There will be a hike on Waldo Canyon Trail on Sunday June 13th. This trail is almost 7 miles round trip and about 1300 foot elevation gain. I consider this an intermediate level difficulty hike. The trailhead parking lot is on the northeast side of highway 24 about 2 miles northwest of Manitou Springs. Meet at the parking lot at 9:15 am and the hike will start at 9:30 am.

Diane Freed will be the hiking leader and coordinator for this hike. Her e-mail address is dfeatheredfriends@hotmail.com and her phone number is: 360-3377.

The Freethinkers of Colorado Springs is excited to be hosting Kristy Milligan, the Development Director and Program Manager of Citizens Project, as our guest speaker on Wednesday, June 23rd. Citizens Project (CP) began in 1992, partially in response to the passage of the ill-conceived Amendment 2, but always with an eye toward maintaining the separation of church and state, and the safeguarding of academic integrity in our public schools.

Hi Hiking Freethinkers,

Weather permitting, there will be a hike on Sunday, June 6th.

The hike will be Fox Run Park. This is a relatively easy hike in Black Forest with a few short steeper sections. One nice thing about this hike is it is mostly in the shade of trees. We will be leaving from my house in Gleneagle and carpooling to the trailhead. (On Roller Coaster Road between Stella Drive and Baptist Road, not far away from Reveille Drive.) We will leave my home at 10:00 AM. Directions below.

Please bring enough water and snacks for the hike.

My step-daughter works for Planned Parenthood. She asked me to tell my readers about Christian terrorism right here in the United States.

She said: "Do your readers have any idea what it is like to go to work day after day wondering if there is some Christian nut waiting with a bomb or gun for you?" "Do your readers have any idea what it is like to get obscene and threatening phone calls every day, to get threatening letters in the mail every week?"

Her office has been hit once with a bomb.

There will be a hike on Sunday, May 30th. It is the Greenland Open Space Loop. Part of this hike is actually also the Santa Fe Trail north of Palmer Lake. It is a relatively easy 8 1/2 mile hike. Everyone is welcome on this hike! We will carpool from my house to the trail head (on County Line Road just east of Palmer Lake), see directions below. Anyone who does not think that they will be able to do the entire loop can easily do only part of the hike and go back to their car. We will leave my home at 9:00 AM.

Please bring enough water and snacks for the hike.

There will be a hike on Sunday, May 16th in Aiken Canyon. A well-maintained, four-mile-loop hiking trail begins at the entrance. An additional 3/4 mile trail branches off from the loop and makes its way through the canyon. 410 ft elevation gain. About 16 miles south of Colorado Springs, about 20 miles north of highway 50 just off highway 115. I consider this a moderately easy hike. We will carpool from the park-n-ride under Interstate 25 between Tejon and Nevada. We will leave the parking area at 10:00 AM.

Please bring enough water and snacks for the hike.

SMART Recovery

Steven Raycraft

Wednesday May 26, 2010

315 East Costilla

7:00 PM

Join the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, 7:00 pm on Wednesday May 26th at the Gill Foundation Building 315 E. Costilla, as Steven Reycraft enlightens us as to the existence of an addiction recovery program based in sound science combined with rational thought.

The following was posted from our contact site:

“Liberty” is a political concept describing acting with free will.  Although America’s foundations appear associated with the establishment and defense of liberty (not capitalism, campaign donations, corporate power, free markets etc.), some Americans look down upon - and even villainize “liberals” – while claiming to support liberty itself.  It is one thing to defend, earn, maintain, enjoy or exercise liberties, and quite another thing to take liberties with facts, political systems, the rule of law or other crucial foundations of freedom and democracy. 

There will be hike this Sunday, April 18th will be Section 16 - also know as the Palmer loop trail. This is a easy to moderate hike to go up but quite steep coming back down. There is also a very nice side trail overlooking Crystal Park that we will probably want to take. There is a small amount of snow and ice on the main part of the loop going up to the top (Alan and I were there yesterday). There is more snow close to the overlook on the side trail. This should also be no problem if everyone is careful.