Trails south of Blodgett Peak

[smham33]

I just moved into the Rockrimmon area in Colorado Springs. My house is at the bottom of the mine. On Saturday I picked up a trail that runs parallel with the mountains north towards Blodgett. It turned into quite a labyrinth of trails, and I ended up going straight up a mountain just south of Blodgett.

Does anybody know if these trails meet up with the Blodgett Peak trail anywhere? I'd love to just leave from my house and hike Blodgett.

[Abbey]

Hi, I live in Mountain Shadows -- a little south of you and hike out of my house quite often. I have been wanting to try to traverse from Blodgett all the way to the top of the Scar. I attempted once starting at the Scar and heading north but ended up getting off track and I think I made it to right about where you would connect from your area. I think I have the GPS track I could share with you... it would just take me some time to find it. There's lots to explore right in our backyard and not too much to be found by searching the internet. There's an old plane crash along the route that I took when trying the traverse that makes a nice end point to hike to, though there's not much left to see of the plane -- from the 50s/60s I think. So, I didn't really answer your question, but have fun exploring!

[susanjoypaul]

Ha! I live within a mile of both of you...

There's a route description in the book Hiking Colorado's Roadless Trails, now available online - in its entirety, apparently. Start at the Blodgett Peak Open Space. The description starts on page 62.

I'm not sure if it ties into those other trails, but you could just run up Centennial Boulevard easily enough.

[Vermont Mike]

There are a ton of "trails" in that area so it's hard to narrow it down without more info. Even accessing Blodgett Peak from Blodgett Open Space can be confusing with it's maze of social trails. My advice would be to get up Blodgett whichever way you can, then find the best trail back down, as I've found with Blodgett it's generally easier to routefind on the return. If you made it to the peak just south of Blodgett then you could easily traverse over from there too. Lots of area to explore back there; I've only done a few peaks in that area and need to get back up there to do more! Ormes Peak and Eagle Peak/South Peak are nice hikes up that way too. I'd recommend grabbing a Pikes Peak Atlas at REI -- it's a great resource for the Colorado Springs area hiker.

Edit: Just saw that Susan posted . . . listen to her, she's got way more experience around these parts than I do!

[susanjoypaul]

Good advice from Mike - it is confusing! Be careful up there... it's a steep route and you'll want to stay away from the crags. From what I recall, a couple of years ago a soldier got off-route, cliffed-out, and died in a fall up there.

Abbey's right about there being plane wreckage... it's on the north side, a WWII C-49J that crashed in 1943. You won't see it on the "standard route" up Blodgett, but I hiked past it once when I came in from the north.

[Jim Davies]

If you made it to the peak just south of Blodgett then you could easily traverse over from there too.

I've only tried to climb Blodgett once from that side, and I wound up on this peak by accident:

Blodgett.jpg (183.26 KiB) Viewed 1971 times

It was a heinous bushwack to get there from the east, and I was still so far from Blodgett's summit that I just bailed down Dry Creek (which turned out to be an even more heinous bushwack). Someday I guess I'll go back and try again, but going off-trail in that stuff (scrub oak and smaller bushes, interlaced with yuccas and cacti) was pretty miserable.

[Vermont Mike]

Sorry Jim, I was thinking of something closer like Lone Pine, but I guess you've probably got the correct peak in mind, since it's due south. Sounds nasty.