Flapjack Lakes Olympic Natl Park…
After getting new packrafts and spending some time on the water getting used to them this passed week, it was time to start looking for places to put the pack to the raft! haha. Now, having only just gotten to Washington, and experiencing seasonal change vs the month it is, it was tough to discern whether or not any of the mountain lakes in Olympic were even melted. To have an additional 6+ lbs hiking up (what was revealed to be steep as F) trail only to find it still frozen would have been a huge let down haha. But, in typical fashion, pleasant surprise found me. I wished so badly to have had my raft by the time Flapjack lake came into view! I’d have gladly humped that little guy up that 2425 ft climb had I known hahaha… welp, another trip on another day! :) Plus I heard from the ranger that there’s a lot of great fishing for a ”guy with one of those neat little boats” to get out and do, so I definitely wanna get in on that action ;)
Olympic Natl Park was, as always, a marvelously beautiful wonderland of temperate rainforest to hike through. And that water color never ceases to amaze me. I took more than a hundred pictures in as many steps because every one brought an ever so slight but all together different perspective/vantage point of the Skokomish river…
Till next time…
Cheers
Get Outside Campaign 9 pt I…
My best bud, Brad from back home, came out to visit beautiful Colorado. He’d never been out here before and it was as always, an extra rad thing to show him the area. He’s a very enthusiastic outdoorsman, though Ohio isn’t necessarily the most epic of hiking/camping/backpacking areas to do so haha, still he takes every chance he can to Get Outside! so it was no shock and quite a great opportunity on both our part for him to be eager to do an overnighter despite the low temps! :D
I have never been winter camping, let alone in the high mountains of Rocky Mt Natl Park! It did necessitate procuring a few bits of gear, like a 0° sleeping bag and collapsible shovel, but overall I was very pleased at how prepared we already were after reading up on enjoyable winter camping :) One thing that I have come to enjoy so much and also something I was really excited to get Brad to partake in was snowshoeing! While the trails for the first 1/2 – 3/4 from Glacier Gorge to Alberta falls and just after were pretty hard packed from high traffic, we found that with 40lbs of gear on our backs, hiking without them was terribly slow going. As we reached the last leg of our trail where the snow was well over 2ft it was super fun hopping in and out of the drifts :D Despite our packs suckin the life out of us/him in the higher, thinner air which he wasn’t quite used to, he still rocked it! We mad it the 3 miles to our camp in as many hours :)
The ascent to the lake was fuggin tough! haha. Steep with deep snow we made it to the top. Watching the excitement of Brad taking in the absolutely stunning beauty of the mountains was all we needed to fuel our ascent. There was such a strong wind snappin off the surrounding ridges (18-20 mph!), I was knocked over twice! But, reaching the lake and soaking in our trophy view was priceless.
Get Outside Campaign 9 pt II…
My brother, an Airborne Infantry vet, always stressed the importance of “the priorities of work”. Basically a simple discipline to get camp set, wood gathered, gear unpacked etc, stole us away from our GORGEOUS triumphant lake view. It was this that was a childhood dream lived haha we got to build a snow fort! Digging out about 2ft for our tent and a 6ft by 5ft kitchen den to stay out of the wind, that little shovel became the MVP of the day haha. As the sun went down and we sat nippin on our hot spiced cider, snacking on cold cuts and cheese a light snow began to fall. A perfect day.
Morning came and while the gear totally earned the coin I dropped on it haha, we stirred to find the evening’s snow had freshly blanketed us in our camp. As the sun broke through the mountains up over through the pines surrounding us, we broke camp and our fingers about froze off haha :P Back on the trail we made record time heading back to the trailhead. The snow continued to fall and made the scenery already viewed the day before even more wonderful. Nature’s cool like that. I’ve been on that trail three times now, and every time it has been different and more beautiful than the last :)
In conclusion, this most recent edition of Buds vs Wild was a tremendous success and I couldn’t have been more happy dodging work on a holiday weekend than to spend it in the mountains busting my hump, fingers frozen, at times 20mph winds, falling into deep snow and having the absolute best time with my best bud :)
Cheers
Snowshoeing in Rock Mountain Natl Park Part II…
Day two of some awesome snowshoeing in RMNP, this time we headed to the more popular Bear Lake as we’d gotten much more confident in our endurance etc on snowshoes. I found this set of trails WAY more fun and much deeper snow to play in haha. I had a blast jumping off of tall boulders into up to 30” of snow :D We went from bear lake up about 3 miles passed the frozen Nymph and Dream lakes to Emerald Lake. Again, heavy cloud weather kept a lot of the surrounding mountains hidden, but as impressed with the mountains I DID see, if there were more to be seen I probably would have exploded :)
Snowshoeing in Rock Mountain Natl Park Part I…
Colorado, I would have your love child even if you beat me.
