Ute Trail

My double secret plan of taking some Thursdays off this Fall to get out and enjoy the mountains is working great.  Last week I walked up Sunnyside and then rode up to the Maroon Bells, and today I went up the Ute Trail.  It's been quite awhile since I've been up the Ute.  The trail, of course, is named after the Ute Indians who populated this area back 140 years ago.  That is, until the white man kicked them out and took this place for his own.  Someone at least had the heart to name a trail after the first inhabitants, and it's a very nice trail too!  Geeez.  (the Ute's did leave a curse for all future people living here though - read the Ute Curse at the bottom)

Anyway, the trail pretty much goes straight up (right Mom?) and heads to an outcroping of rocks that has an amazing view of Aspen.  I'll put the pics below.  At the beginning of the trail there is the usual Forest Service literature, but someone has also put up this piece of info (see pic) since the last time I've been.

It's titled:
Estimation of Energy Expenditure for the Ute Trail.

Oh boy.  Someone actually went through all of the trouble figuring this nonsense out.  Just plug in your time and your weight, and you can  figure out how many kcals you expend on the trail.






My guess is that this was put up by someone at the Aspen Club and Spa which is literally a stones throw away from the trail head.  That's just a guess though.








                                                     Short story short ... I fixed it once I got down:

After

Before

There ... better.   I crack myself up.  When I was at the top looking about, a squirrel came up to me, got up onto my shoe, and stared me in the eyes.  I think that's a good omen.  Here's my little town:

One version of the Ute Curse goes something like this:  “though the white man may take this land, if he ever leaves this place he will only find sorrow"  Great, I'm stuck here!