Steps in the Right Direction: Last Day Twin SisterMorning

Today we are packed, loaded, double and triple checked everything in the cabin to make sure we don’t leave anything behind. We give a good pat and scratch to Jack the cat who has been at our door everyday as an official happiness greeter. Off we drove to go hike up the Twin Sisters. When we arrived at the trailhead we were greeted by two young college students sitting in camp chairs. They were doing their thesis data gathering. Would we consider attaching a gps unit to our backpack and record the path that we use through the flood damaged section of the trail. Sure we could add one small GPS unit and carry it up the trail in the name of research.

On todays hike we encounter a good section of the mountain totally washed out and on one side of the mountain it slide right to the doorstep of a ranch at the bottom of the mountain. I wonder if they could hear the mountain knocking at their door? Our chosen path today up through the washed out section was really the path of least resistance. This section is now rather steep, and it is a matter of looking for rocks that were sort of still embedded in the ground, I’m not sure what usable data the two researchers will find. But hey, it is their research and what a fun setting to be out gathering data.

We continue on up to the saddle of twin Sisters. There are in fact two peaks to this mountain. First we visit the top of the sister that has a clear pathway to the top. This side is closest to longs Peak. So we took some nice photos of that side. Here we also get a good look around enjoying rangy panoramas across Longs Peak, Estes Park and the Continental Divide, We look across the saddle and see a silhouette of a lady standing up on the other sister. She seems like she knows what she is doing so we watch her exit the top of the second sister. This side does not have a trail up it. Just a big jumble of rocks and you have to scramble up it. We head on over and start up. We are almost to the top and the last few fifteen feet or so are a bit more exposed that what I wanted to be based on the wind. So we backtrack a bit and find a different solution that looks a little less exposed. On top of this sister we find a survey marker as well as a great view of the flood damage and landslide that happened off if this side as well.

After hanging out on this peak for a while we head on down of the last time this vacation. Our knees will be happy that this is the last time we are heading down the mountain. If you can possibly believe it, going down the mountain feels worse than going up the mountain. Today is a hot day and we meet many other hikers who are just now heading up the trail to the twin sisters. We also meet the two researchers who have hung up their clipboards, folded their chairs, donned some hiking boots and are headed to the top of the sisters for a bit of exercise.

We drop our GPS off at the collection box and head down to the car. In the car we flip on our cell phones and glory be, we have cell service. Estes Park is not a good place to have Sprint for cell service...mostly your phone says "no service". So we each use our phones to check for our flight back home tomorrow am. After we have that detail taken care of we drive from Estes Park down to Boulder. Our goal is to make it to Boulder Beer Company for their 2 pm beer tour. On our drive To Boulder we are able to see the remnants of the flood damage along the river. Pieces of destroyed bridges still hanging on the riverside, houses that have been abandoned and things that just are out out place.

We pull into the BBC in time to have one beer before we start our tour. The tour itself was kind of weak. There were only four of us on the tour, but it was very hard to hear the tour guide and he was not very entertaining. We finish the tour and have a beer taster tray for Kathi and I and the other couple has their own taster tray. As we sit and chat with the young couple we find that they are headed to RMNP. Hey….do you have your pass yet? Nooooooo. We sold our pass to them for the same price that we bought if for off of Ebay. $20. We chatted about a few hikes they should think about and then they headed off to make the drive to Estes. We needed to head on down the road to Denver. But first we needed to walk off those beers. We walked around Pearl Street in and out of over-priced stores. We watched a few street performers doing their acts before heading back to Denver.

Hiked 7.4 miles today for a GRAND TOTAL of 101 miles.

Another trip of wonders. Hiking in the mountains is filled with personal growth: journey’s of the mind, finding limits of physical self or at least finding how much beating your knees’s can take on hiking down the mountain. It is an amazing journey.

Our trip back into Denver was during rush hour. Rush hour in Denver is well, in fact SLOW.