Backcountry trek
Well, the first back country back-packing and hiking trip through Rocky Mountain National Park was very enjoyable and was a rousing success. It was a great kick off to the camping and back-packing season. With the exception of starting off on the wrong “foot” err, stomach, it got better as the weekend progressed.
Saturday Destination: Fern Lake (PDF)
Fern Lake was a 3.8 mile hike in that started in the lower valley just west of the RMD Moraine campground. The first 1.7 miles was fairly flat and uneventful. The “Pool” area is a convergence of several trails and was actually the beginning of the main trail up to Fern Lake. Not feeling well did not bode well and the descent up was not good for me. Jodi and Dylan had not problems, but for some reason, I was struggling. Jodi swears it was the left over chinese food I’d had the night before. Anyway, I pushed on in spite of myself and had to stop ever so often. For most of the trail, I was okay. However, there were two times I thought I was going to loose it. However, I pushed on and once we got to our camp site, I crashed for a little nap.
Going up can be treacherous even when you’re feeling good. Fortunately, Jodi and Dylan were in good spirits and good shape, so they had no issue with the 1,300 foot elevation change over the course of the last 2 miles.
Our camp site was actually pretty unassuming. It was located a little off the beaten patch just to the south of Fern Lake up in the trees. So views were non-existant with the exception of a few peaks viewable through the trees.
Fortunately, it was near a running stream feeding Fern Lake, so we had plenty of water. However, for some odd reason the mosquitoes were in abundance.
Sundy Destination: Mill Creek Basin (PDF)
Sunday, we started the day with a great warm-up hike to Spruce Lake where we were treated with packed snow drifts and a serene scene of ducks and fish on and in the lake.
Our afternoon trek took us back down the valley, over Cub Lake where dropped into the Mill Creek Basin area. Clouds were moving in, but fortunately, we were able to get our camp setup and dinner done before the rain started. Rain turned to sleet, which turned to snow some time during the night. We basically hunkered down with our head-lamps and a few games of chess. Dylan has a soft chess set that is designed to fit onto a Thermarest pad. I won some, he won some, we called it a night.
The night wind howled constantly and made for a bit of a restless sleep. However, we were met with a beautiful morning of clear blue sky and cool crisp morning air. We christened the camp site, The Dead Woods. This was in part due to the creepy ground cover, no animal life and no song birds during our coffee and breakfast preparations.
Hiking out of the valley and back to the jeep was brisk, but very uneventful. Our Monday Memorial Day weather was fantastic and the trip out was met with no injuries, blisters or sore feet. All-in-all, it was a very successful trip. You know, it really sucks living in Colorado and having RMNP in our backyard.
Shane
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