euthanized. So there is the two strike policy, but that doesn't apply when human safety is threatened. Yeah. So that's like more so when bears are getting in trash cans and things like that. But yeah. So something to be aware of animals are out and about this time of the year in Colorado and yeah, keep your dogs on a leash. Mm-hmm.
[00:41:38] So yeah, I think, uh, we've still got things on our list, but I think we can save them for, save them for next week. Sound like a plan? They'll have to come back next week. Yeah. You'll have to come back next week. We'll go over more of these, uh, these top summer bucket list items. Yeah. Um, I'll try it. It's a fun thing. I want to get into this, uh, trailhead dispute that recently happened. Um, pretty wild situation there. And, uh, there's also this, this wild rescue that took place earlier this month on Crest
[00:42:07] in the Crestones area. Uh, but yeah, I think that's about all we got for today. So until next time, I'm Spencer. I'm Seth. And we'll see you out there.