6 posts tagged “hiking”
Jen already blogged about this, but I have some super high-quality pictures taken with my cell phone to add to the mix.
The only fourteeners we have climbed previously are Gray's and Torrey's, which we did back in 2003. Actually, I climbed Mt Sneffels with Matt, Pat, and Wulfie, but a big nasty cornice prevented us from reaching the summit, so that one's not official.
Bierstadt and Evans are the most popular CO 14ers, mainly due to their proximity to Denver (less than an hour drive to the trailhead). Plus, they are among the easiest, depending on what route you take. The plan was to drive up the night before, sleep at the trailhead, get an early start, summit Bierstadt, then cross the sawtooth ridge over to Evans, before returning to the car.
We stopped in Idaho Springs on the way up, and ate dinner at the Tommyknocker Brewery. Driving up the winding, narrow road to Guanella Pass in the dark was a bit sketchy, but we made it to the trailhead by 10 PM or so. There was a nice thin layer of fresh snow, which looked really cool under the bright moon. Jen and I threw up our tent in the parking lot, and Dom crashed in his Outback. I woke up at 4 AM, and couldn't go back to sleep. We all got up at 5, and it was chilly, but quite beautiful.
Jen and I boiled some water for oatmeal and coffee, while Dom did a breakfast burrito experiment. He made breakfast burritos the day before, wrapped them in tin foil, and brought them along. Saturday morning, he boiled water, and stuck the burritos in, inside a zip lock. After quite some time, the burritos did warm up, but gave him a case of gut-rot during the hike. (He apparently didn't learn his lesson, as he ordered a giant plate of fish and chips Sunday while we watched the Vikings, an hour before he had to play in a 90-minute soccer match.)
We hit the trail at 6 AM, which was our goal. I am definitely sold on the idea of sleeping at the trailhead- I never am able to get out of bed early enough to do anything fruitful in the mountains, but I have no problem getting up if I'm already there. I do think an hour between waking up and hitting the trail is a little much- next time, maybe I'll do energy bars for breakfast.
The hike up to the summit was uneventful, but crossing a talus field when there's a few inches of snow is a bitch! Everything's slippery, and you can't really tell what's solid footing, and what's not.
I would've given anything for a little more snow, and a pair of skis on the way down. I'm thinking this might be the perfect place to take Jen on her first backcountry ski experience :)
At some point I plan on writing about my great backpacking experience from a few weeks back (including getting stuck on an exposed ridge in a horrible thunderstorm), but for now, here's a picture of an elk we found at a stream:
My favorite sound in the whole world:
We could have used sleds, to keep our arses dry on the way down:
A three-day weekend would have been nice, but I was scheduled to work Saturday and Sunday, so we decided to head up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day hike on the Fourth. Jen and I hit the road around 4:00 on Thursday, and drove to a trailhead in the Roosevelt National Forest, between Lyons and Estes Park. It turned out to be an ideal place to camp before heading into RMNP the next morning. Less than 1/4 mile into the trail, we found a great spot to set up camp, and returned to Lyons for a couple brews and dinner. Dominique met us at Oskar Blues, after acquiring camping permits for Friday and Saturday night- the lucky bastard wasn't stuck working all weekend, like me. We stopped in Lyons Classic Pinball for a few quick games, but there was a pinball tournament in progress, which was quite annoying. Let's just say I won't be participating in any pinball tournaments in the near future. Those guys (and one gal) made Trekkies look cool.
We arrived at the shuttle bus parking lot at 9 AM the next morning, and met up with G and Rebecca, two friends of Dom's from California who recently moved to Colorado. G is from France, and I won't attempt to spell his full name, since I'm sure I'd butcher it. We knew RMNP would be packed on a holiday weekend, but, like usual, once we got more than a mile from the trailhead, the crowds thinned out considerably. I'm not the biggest fan of National Parks- I prefer the rugged trails you find in Wilderness Areas to the bridges and stairs cut into the rock you find in NPs, but the easy access they provide to incredible scenery is always worth it.
We did a 10-mile round trip hike into the Glacier Gorge, culminating at beautiful Black Lake. Next time, we'll camp in Glacier Gorge (gotta plan way ahead, though), and bag McHenry's Peak- looked like a great moderate climb up a couloir. Trying to do it trailhead to peak and back in one day would be daunting, to say the least.
Note the photo of the crazy chick we saw wearing Chacos- we encountered a decent amount of snow on the trail. The marmots were quite bold; no doubt due to the fact that people feed them. We chastised one woman who was allowing her kids to feed squirrels. What's wrong with these people? It's not like "Don't feed the wildlife" isn't posted all over the park!
We did a little hike at White Ranch, near Golden, the other day. We came around a bend, and met some fuzzy friends on the hiking path:
I started writing this post a while ago, and I don't know if I'm ever going to finish it. So I decided to post what I've already written, and maybe I'll finish the job at some point.
Matt already wrote about this trip, but I was just looking at the pictures, and wondering why I never did. A couple weeks before Labor Day weekend, Matt decided to fly to Denver- we'd do a mini backpacking trip, then hit the Yonder Mountain String Band (w/special guest Jon Fishman)/Todd Snider/Rodrigo y Gabriela show at Red Rocks.
Matt flew in late Friday night, and we decided against driving 3 hours to the trailhead. We went back to our place, got up at 8 AM on Saturday, and drove to the trailhead. The Indian Peaks Wilderness is located directly south of Rocky Mountain National Park, and the 2 1/2 hour drive took us through Winter Park, then along the southern edge of Lake Granby, to the Monarch Lake Trailhead. This Wilderness area is one of the busiest in the county (not surprising, since RMNP is the busiest National Park in the country), and we did encounter quite a few people along the way. But there aren't many places you can visit on Labor Day Weekend that are deserted.
The plan was: backpack 8 or so miles to camp near Crater Lake, then get up the next morning, climb Lone Eagle Peak (3 miles round trip), have lunch, take down camp, hike out to the car, and then hit Red Rocks. We didn't purchase YMSB tickets ahead of time, just in case things didn't go as smoothly as planned. That was a smart move.
We relied on Dave Cooper's detailed book Colorado Scrambles for most of our information, and Dave claimed that round trip, trailhead to the Lone Eagle Peak summit, back to trailhead was a 5-hour trip.
Liar! We even met a guy on the trail who was half mountain goat, half human, and he said it was maybe possible to make it from the trailhead to the summit in 5 hours.
We encountered lots of wildflowers:
And crazy-looking mushrooms. It felt like an enchanted forest for a while- I was expecting the Cheshire Cat or Super Mario to appear at any moment.
To be continued...
