August 3 Parika Lake

Have I left you wondering about the leaky air mattress?  Kathi slept perfectly on it one night.  I slept perfectly on it one night.  I think the leak is at the nozzle.  I hate to deflate it as we get ready to move to our next base camp because we have found the sweet spot, or maybe I should say the just right closure... Messing with it will only lead to leakiness!  I'm pretty sure that backpack hiking with a fully pumped up mattress under my arm is not common practice.

8/3 Parika Lake

Up this morning at 6 am.  We packed up camp and were on the trail by 8.  We made good time getting up to Bowen Pass.  We drop down into a beautiful meadow filled with flowers.  Somewhere up here is Ruby Lake.  We do not even see a glimpse of it, but have a pretty good guess where it might be located.  We also were able to see the ridge we were hiking on yesterday. 

Hiking through the meadow from Bowen Pass to the Continental Divide pass we stop to filter some water.  While we are filtering a gentleman about our age is hiking down from the way we are headed.  We bid him a good day.  He bids us “good luck”....  The six of us just give him the “What did you say look…”  Did he mean, “I don’t think you can make it?”  Did he mean he felt that the six of us “are not capable“ to hike that?  Or did he know something that we did not know about the trail?  Whatever he meant, the tone of his comment only lit the fire under our hearts, and perhaps made our 40 plus pound packs feel more like 30-pound packs.  

We continued on up to the Continental Divide.  The divide was rather windy at the top so we decided to drop down over the pass so we could get out of the wind for a snack.  But we were not too far down the other side as it became clear the skies were no longer blue.  They were filling in with clouds.  We hiked to the bottom of the other side of the pass.  We stopped at a small little stream where Bec could soak her foot.  It was around eleven in the morning, big puffy clouds were starting to gather.  Consulting the maps we talked about our options of continuing or pitching tents at our present location. We could see up the side of the next pass.  A winding pencil line of a hiking trail flowed up and over what we knew was not the top of the next pass, but certainly, it could not be that much farther.  Perhaps another 200 feet of elevation that we could not see.  Being that it was still so early, we decided to hike on.

As we neared the last 200 feet of elevation before reaching the top of Mt. Fairview our luck ran out.  The wind had picked up, the temps had dropped, and the skies started throwing bursts of hail and large rain on us.  We dropped our packs and grabbed our rain gear, wiggling and wrangling to get our gear on without losing it to the strong winds.  Geared up we pressed on to hike up and over the pass and descend from the high ridge before the lightning started.  Sadly, we are at the best part of the hike with views, but with our heads down, we press forward across the ridge walk knowing that we need to get to a safer elevation.  At this point, you might be remembering the rules of lightning:  tallest, largest, pointiest...You want to be none of these.  

Finishing the last part of the ridge walk we meet a group of exuberant youth hiking up the trail from Parika Lake.  They were wearing shorts and t-shirts. The leader of the group had a wildly flapping yellow poncho.  The poncho whipping so violently that it offered no rain protection and more of personal slapping assault weapon.  These youth apparently saw no weather related reason to be headed down, heck, they had just spent 2 hours hiking up… One thing about hiking is you are free to make your own choices.  Older and perhaps wiser, our group of women chose to get the heck off of the ridge and leave the youthful group as the tallest, largest, pointiest.

From the saddle of the pass, our group headed down towards the grassy area above the alpine lake of Parika and the younger underdressed group headed even higher up towards Parika Peak.  On our walk down towards the lake, lightning struck in the valley we were hiking.  Thinking that she was the tallest, largest, pointiest, Bec dropped down to all fours.  At first, I thought she was struck by lightning, but I had felt none of the electricity in the air, quickly realizing she was ok and in greater need of getting further down the trail, Bec got back on her feet and continued with us to hike down the switchbacks to the rise above the lake.  

