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| Maroon Lake with Maroon Bells Behind Canandian goose has two a family of two |
Facts
13 miles
9 hrs
Starting elevation 9,541 feet highest elevation 12,520 feet
Elevation gained 4,193' elevation lost 4,190'
Total miles 36.5
Another wonderful day in the mountains. Sky was blue as we left the condo and drove over to the Maroon Bells. There were no surprise signs this morning at the trailhead so we took some time and shot some nice pics of Maroon Lake with the Maroon Bell mountains behind them. The water was glassy smooth, but a few hanging clouds shrouded the Bells. So beautiful that stopping to take a whole bunch of pictures is the only thing you can think of to do. After ten or so minutes of photo ops, we head on back towards Crater Lake. It is a very rocky trail, the going is slow, same basketball size toe biting rocks live over here too.
Last year with the snow melt being at a higher elevation the hike to Crater Lake was slow going as part of the trial was under water. This is also were Kathi baptized her boots when the log she was using to cross a rushing stream gave way. This year it is just a dry bed of rocks.
Upon coming around the last corner before the lake we get our first view of Crater Lake. It must have a leak as the water is really low. Very low, looking at the water marks, I am guessing 15 to 20 feet lower than last year. We shoot a few pics here and continue on.
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| Crater Lake Last year |
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| Crater Lake this year |
It took us two hours to get back to the water crossing where we had to stop last year due to extremely fast rushing water. The high water was due to the large amount of snowfall last winter/spring. We stood in amazement and talked about how high the water was last year. What a difference. We stepped right across without a drop of water splashing us.
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| Creek we could not cross last year |
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| Same creek this year walked right across |
The willow wapping and rock tripping continue on up until we get to the second water crossing. Here we stop and filter some water and have a little snack before crossing. We can see people popping in and out of the willows, more tripping and wapping until we finally get above tree line. By this time we are up into the upper basin and the views are visually breathtaking. Certainly makes the last mile and half of willows a distant memory. At the same time the views open up, the trail gets very serious about gaining elevation. Even though I want to be looking all over, my eyes are glued to the trail as I am sucking wind. We are at 11,800 feet and heading up. So it is not about the fitness, it is all about the lack of oxygen in the air. We need a few more days to get our blood thicker!
I wished I would have counted dogs today. We saw many dogs that were the happiest little hikers you ever saw. Some of them carried their own back pack while others free loaded off of their owners. So we got a good dog fix today. That was nice.
As we were making our final push up the last few very steep switchbacks to the pass, the clouds finally broke loose and started to rain on us. So there we stood on the skinny trail with a pretty steep drop off putting on our rain pants, jackets, and putting the rain cover over the back pack. This seemed like a nice way to catch your breath, but not really ideal conditions when trying to balance on one foot while trying not to tip over when threading your big ole hiking boot into the leg of rain pants. I'm sure those sitting up at the pass were enjoying the show! After 20 more minutes we are standing at the top and the sun comes out. What a great day!
Kathi said we had lunch reservations at the top, so we found a really nice rock overlook and took out our lunch. Sitting there amongst all of the other hikers who are having lunch you have these nice little conversations that would never happen in a restaurant. One family was on their way back to Created Butte after coming over the pass yesterday and staying one night in Aspen. (This hike is the shortest trail from Aspen to Crested Butte. Many people will hike the 14 mile trail and either stay overnight in Crested Butte or Aspen and hike back the next day or arrange for transportation back to their original starting point. We are only hiking up to the pass and will then retrace our steps to the Maroon lake trailhead.) Another group of three which we had hiked many miles with up to the pass were doing some speed eating. They had to catch a ride on the Crested Butte side of the trail at 2 pm. I'm 100% sure they were late. They liked to stop and sit down and rest...a lot.
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| Maroon Pass looking on the Aspen side |
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| Maroon Pass Looking at the Crested Butte side |
Another group of four had heavy backpacking packs and three dogs with them. We got to know one of the dogs very well. Trip was the dogs name. Trip did not listen well, as he used selective listening skills. Trip was everywhere. We think he was the official greeter for all of the other dogs that came up the pass while we were there. When you think of the top of the pass, mostly Trip was either going over the trail heading down on the side he just came up or heading down the trail on the side they were yet to go. Both sides of the trail were steep. So being a wonderful problem solver one of the four people with Trip decided they would keep him in one spot. Looking around for something to tie Trip to, they found nothing but ...one of the backpacks. Within seconds of tying the knot, Trip was back on his feet, it only took a few steps for Trips to topple the backpack and begin is's rolling off of the top of the pass. Trip was now being pulled off the side of the pass down a very steep drop off. Are you grimacing? Everyone on top of the pass sucked in air as Trip disappeared over the edge while we saw the backpack tumbling down the side of the mountain with Trip attached to it....Nooooooooooooooo! His ever so biright onwner ran down the trail in pursuit of Trip and the tumbling backpack. Trip went over about a 50 foot slope. We all breathed a huge sigh of relief as Trip is apparently made of rubber. Trip was unscathed and bounced back up to the top.
We decide to hit the road and head on back to the trail head. Coming down the pass is amazing. The views are wide open it really helps that you aren't sucking wind! We take time to shoot some pics of flowers and the basin we are in. This makes all of the wind sucking worth it. Most of the hike back we have blues skies behind us. I even had to stop to put on some sun block. But there's some very dark clouds in front of us. We are still kind of beat up from yesterday's fast footing exit, so I am hoping that we do not need to do that again on this trail. Remember all of those rocks and willows, yikes. Lucky for us we make it all the way back to Crater Lake before it starts to sprinkle. We stop right away and gear up as the sky is way too black to be thinking this will be a passing storm. We get everything zipped and clipped and by the time I bend over to pick up my hiking poles it is raining. Great, we are prepared...there was a loud rumble of thunder and then, all hail broke loose! (my Mom told me not to talk that way) but really it hailed and hailed and hailed. It hailed for 15 minutes straight and then rained for another half hour after that. I know what you are thinking, I wonder if they waterproofed their boots? We we were so well watered proofed that we were very dry . But the packs had wet hip and shoulder belts. I have them sitting in front of a fan right now.
During supper we had the newscast on. I guess monsoon season has officially started... What is it that whenever we come to Colorado it becomes monsoon season. I should market this... We could have avoided all of those fires :) The state of Colorado could hire us to bring the rain just in time...
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