No Valentines Love for Dogs at Cheyenne Mountain State Park and Incline

Sat 14 Feb (Valentines): Had the alarm set to run with CRUD today at 5:30 at Cheyenne Mountain State Park. The wife woke me up just after 6 wondering why I wasn't up yet. I was supposed to be gone already. Grabbed the running clothes, the dog and the leash and headed out the door in my brand new Altra Superior 2.0's that felt like I was walking on air after the 500 miles on my Lone Peaks. After grabbing gas station coffee and b-fast, I sped down there to get there just in time for the 7 AM run. Only problem is that that park doesn't allow dogs as I had learned. I was thinking of chancing going anyhow but Rick said they are sticklers down there. My 3 goals for the day were community, mileage and gain. With goal one out the window, I was now looking for something with mileage and something to up my verts for the week. Thinking I would do the Incline Club route Intemann to section 16 because I knew the distance, gain, and rough time it would take me, I was in the mood for some exploring so I ended up parking at the bottom of Cheyenne Canyon instead. Started on the lower Columbine trail where it was slick ice and transitioned accross the road to Middle Columbine. I can't believe I had never ran these lower trails here. It was a bit loose for a bike but running was ok. The grade was steep but I just kept the feet chopping and kept running. Should have probably taken the cut up to Gold Camp but instead stayed on columbine that dumped me out on the road near Helen Hunt Falls. Ran the road up to the Trail head and headed west thinking I would go up Buckhorn and down Capt Jacks and the Chutes. This started to seem a bit shorter than I had time for so I quickly split off Buckhorn and followed the creek up I think trail 666. It kept going up and around Kineo Mountain and I was hoping it would connect with some upper trails to get me back to Buckhorn but was ready to turn around at any point. From the top of the pass, I was glad for a trench because it was knee deep there. I dropped down on the N. side of Kineo and found my way back to Buckhorn and down Capt Jacks and the Chutes and back up to the car for a nice 17 miles on the day with 3,600' gain. Later on I went back for the Incline with the wife and friends and fam carrying the kiddo. Was an easy effort but I got another 4 miles and 2K of gain. Not a bad 22 mile day with 5,600' gain. Hoping for any workout tomorrow but we have to farewell to the bro in law after I get off work in the morning and it is supposed to be snowing at night so we shall see. I have to sleep for at least 8 hours in there too somewhere.