At the rise above the lake we took a quick survey of camp location, looking for three tent areas that were “flat” along with a good “kitchen”.  Seizing the break in the rain, we got busy pitching tents before the racing black clouds burst with their next load of hail, strong winds, and hard rain drops.  Just as we were almost finished pitching the tent, the youth group were frolicking on top of Mt. Parika.  The clouds burst open,  Kathi and I tossed our packs in the tent doors and crawled in.  For the next two hours, we sat in our tent safe from the pelting rain and hail.  I did not see the youth group hike down past us.  

With all of the tent time that we had, each of us had brought along something to engage our down time. I was sitting in the tent organizing my gear and writing my story of the day.  Kathi was doing her brain puzzle book which contained several different brain puzzles including crossword puzzles.With our three tents within voice distance, occasionally Kathi would have to send a question along the tent telephone voice line and inquire if anyone knew who was the author of the Nancy Drew series, or what the word for Father was in French.  Claudia brought along several saved up crossword puzzles from the Milwaukee Journal, Bec brought along her iPhone with downloaded books, Marybeth had picked up a book at the grocery store the night before we left, and I wish I could remember what Pat had.  Bad me.  

Today’s hike was just under five miles and we peaked at 12,149 feet.  We gained an elevation of 2,493 feet and lost 1,237 feet.  We had along the way great views, sun shine, flowers, clouds, wind, hail, rain and hard earned satisfaction.  

After two hours of rain and hail, the skies cleared and we exited our tents long enough to know it was just a small break in the weather.  We picked up what we were going to need for supper, hit the bushes to take care of business, and talked about safe cooking in the vestibules of our tents.  We each headed back to our tents as the next storm blew in.  And blew it did!  I was trying to light the stove in the tent vestibule area.  The wind gusted so hard the tent bent to one side releasing the tent from the stakes.  The vestibule started flapping in the wind.  I had no intention of lighting the tent on fire, so I doused the fire, rehooked the tent to the stakes and worked on keeping the tent up.  At times, I had to lay on my back with my foot up in the air supporting the top cross bar of our tent.  The wind was so strong, that I was sure it was going to kink the tent pole.  While lying there, with my foot up in the air holding the tent up, my mind narrowed in on an idea of how to engineer a stronger system.  I came up with the idea of bolstering the crossbar with my hiking pole and tethering the hiking pole handle to the tent crossbar with the extra string I had squirreled away in my ditty bag.  After putting this idea into action, I had a perfect solution to the wind/tent problem.  I could now sit back up and relax a bit.  It was getting late in the dinner hour and the storm was showing no sign of quitting.  Kathi and I decided to eat our evening jambalaya meal cold.  

In the other two tents, Pat and Marybeth had also thrown in the towel on a meal cooked under the vestibule.  They were trying to prepare some soup but they were battling hail and ended up with more hail in the pot than out of the pot.  Claudia and Bec managed to get their stove fired up, however, in the process of getting their stove out of the storm, our safety girl Bec burnt her thumb.  

Sometime after midnight, the storm moved on and the wind stopped.  The skies cleared allowing the full moon to brighten the night.  I took this opportunity to blow the air mattress back up...and go outside for a quick trip to the bushes.  The evening sky was beautiful.  The moon was so bright that the stars looked dim.  I crawled back into the tent and fell asleep hoping the mattress held until morning.  Just as I drifted off to sleep, I awoke with a startle of a coyote’s lonely howl at the moon which was echoing about the alpine valley where we were camped.  I laid there with my eyes wide open, for the first time considered the other creatures we were sleeping amongst!

It is raining and hailing so hard you can no longer see the mountain across the way.

August 2 Base Camp to Bowen Lake

 Today's hair-do award is a tie. Clearly awarded to Claudia and Marybeth. They both did a fantastic job working on their hair overnight, which they promptly covered up with a hat.  

Today we made a speedier exit from our base camp. It was a 20-minute earlier start. We headed up to Bowen Lake. A big day hike for us it's only a mile and a half to the lake. The trip is a 5-mile day and we peak out at 11,696 feet. We have an elevation gain of 1,604 feet today.  These are not big mile days for us.

