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Oct 12
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Despite good intentions, this is our first hike of the year...
We left home at our usual time, around 8, heading for I-70 and the western entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Our target today is the Colorado River Trail, the same one we started our hiking season with last year. Hopefully, we’ll get a little further down the trail this year...
We stopped for a pit stop at the Visitor’s Center and saw an elk or moose through the trees. It was difficult to tell which it was, as all that was visible was a large nose and a brown backside. Just a large animal browsing in the trees. The consensus was that this was an elk.
Then on to the trailhead. We parked about 10:30 and were soon on the trail. Wonder what we forgot to put in the backpack this trip??? There’s always something.
I had remembered the trail as fairly level, so we thought about leaving the hiking sticks at home. Well, I had forgotten the first hill out of the parking lot. It’s a short but steep hill and we used the sticks.
It was a beautiful day for a hike. Temperature was predicted for the mid 70s and a slight chance of thunderstorms.
We only spotted one bit of wildlife on this trail. A couple of marmots crossed the trail in front of us, but stayed mostly in the bushes, so, no photographs.
We arrived at Shipler Cabin about noon (the photo on the right shows the view from here across the valley) and stopped to eat our lunch there. This was as far as we had gotten last year (2.3 miles from the trailhead). We had no sooner gotten our Clif bars out when the insects descended! Okay. Next hike, pack the insect repellent....
So, we decided to eat as we walked - that at least discourages the insects, which ranged from no-see-ums to really huge horse flies! And the woods had turned humid. It felt more like hiking in Tennessee than Colorado!
Next decision - continue on the trail north or return to the parking lot. Well, the large black cloud that had materialized over our heads made the decision easy. We started back.
After eating our lunch, we noticed that the cloud was getting darker and darker, so I suggested that we move the ponchos from the bottom of the backpack to some place where I could easily retrieve them, if needed. They got moved to a top outside pocket that’s really easy to access and just the right size.
So we continued south on the trail. We had walked no more than five minutes when the first drops of rain started to fall. Out came the ponchos. We had just gotten them settled over us and gotten the sides snapped shut when the downpour started. It rained pretty heavily for a while. There wasn’t any hail, but the drops were large, hard, and cold! And the lightning put on a good show!
The ponchos covered us very nicely, leaving just our hands and lower calves exposed to the rain. We looked like a couple of strange blue birds coming down the trail!
The rain didn’t last long (about 20 minutes). And we passed about 8-10 people going the other direction. Most were dressed for the rain, but a few weren’t. One couple (and their young infant) were huddled against a tall tree attempting to stay dry. They weren’t successful...
About half way back to the trailhead, the sun came out and we took off the ponchos. They were now trapping the moisture inside and turning the interior into steam baths... However, they got bunched up and strapped across the top of the backpack, just in case we needed to grab them again.
We got back to the car about 1:30 and decided to call it a day, taking the scenic route back home by driving over the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. We arrived back home about 4:00.