I had great intentions about blogging more often about my adventures this summer, but it seems like one day it was the end of school, and the next day it was already time for school to start again! So much for good intentions!
This summer there actually was time for some adventures, unlike last summer, which was spent grinding down brick, laying tile, installing cabinets, and doing other things which were generally much harder and took much longer than they had any right to, and which were hard on one’s manicure besides. There is still a long list of home improvement projects to be completed, but sometimes you just have to take a little time off to enjoy life.
Did I mention that my summer was child-free? My saintly parents, in an act of self-sacrificing devotion, once again took Declan and Aislin FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER. These people have halos so bright they are even faintly visible in full sunlight. Bless their hearts, they took Declan to summer camp, took a road trip to New Hampshire, made a trip to Florida, and kept two bored kids occupied during never-ending summer days when it was too hot to play outside. The kids had a great time, and it was so much better than putting them in daycare all summer. On the other hand, if my parents never wanted to speak to me again, I would completely understand.
Anyway, as a result, I got to do lots of grown up things this summer, like watching foreign movies with subtitles and no real action before it even got dark and going to see Faust at the Santa Fe Opera (which was completely awesome) and being free to eat cereal for supper every night for a week without feeling guilty. We did do a little home improvement too, in the end, by finishing up the painting of the windows and trim on the house, a job which isn’t much fun when you are standing on the roof in 102 degree temperatures at 2:00 in the afternoon.
And for the first time in three years, we finally got away for a real vacation! In late July we spent a week in the beautiful San Juan mountains of southern Colorado, hiking and camping. At those elevations, it was MUCH cooler than Albuquerque, which means a lot when you live in a house with a swamp cooler instead of air conditioning.
We spent the first couple of days in Ouray, known as the Switzerland of America. I don’t know about that, but it is incredibly beautiful. On day one, we were so excited to get out on the trail and get acclimated to the altitude. The idea was to take a fairly easy hike to ease into a couple of days of backpacking later in the week. So I consulted my handy little guidebook, and it directed me to the Bear Creek Trail, which was supposed to be moderately easy.
Bear Creek Trail
Never believe everything you read in the guidebook. The trail starts at the base of a steep slope, with sharp switchbacks covered in loose scree. Even better, the trail is only wide enough for one person, and then immediately plunges straight down for 1,000 feet or more. Let’s just say it is an exhilerating experience. I had mistakenly thought I was in pretty decent shape, only to be humiliated by a number of old people who breezed right past us on the trail. It must have been the altitude – at least, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Four and a half miles later, we finally reached an abandoned mine set high in an alpine valley, our turning around place. By the time lunch was over, dark clouds were forming over the mountains, and I started to get a little nervous thinking about being stuck on the side of a talus slope in the middle of a thunderstorm. As a result, we set a pretty brisk pace back down.
Did I mention that the dog came with us on this trip? Fred is ten now, and pretty fat and out of shape. I wasn’t too excited about bringing him, but Sean insisted that he would be fine. And he was – until we were about a mile from the car. Then he layed down in the middle of the trail, and refused to go further. It was baking hot by then, in the late afternoon sun, so we would coax him another hundred feet or so to the next shady spot, and he would lay down again. We thought he was just overheated, but after thirty minutes or so of this, we finally looked at his paws. Sure enough, the poor dog had a blister. So I got out the first aid kit, and we bandaged up his paw and wrapped a bandana around it to form a makeshift boot. It did the trick, and we made it down the mountain.
The orginal plan was to go backpacking on Day 2, but after that “gentle” hike on Day 1, nobody was prepared to head straight out into the wilderness. Instead we went into Telluride, where we bought a highly expensive pair of dog booties, and took a nice, not too long walk out to the valley below Bridal Veil Falls. The road up to the Falls itself was closed for repair, so we didn’t get too close this time. It was a beautiful day, overcast and not too hot, and the town was bursting with flowers.
On the way back to Ouray from Telluride, you drive past an amazing view of the Sneffels Range – some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery to be found anywhere. Ralph Lauren owns a huge ranch there, and as luck would have it, there is a county road that runs right through the ranch and up into the high country beyond. Being wealthy can’t be all bad if it allows you to have a place like that – sadly, Ralph did not seem to be at home, so we didn’t get invited in for tea. On the other hand, we did manage to steal a glimpse of his teepee village, and the scenery was priceless.
Double RL Ranch
Sneffels Range
But enough of all this civilazation; it was time to hit the wild. So the next day we packed our backpacks, and headed up into the Uncompaghre Wilderness. Even though the chosen spot was probably not more than 10 or 15 miles from Ouray as the crow flies, we had to drive about 80 miles to actually get there. Finally we reached the Fall Creek Trailhead. According to the guidebook, the hike, which was supposed to be about 15 miles round trip, would take us down one creek drainage, over a high pass, and up another beautiful drainage. We planned to do this over three easy days.