The hike today was through the woods, but it had many flowers and moose tracks to look at. The trail did provide an opportunity to walk through a meadow that was filled with monks hood and delphiniums. Moments like this should always be treasured.  When we arrived at the lake there were many camping locations. We dropped our packs at the camp area closest to the water's edge. What a beautiful sight this was.  Time just seems to not matter when you are at peace with the environment.  

Marybeth and Pat were working on taking map bearings and talking about declination on a map. All of a sudden we heard splash! A really BIG SPLASH.  No Bec was not taking another one of her dips into the water.  Across the lake to our right, two bull moose were swimming in the lake.  Two more were entering the water, and two more looking on. Six moose, I have never seen anything like this!   We started taking pictures. The Moose heard all of our movement and did a 180 degree synchronized swim turn to head back to shore. The Moose were now pinned up against the cirque of the mountain and really had nowhere to go… Well, besides for a right back at us.

We stepped back behind some pine trees that were close by. When protecting yourself from a moose you want to find a big tree and stand on the other side of it.   Moose are not known for a high degree of agility. The large alpha moose stood on the trail looking at us and checking us out.   He cauiously came closer and closer, commanding all of our attention. He walked up to where we had our backpacks leaning and snorted, shook off like a wet dog, looked around, and headed to the main trail. Sensing a signal was being sent to the remaining five moose, we took this as a great opportunity to move further away from where we were standing. The departure of the head bull signaled his okay to his harem to proceed through the space.  The harem followed him as a group and at a distance.

What moose this close??? Not only was it quite a sight but it was all of us thinking... had we chosen the right size tree for this amount of animal moving through the woods? The moose continued to walk the lake side trail until they were on the far shoreline. They turned up into the woods and disappeared. What an amazing experience.  Never have any of us been so close to so much raw muscle.  We each collected a good amount of photos and videos to re-live the moment.  

After talking about our experience, we decided that we wanted to continue to hike up to the Continental Divide Trail.  The trail was visible up to our left.  We needed to travel much of the same space where the Moose had just traveled. We carefully walked along the lakeshore and got to the end of the trees and looked to our left.   Grazing In the meadow... the 6 large moose. The alpha male was not very happy that we were passing through the far end of THEIR meadow. We decided that walking solo on the trail past them was less threatening to them than if we all went in a large 6-person group. So, each of us, holding our breath as we traveled, quietly tip-toed across the open meadow. This is probably the part in this blog where my mother is thinking “Oh dear lord, What are you girls doing!”  Well, I guess we're living The Great Outdoor Adventure.

It didn't take us very long to get to the top of the saddle where we stood on the Continental Divide Trail. There were long views off into the distance. Some of the recognizable peaks were Longs Peak, Ida, Ypsilon, Chiquita, and Chapin. Claudia, Marybeth, Kathi, and I hiked up to the highest peak of the saddle.  At the top we enjoyed an even further view of the mountains.  The clouds were gathering, so we took some more pictures and headed back down. We gathered at the sign to take a group photo.  Now we needed to hike back down to try to get past the harem of moose. It is a good time to point out that the six of us take turns leading our group. Lucky for me, I led the group up to Blue Lake :)   Claudia volunteered for the duty.  She has the smallest physical stature of all of us, but bold in adventure.  Claudia walked forward with courage of a great leader.  We will just call her “little moose bait” or someone suggested the “appetizer” leader.

We did not see any moose on the way down from the Continental Divide and all the way back to base camp. We did see many moose tracks, but no moose, so they must have moved further into the woods. Just as we were in the home stretch Bec sneezed a LOUD sneeze.   An Achoo with such gusto that it startled the moose dickens out of all of us.  Claudia, our leader most likely needed to change her underwear after that.  

A day full of adventure and amazement.

