Drove with friends from Texas to Colorado to do a bit of backpacking this Labor Day weekend. We arrived in town Friday, but didn't get to our base camp near the trailhead until late. Setup the hammock in the dark (not unusual for me, sadly), and after a couple of drinks and laughs around the campfire we hit the sack. The hike the next day was going to be particularly brutal for us.
The hike we were about to undertake was 7.0 miles round trip which isn't bad until you take into account that we'd be gaining 2,430-ft. in elevation before camping the night and turning around to come back down the mountain the next day. That's a tough hike for those of us who don't live near even any particularly big hills!
The trade off, is that the scenery is BEAUTIFUL, and of course there's always a sense of accomplishment whenever i finish a particularly challenging hike.
Here are the hike stats:
Distance from Trailhead: 7.0 miles (round trip)
Ending/Highest Elevation: 12,270-ft.
Elevation Gain: 2,430-ft.
Here's a few of the more epic pictures I took along the way.
epic01.jpg epic02.jpg epic03.jpg
So, what I didn't really realize before hand was that we'd be camping above the treeline. Ugh. So, I had to go to ground... It's wasn't the most comfortable on my back, but my top quilt (and my dogs) managed to keep me quite warm.
GoingToGround.jpg
As most probably already know, mountains like this tend to have their own weather systems, and even though it was beautiful during the day, it stormed like the dickens from around supper to after midnight. Thunder, lightening, huge winds, even a little hail.
My little hex tarp and my hiking poles did a pretty good job keeping me dry, I must say. It did manage to shelter me from most of the wind, but it still did quite a bit of blowing. I'd never pitched my tarp like this, but I'd seen a video or two and it really wasn't rocket surgery... though, I think I might like to practice it again a couple times in case I have to do it again sometime. The worst part was the hard, hard ground. Ow! My aching back!
What's worse, is that I was suffering from a bit of altitude sickness at the time. I was a bit dizzy and nauseous, and my hands wouldn't stop tingling. After I et me some vittles though, I was able to get to sleep and the next day I was feeling right as reign again.
Here's a group shot we took next to Ice Lake. Y'all I didn't realize that a blue this beautiful existed in nature. It looked like the intensity of the blue in this lake had been turned up in photoshop... I almost couldn't believe my eyes.
GroupShot.jpg
(that's me with the blue Hoorag on my head)
So, for anyone counting there are six dogs to five people in that picture, but we actually had seven dogs, it's just nearly impossible to get my Maggie to sit still for a picture (unless I'm bribing her with a treat)... like this:
MaggieAndSophie.jpg
Anyway folks, I've never left one of these here trip reports... I sure hope I did it right.
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Originally Posted by n2outdrs
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