Hot Pink Mess at the Roby Lake Trailhead — I was confronted with this pile of what appears to be hot pink trail blaze tapes as I was signing in at the Roby Lake Trailhead of the Big Piney Trail at Paddy Creek Wilderness. My initial guess was that someone had been over-enthusiastically blazing the trail, and had some spare blazes left over. Whatever.
Looking south from City Market — (I’ve also seen this area referred to as River Market). We spent a couple of hours soaking up all the exhibits at the Arabia Steamboat Museum – https://www.1856.com/. The Arabia sank in 1856 and was excavated in the 1980s. The museum provided a fascinating insight into the goods being shipped by steamboat into the Midwest
Chinatown Food Market — Lots of tasty morsels were purchased along with enough packets of noodles for many backpacking lunches.
Orange cat and spot — Of course a visit to see Katie also means a chance to see Dick, our grandcat in his native environment and with a nice midcentury modern style rug too.
Top of the Power and Light Building. I love Art Deco architecture.
The Kauffman Center from the 32nd floor terrace, Kansas City Power and Light Building — We were at the Kauffman Center last night for Chris Thile with the Kansas City Symphony.
View to the east from the 32nd floor terrace, Kansas City Power and Light Building.
View to the west from the 32nd floor terrace, Kansas City Power and Light Building — Featuring the Diocesan office and Grace & Holy Trinity Cathedral, which can be seen just past the convention center. I waved at my ex-colleagues, but I don’t think they saw me.
Empty Chair — I’d planned on taking a picture of Ginger sitting enjoying the view, which would have been a great silhouette. But Ginger got up as I grabbed my phone.
Ginger’s Flowers— Ginger loves to sit here in the sun in the winter. I liked the light on flowers and thought I’d try to capture it. 2
The Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs — I arrived in Colorado Springs on time. Now what? We’d booked a hotel in Colorado Springs so that Ginger could take a rest, and I could get cleaned up ready for the next part of our trip. Our hotel room wasn’t ready, so we went for a quick walk around some of the more popular parts of the Garden of the Gods.
Well staked out — It’s been very windy, so I used all the tie out points on Ginger’s Zpacks Duplex tent. I also used the freestanding kit so I didn’t have to collapse the tent to use my hiking poles for hiking.
Entrance to the Cascade Campground — Looking out towards the road.
Trailside deer — the deer here are not timid, there were three in this group, but the others were enjoying an afternoon snack behind the cover of some bushes, so I could only get a picture of this one.
A brief respite — The trail levels out briefly in places.
Looking up the trail — Going up was much easier than coming down. I have just noticed that I can see my footprints going up the trail in this picture.
Getting near to the top — Looking southwest. A glimpse of the trail can be seen at the bottom of the frame. It’s looking quite rugged, and it was.
Time to head back up the ridge — At least it’s only 300 ft. on this side. But I still have 900ft. to descend on the other side.
Descending — Nearly down the south side of the ridge, and the trail is leveling out. It was quite rugged in places.
I could almost be in Hercules Glades — If the Glades were at around 10,000ft, that is. I’m following the trail as it runs along the northern side of the ridge.
Looking over the other side of the ridge — I’m facing roughly southeast. The drop on this side of the ridge is only 300ft. Hopefully not a very rugged descent, and not too far for me to climb up on my return.
On the Colorado Trail — Okay, I did a tiny bit of this trail yesterday, but I’m counting this as my first hike on a major through trail. I’ll only be going a total of seven miles or so, but that’s enough for me with all the elevation I’ll be gaining.
Chalk Cliffs from the Colorado Trail. Day 8 – Road Trip, October 2025. Of course, they are not chalk. They are white quartz left behind after other minerals have been leached from the original rock by hot water.
Day 8. Colorado Trail Segment 14: Chalk Creek to US Hwy 50. Day 8 – Road Trip, October 2025.