August 1 Blue Lake day Trip

With six women backpacking together for six days, there should be a common bond that we all look forward to everyday.  Having ice cream together is not going to happen as we did not bring along a YETI cooler.  So we decided after seeing Claudia's bedhead that our group should have a morning "Best Hair doo award."  Claudia taking first place today!  We were able to sleep in today because we have decided to hike up to Blue Lake and leave our campsite as a base camp.  This will lighten our load and allow us to move a bit freer today.  We were also concerned that there might not be many camping spots up at the lake.

Our hike to Blue Lake is a double back, of about a half of a mile, to the Blue Lake spur trail.  As we leave our base camp we have to step across one of the two water sources we are camped by.  Five of us are across the 8-foot wide creek when we hear a SPLASH.  The five of us turn quickly around to see Bec make a very quick self-arrest from the creek and scamper up the bank.  After further questioning Bec (Safety Girl), she has convinced us that the little SPLASH was really one very graceful slip into some gently rolling water.  Perhaps, one of her best landings ever.  Hmmm, we need an instant replay on this as well as a review of creek crossings.  Wet rocks are indeed wet and often slippery.  One must be mindful when stepping.  Bec said she was alright, not too wet and ready to just keep going as she would dry off as we hiked.

Along the way to the Blue Lake spur there is suppose to be another spur trail up to an abandoned mine.  We watch for signs of this trail.  It is on the 1957 TOPO map we have, but we are unable to spot the trail with our eyes.  We hike on and it takes us about an hour to hike from base camp to the lake. There was a very established camp area by the lake.  The camp area by the lake also had very smart, quick and witty local chipmunks who had a good command of the area.

Blue Lake is tucked into the base of Bowen Mountain and Mineral Point.  The lake was calm and inviting.  We sat at the lake side and worked on finding the leak in my air mattress pad.  We first dipped the valves into a pan of water and found no bubbles.  Then we dunked the pad into the lake to look for any air bubbles.  Still nothing...

While our side show was working on locating the air leak, the crafty little chipmunk was working on stealing cheese sticks from Marybeth's 2 pounds of cheese.   Two sticks of cheese at the same time! Marybeth had pulled out her camp stove for lunch and had her pots, stove and lids all spread out amongst the rocks.

Before I get to far into this story, I will take the time to explain that Marybeth is the most calm, well traveled, peaceful hiker I have ever met.  She has hiked and backpacked a huge bucket list of trails, mountains and places that have made the front of many magazines.  She is an author, physical therapist, well spoken and tells great stories.  The fact that she often leaves a "trail of forgotten things" is just part of the whole package.  The perfect absent minded professor.

Here at the lake, Pat spent time reminding me how to take bearing readings with the TOPO and compass.  While we were doing this, a group of 6 people arrived at the lake.  They were looking like they were going to be camping at the spot we were hanging out.  We packed up and left the newbies to the crafty little chipmunk thieves.  Before leaving we help Marybeth find all of her items that she had taken out of her pack.  We find her stove, pot, and lid.  We have all learned to give a good look around to make sure Marybeth has all of her items.

We have a nice hike back down to our base camp.  There was a nice display of flowers.  We do some looking for the miner trail but are once again unsuccessful.  When we get back to camp we drop our packs and four of us do some trail scouting for tomorrow's hike up towards Bowen Lake.  We are trying to decide if we should keep our base camp or of we should move up to Bowen Lake and set up a camp there.  We don't really find anything that looks like a better place to move to.  We decide no to hike all of the way to the lake.    We head back to camp and take a vote of either staying or rolling the dice.  We decided to keep our base camp and day hike up to Bowen Lake tomorrow.

Rain moved in.  It rained from 3:30- 3:40  It provided me a good opportunity to do some writing.

Kathi has volunteered to sleep on the leaky pad tonight.  Sharing the leaker will be a better way to make it through these nights.

Acclimation Hike... Are we Ready?

