Steps in the Right Direction: 8/5 Pirika Peak, Pack up, drop down to a new camp and then hike out

We awake with the reward of a beautiful sun rise out one of our vestibule doors and an elk up on the ridge out the other door. Just below us, there are two bull moose grazing their way down to the lake. Ok, even if it is monsoon season and we get rained on every day, this is pretty incredible.

After breakfast and before packing up our camp, Claudia, Bec, Marybeth, Kathi and I hike up to the top of Parika Peak. We want to hike up and see what views we missed the other day when the weather was so stormy. It takes us about 35 minutes to hike to the top of the saddle and another 20 minutes to scramble up to the top of the peak.

From the saddle, Marybeth had cell reception and used it to call Wendy to report that we were all doing well and on schedule to meet at the Bowen trailhead at our pre-arranged time. Pat took a few pictures of us from the campsite. We look like little dots on the peak.

We hiked back down to camp, tore it down, packed up, and put Marybeth in the front to lead us down to our next camp site. We wanted to be a little closer to the trailhead for tomorrow's hike out. Marybeth usually likes to hike towards the end of the line. She has said repeatedly during our trip that she is slow and does not want to hold anyone up. But put her in the lead, and she is full speed ahead. We teased her that she has been holding back all week.

We found a great little spot up and off the trail to set up camp. Once we have camp set up, we go off to do some exploring of a water fall we had close to us. We came back to camp to climb into the tents for a brief shower and then were able to sit around most of the afternoon sharing stories.

First jobs are always a good subject. We found special moments as people shared assembly line work, camp counselors, pizza packaging, pickle factory, glove inspector, ice cream truck driver, candy counter at the Ben Franklin store, county lawn mower, cow milker...All good stories. We start to make dinner and just as Marybeth was going to tell her "tractor in the pond" story the weather turned. We all spend a bit more tent time. During this storm the lightning was close, and our conversation from tent to tent was more in line with "I counted to one on that flash-boom..." We are thankful that we are now down below tree line.

After dinner, we chat some more. Marybeth shares one of her Easter Seals camp counselor stories of taking her campers to the Worlds Fair in NY. She told of her memories of walking through the modern kitchen showcase. Imagine when the microwave oven was just a visionary dream awaiting the final research needed for safety. She also had memories of seeing the space industry and meeting astronauts with her Easter Seal kids. This was the race to the moon time!

The next morning, we woke up at 6 and packed up camp. We had to put our rain flys out into the sun to try and dry them off. We set off for the trailhead by 8:30. We had what we thought was a 4.5 mile hike downhill to the trailhead. We had good views of Longs Peak along the way. We arrived at the trailhead at 11:50 with Wendy and Barb waiting for us. They had driven over from Tabernash. Wendy and Barb had hiked a bit into the woods to meet us. They had placed their bets on when we would appear. As we walked the final half mile to the cars we gave them a brief overview of the highlights from the past six days. Arriving at the cars we discover Wendy and Barb had a cooler filled with M&M'ss, KitKat bars, beverages, and potato chips. After spending the last 6 day's eating dehydrated food...this was a perfect gift!

We drove back to the house in the rain and hail telling stories of our adventure.

Back at the house we laid everything out to dry on the driveway.

For dinner, we had hamburgers, brats, fruit, salad, chocolate chip cookies and ice cream Yum yum yum!

After dinner, we plug my camera into the TV and watch the slideshow of memories from the week.
Great views, great conversations, great hiking, and time learning about the secrets of backpacking. What an honor to have spent the past five days with these amazing women.