Thanks again to Groupon, Christmas 2012 was spent in Estes Park, CO and we burnt the daylight in the high peaks of RMNP! Our first time snowshoeing and also in deep snow haha, it was a great two days out in it :D There are only two roads really open and one that our little car could actually drive on haha so we took the less crowded trailhead of Glacier Gorge. We weren’t sure how the snowshoes were going to effect us so we took an easier time and only went about 3 miles total but man talk about an awesome 3 miles!?! Unfortunately the weather kept us from REALLY seeing the mountains, (we were skirting an opposing trail to the foot of the northern ridge of Long’s Peak). But the lightly falling snow and (i’d heard) great weather haha it was an awesome day out playin in the snow :D
Rattlesnake Gulch Trail Eldorado Canyon State Park, CO…
Colorado, I think it’s time we took a break… SIKE.
Yet another wonderfully new and beautiful terrain to hike in. The red rock with the recent bright white snow and stark blue sky made the ascent to the continental divide outlook quite enjoyable. A hot spot for climbers, ECSP is just outside of Boulder, CO in the tiny town of Eldorado Springs.
Golden Gate State Park Golden, CO…
Colorado. I… I have strong feelings for you, I don’t want to be just friends.
Fun little Saturday. Went to some new trail sections, more canyon-y this time but still awesome as ever. I really wanted to see some of the wildlife I’d heard frequent this meadow but no such luck :\ Still, it was a fun trail full of very cool terrain and a cool ruin of an old homestead of this poor fella, John Frazer, who’d gotten crushed by the timber he was trying to take into town to sell for provisions back in the early 1900’s…
Elk Creek trail Fraser, CO
Colorado is so awesome.
After our skiing trip, we went a wondering on the local mountain trails and happened to reach the trailhead of Elk Creek as the park service was allowing people to hike out into the forest and cut down our own Christmas tree! We excitedly hiked a quick 2 miles but were to eager to find a tree to hike any more than that haha But, we found a real beaut! Borrowed a saw from a ranger and happily packed it out…
Brainard Lake for Thanksgiving
I mean, I really really, love Colorado.
Spent the day out of the kitchen and despite the pretty cold temp and high wind it was a beautiful day. The road closure and limited sunshine was unfortunately limiting us from making it all the way to Lake Isabelle but the scenery was awesome and still very well worth the trip!
Chicago Lake Trail
I fucking love Colorado.
We were happy to have some of our best buds come out and visit from Ohio last weekend and we took the opportunity to enjoy a perfect day out on the trail and show off these mountains! It was a quick trip >5 miles, but for the money it really doesn’t get any better!
Fresh.
Nike + Stüssy hiking boot
Eagles Nest Wilderness
I love Colorado.
Did an overnighter in the Eagles Nest Wilderness in Frisco, CO this past weekend and just when I thought I couldn’t be in any more love with this place, a mere 4 mile hike up 2200’ of elevation brought me right at the feet of Deming Mt, Eccles Peak and Buffalo Mt. surrounding us in the Meadow Creek basin. We were camped at about 11400’ with Keystone, CO’s mountains to our South right outside the front door of our tent and despite the temp dropping into the low 20s, our rockin fire kept us warm and toasty with our spiked cider well into the morning hours stargazing :D I have been high on the buzz of this trip since haha. I look so very forward to getting out into the deeper ranges in th coming weeks. I want to aquire some snowshoes though, there was about 5-8” of snow in places and made progress tough! But also it’ll afford more dirty fun havins in the many trails around here!
Cheers
My first week in CO…
This place is beautiful. I was so unprepared for the level of gorgeous this area is. Everything around here is like a plump, succulent low hanging outdoorsman fruit ready to be plucked and devoured! NC held a wonderful array of beautiful places and activities, but the greater Asheville area was just a baby-step into this westward direction…
Cheers
I cannot WAIT to get into the backcountry and get my snowshoe on!
and also rad chicks.