7/30 Berthoud Pass

Today is acclimation hike day.  We have gathered by a way of a multitude of pathways.  Claudia just finished chairing a golf outing to raise money for Sue Jergens Memorial Golf Outing.  Bec was chasing after a consultant at work, who was leaving a large path of extra work for her.  Marybeth just finished a hike around Mount Blanc in Europe and then drove 12 hours to join us in Colorado.  Pat was tending a sore foot.  I have been traveling and presenting, and finally, Kathi's Mom had just passed away.  We all needed a good walk in the fresh air with boundless beauty and peacefulness all around.

We headed up to Berthoud Pass.  Parking at the pass we were able to get out of the car at 11,307 feet and hike up to the Continental Divide.  While on our hike we had great views of the Indian Peaks, Long's Peak, Never Summer Range along with Grays and Torres as well as Beirstadt and Evans the local 14'ers.

Our goal for today was to travel at elevation to make sure we could all hike at or above 12,300 without issues.  We traveled 4.5 miles sat down and hung out at elevation awhile.  Pat's objective really was to see if anyone was going to puke...  If we had trouble with the elevation we would have felt sick.

After finishing our hike we stopped at the grocery on the way home to pick up a few items and then headed to Tabernash.  Cindy and Deb treated us to a home cooked meal of Fajitas.  We ate outside on the deck and listened to Marybeth and Cindy describe their hike to the top of Kilimanjaro.  Both with stories of a slow steady pace leading to the top of a great mountain, with excessive support from the people of the area who were their porters.

Before bed, Kathi and I sat down with Pat to re-plan our Colorado Trail hike that would be right after we completed the Bowen-Baker trail.  I say re-plan, because we planned to do the hike south to north, but with the change of plans due to delaying our vacation plans, we will now be hiking north to south on the CT.  We are trying to plan out how we can have Pat run "support" on our hike and do some hiking with us depending on how her foot feels.

7/31 Bowen-Baker or Bust

We all got on the road at 7:40 and to the trailhead by 9:00.  Deb and Cindy with their dogs Callie and Zoey dropped us off.  Cindy did a good job of making all of the packs seem as if we all had light packs.  Of course, all six of us are carrying over 40 pounds on our backs.  We stopped at the registration box/book and left a comment from our teams orange REI bandanas.  We are a "Force of Nature" and "A woman's place is in the wild".

On our way up the trail at the second creek crossing there was a place to soak feet and have a good sit and snack.  Here we learned we could best help everyone by doing a two woman lift to assist the owner with donning their backpack.  This is a much easier and healthier way of getting a 40 plus pack onto your back.  It sure beats hoisting and jimmying around by yourself to get it on.

We hiked around 4.5 miles to an elevation of 10,200 finding a great location next to a stream with a good amount of open area and most importantly relatively flat areas to put up tents.

As we set up our tents, Pat and Marybeth made a startling discovery.  Marybeth has a long history of forgetting something that seems pretty vital to the hiking adventure.  Before leaving the house this morning we thought Marybeth had passed the I "remembered everything"quiz.  It turns out that Marybeth forgot the tent stakes.  Pat and Marybeth had split up the weight of the tent by packing half of the tent stakes with the tent and the other half of the stakes with the rain fly.  So, only half of the stakes made the trip.  Pat and Marybeth fashioned up some just right rocks to use as weights to hold the tent in place.

When we finished setting up tents, Bec shared a treat of ice cream with us.  Bec used her insulated thermos and packed it full of ice cream, froze it overnight which helped keep it cool, and then packed it in to share with us. Hmmmmm, it was good!

After ice cream, we sat down for an early supper.  Kathi and I had jambalaya and hot chocolate.  Pat and Marybeth had Mac and cheese.  Bec and Claudia had a potpourri of dried foods.  We sat outside and chatted until the sun went behind the mountain.  The temps dropped pretty quickly, so we all went to our tents.

Overnight my big surprise was a leaky mattress pad.  I would just fall asleep and then wake up cold as my pad was flat and I was sleeping on the cold ground.  Bummer, this pad is only on its fourth night.  I think the valve is given me grief.  Temps overnight drop down into the low thirty's.

Having trouble with the pictures...
Will have to post without them.  Stay tuned