Right from the beginning, something didn’t seem quite right. Instead of hiking through open meadow, as the guidebook described, most of the first mile and a half was through heavy woods. Finally we reached the edge of a large meadow, but instead of heading into the meadow, the trail crossed a creek, and then plunged back into the woods. On top of that, it started to rain, a steady drizzle, though fortunately not too heavy for the most part. Fortunately, all the new backpacking gear held up well, including the fancy backpacking covers (which consisted of large black trash bags). We hiked over a wooded ridge, and by evening we came to a pretty river valley. To my surprise, a cabin was visible in the distance, and smoke from what could only be a campground in the distance.
We found a sheltered campsite on the ridge overlooking the valley, and made camp for the night. While supper was cooking, we looked at the guidebook and the fairly useless map we’d bought. At first I was sure that the guidebook was just garbage, but eventually we made a rather unfortunate discovery – there were actually TWO trails that met at the Fall Creek Trailhead – the Fall Creek Trail and the Faile Creek Trail. Instead of heading down the Fall Creek Trail, as we had intended to, we had taken the Faile Creek Trail heading in the opposite direction. No wonder the descriptions didn’t match. Fortunately, there seemed to be a solution – if we kept on the Faile Creek Trail, eventually the Big Park Trail would loop back around to the parking lot, for a total distance of 12 or 13 miles.
Bear proofing
The next morning we set out pretty early to avoid the afternoon thundershowers. Because of all the rain, the creek in the valley was too high to safely cross, so instead of well developed trail, we had to slog over steep and boggy ground on the same side of the creek. It wasn’t the easiest or the fastest going, especially since it involved frequently crossing granite boulder fields, but it was amazingly lovely.
Around 11:00, we rejoined the trail, and started climbing the ridge, traversing sharp switchbacks up an avalanche alley in which tall aspens had grown. We had lunch at the top of the ridge, and started looking for the junction with the Big Park Trail.
The fact that the trailhead was so hard to find should have been a sign. Eventually we located a post indicating the trail, but no sign of the trail itself. After quite a while scouting the small meadow, we finally found what we thought was the trail cutting through the woods at the back of the meadow. A short while later the trail entered another small meadow in the woods…and disappeared. NOTE: if this ever happens to you, just turn around and go back!!! We stupidly did not, and spent the next hour or so trying to find the trail. By that time, we were deep in the woods, with no hope of retracing our steps. The trees were high and thick, with lots of downed logs that had to be crossed. At least we knew that the trail was supposed to follow the top of the ridge; on one side, a steep slope led down to Faile Creek; on the other side, the ridge dropped off into another drainage. It should have been easy to eventually stumble across the trail.
Except that we never did. Sometimes we thought we found it, only to have it peter out again in a few hundred feet. It was slow going, and not much fun. I started getting nervous, I must admit. At least we had our backpacks, so we wouldn’t be stuck out in the woods without survival gear, and we had a map and compass. We knew we needed to keep heading south, so that’s what we did.
Eventually the woods gave way to a huge meadow. It was beautiful, but I was so tired and wrung out that I didn’t take a single picture. We even saw a huge buck once, crossing the meadow above us, its antlers casting long shadows across the grass.
We kept finding and then losing the trail (probably animal trails), until finally a post rose out of the grass ahead of us – at last we had really, really found the trail! I have rarely been so happy in all my life.
We could have camped for another night, but after the emotional trauma of getting lost, nobody even suggested it.
The last mile and a half was not fun. Poor Fred’s feet had worn right out. Every couple of hundred feet he would lie down on the side of the trail, and not move until we hiked on without him.
The car was a beautiful, beautiful sight.
Lessons learned: never, ever hike in the wilderness without a USGS topographic map!
That was plenty of camping for the time being, so the next day we drove to Denver and bought a car. My Jeep died earlier this summer, and needed a new engine. After getting a quote for a new engine, we decided it was better to just replace it. After lots of research, we settled on a Subaru Tribeca, and it just so happened that a fully loaded one was for sale in Denver for a good price. And since Denver was only four hours away…
By the end of the day we had a new car.
We still had a couple of days left, so we looped back around from Denver to Pagosa Springs, where we spent a couple of days soaking in the hot springs, taking short hikes, and generally taking it easy. It was a very relaxing end to the week.
Opal Lake
So that’s the highlights of the summer so far – lots more pictures on my Flickr account.
