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| Moose in meadow |
The facts:
11.5 miles
Starting elevation 9511 highest elevation 12592
Total elevation gained 4088 lost 4068
7 hours of greatness
Total : 48 miles
Woke up at 5:30 and into the car by 6:45
We drove up to Maroon Bells again this morning and on the 9 mile drive back we saw a moose down the hill in a little pond. We did not think there were any moose in this area of Colorado, so we parked the car along side of the road and got out to take a few pics. The moose ended up loping up the hill and crossing the road. Now that was fun to see.
We got on the trail right away as the winds were up and Maroon Lake was not very picturesque. The trail back to Willow and Buckskin pass is petty rocky and it is certainly uphill. Kathi and I are talking about something that happened last night and we are clipping along about 16 minutes into the hike. Just like that Kathi throws on her brakes and I almost walk right into her. She only has to say one one word. BEAR! I being a bit hard of hearing usually have to have Kathi repeat things for me. Ahh, not this time. We are about 50 feet away from the bear, he is meandering up the hill. I am whispering to Kathi, this is when she reminds me we are suppose to be talking loudly so the bear knows we are here. Oh yeah, I forgot. Ok, well, I said loudly, I THOUGHT THE BEAR WERE SUPPOSE TO BE CHEWING ON THE DEAD CATTLE OVER AT THE HOT SPRINGS! Kathi and I stood there and talked loudly until we thought he was uphill a sufficient amount. Let's keep in mind they can run 40 miles an hour... I bet they can run even faster downhill! We pass by without incident. What is going on with all of this wild life this morning?
We make good time hiking along for two hours, during these hours I am thinking about when you meet a bear, exactly what is the volume of voice you should use? You want to alert the bear, but scaring the bear might make them mad at you. Then they want to eat you... Hmm, loud but not too loud.
After two hours of hiking uphill we are ready for a snack break. The clouds look a little iffy on whether it is going to be raining soon or not. We decide not. We stop and have some snacks, put our packs back on and get hiking again. We think we are going to get up to the water source so we can fill our water supply before it begins to rain. We make it about 68 feet up the trail before we stop and put on all of our rain gear. I guess we did not read the clouds correctly. It rains hard for about 40 minutes.
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| Creek crossing this year |
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| Creek crossing last year was an iffy snow bridge, Kathi throws rock to test the snow... |
By now we are up by a trail junction between Willow Pass, Buckskin Pass and a rushing creek, we stop to filter and treat some water before making a push towards Willow Pass. While we are gathering water we can see people dancing around at the top of Buckskin Pass. That is kind of cool to see. While we are filtering and treating the water the rains stops. Great!
Willow Pass from this junction is up over an escarpment and into another basin. Wow, what great sights. From the top of this escarpment it looks like a whole new world all of which is unseen when in the lower basin. We can see people making their way up the long switchbacks leading to the pass. When you see this you can start to get your mind wrapped around the thought of the uphill you still have to take on.
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| Looking down from the pass |
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| Hiking up to Willow Pass look hard for the switchbacks |
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| Tiny little wind blown Asters |
Standing at the base of the last push to the top Kathi and I take a few deep breaths and start the final switchbacks. It takes us twelve minutes to get to the top. Wow, I was very impressed with that effort. I think we are starting to get some thicker blood to be able to climb at these altitudes. Nice!
We have lunch reservations at the top. We sit and look down over the Willow Lake basin and watch two people far off in the distance hiking along. From this distance they look like little ants. By now the sun is out and the day looks good enough to head back to the junction where we filled up with water earlier, and then head up to Buckskin Pass. We head down and back to the junction. Those two sentences made the little trek sound simple, but it really was about 45 minutes of hard hiking down so we could then hike back up. From the two different passes you can see such different views of this beautiful place.
From the junction we take the long switchbacks up to Buckskin. We were up here last year, but had to negotiate around several larger snowfields to get up to the top. It was enjoyable to see how different everything looked.
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| Lunch reservations |
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| Top of Buckskin Pass |
Heading down today we chat about how many backpack hikers we have seen over the last three days. I guess we should have been counting them... Kathi likes numbers, it gives her the chance to keep her mind sharp for work ;) me I like to let my mind wander towards what I should blog about today. Perhaps today it is about the wild beauty of this place along with the wild things that live here. Looking around we know that these views are what makes hiking so special. Clouds are gathering again and we try to make good time when we can. If it is not rocky we are really fast footing it. If it is rocky we just take our time.
Again with it being monsoon season it really rains. Soon we are right back to walking through two inches of water which is rolling down the trail. These two inches of running water really masks those pretty little rocks that grab your feet and make you stumble. I was trying to think of what we might look like as we hike along tripping over unseen rocks. I am sure we appear quite comical!
As a good piece of info, these rains have really aided in putting out the wild fires. It has also given Kathi and I a good chance to check out our rain gear and water proofing techniques. Rain jackets are great, 5 stars! Rain pants have a 3 star rating of just ok, boots rate a great 5 star, rain covers for packs rate only one star. What can you do with the water that rolls over your hood, and down your back. The backpack rain cover, covers everything but the side that goes against your back. This means any rain that rolls down the back side of your coat gets directly absorbed into the pack. You would think the backpack cover could account for this, but sadly it does not.
It has stopped raining by the time we make that last half mile towards the parking lot. People who have come up in the most recent bus from Aspen are dry and stepping daintily around the huge puddles. We walk our way back towards the parking lot, walking right through all of the rain puddles. We have well proven rain gear and boots!
Nice! Sure am glad we put two coats of water proofing on...
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