BBQ and Backpacking

Last year this same weekend, April and I took our first overnight backpacking trip together to Dunraven Glades in the Comanche Peaks Wilderness Area west of Loveland, CO. To commemorate our great year of adventures, we headed back to the same area for a mellow 3mi hike into some National Forest campsites along the North Fork of the Big Thompson River.

But first, we stopped in Loveland to check out their annual BBQ Festival... we are as much suckers for real Q as we are for camping. Although it lacked a bit of the magic and quality that we found at the Frisco BBQ Fest, it was a fun afternoon all the same.

And Loveland's a pretty neat town with some history and "personal" heritage

After lingering/waiting for some afternoon t-storms to clear out of the mountains, we drove west to the trailhead to begin the quick and 'easy' 3mi hike to the campsite. The evening was perfectly quiet and pleasant and still, except for the steady rushing of the river nearby. Flows all around the state are extra high this year with all the snowmelt runoff and frequent rainstorms the past couple of weeks. No better background noise to fall asleep to!

We spent Sunday day-hiking further west into Rocky Mountain National Park territory before packing up and heading back out to the car in the evening. We only got a few minutes of light rain and not-too-threatening lightning, although there was weather swirling further east on the plains. Luckily, we dodged the storms perfectly this weekend.

Utah Canyonlands backpacking trip-- Pt. 3 (days 8-9)

After a relaxing night in the hotel (we didn't have to scramble to take care of much since the trip is winding down now) we did a daytrip into Arches National Park, a quick 5mi drive north of Moab: It's Saturday, it's a prime travel/tourist weekend (just prior to Memorial Day) and it's right next to a town without a vacant hotel room under $200 tonight. It is packed!! No surprise, but it's a bit jarring to the senses after our week of seeing just a handful, if any, other people each day of hiking. Arches is a fairly small, condensed park- at least that which is easily accessed by car. Traffic and parking was terrible, so we elected to venture northwest on an 8mi gravel road to the less frequented Klondike Bluffs area of the park. Good call, sanity somewhat restored.

From the trailhead we took a pleasant 2.5mi hike back to Tower Arch for our token arch experience. Lunch beneath it was nice, and saw some very interesting geologic features along the way.

Marching Men formation; LaSalle Mountains beyond

beneath Tower Arch

Arches is a really interesting place that I'd love to come back and explore when it's less crowded; or rather, when I had enough time to venture into its undeveloped backcountry regions. A daytrip, however, is no way to do it justice.

For our last night, we drove back to where we started- our secret stash campsite northwest of Moab. We had the place to ourselves, stoked a nice fire of fragrant juniper deadfall and cooked up a tasty dinner of steak, baked potatoes and smores over the fire. A gorgeous desert sunset bode us farewell.

Utah Canyonlands backpacking trip-- Pt. 2 (days 5-7)

After a free continental breakfast we drove 65mi southwest from Moab for the next two nights in "The Needles" district.  The Needles has the classic slickrock sandstone and spires typically associated with the Moab desert region. Weather forecast called for mid 60's and a good chance of rain, so we're hoping to stay as dry as possible. First leg was a relatively mellow and stunning 4.1mi hike back to a campsite in Lost Canyon.

This huge boulder offered the perfect awning over our tent. The backside had a perfect protected kitchen nook for cooking and sipping coffee. Clouds and drizzle moved in overnight, but the tent stayed nice and dry with our rock shelter.

Lost Canyon campsite

The second day of hiking was a long one, about 7mi, and it rained a good portion of the day. Never poured hard though, so we stayed mostly dry with rain gear and dried out a bit during the breaks. It was actually a real rare treat to witness the desert amidst a steady rain. The water makes evident how many of the surreal rock features and plant groupings have come to be. I couldn't have asked for a more fascinating day to spend hiking around the desert!

ladders to climb over the wall into the adjacent drainage

We got to our campsite in Elephant Canyon just as the rain let up for the night.

Elephant Canyon campsite

It was a relatively short 4.1mi hike out to the car on Friday, with some beautiful slickrock canyons and only a brief rainstorm.

We got back to the car just as more storms were swirling nearby and drove through some heavy downpour on the way back to Moab. We sprung for another room at the same hotel, treating ourselves to pizza, beer and a nice soak in the outdoor hottub after a few days on the trail.

Utah Canyonlands backpacking trip-- Pt. 1 (days 1-5)

April and I reserved some backcountry (hike-in-only, self supported) campsites in Canyonlands National Park (near Moab, UT) for the following week and are stoked to spend some time in the desert. I've traveled around the Utah deserts a fair amount, although have yet to get very far into the backcountry and haven't been to Canyonlands NP. This will be April's first visit to Utah ever, so it's going to be a real fun trip for both of us. Canyonlands is a large park, divided into four geologically distinct regions that are somewhat difficult to travel between.

We're starting the trip with two nights camping in the northern "Island in the Sky" district near the Green River, hiking out for a night in Moab, then driving south for two more nights camping in "The Needles" district.

After a day of driving from Denver, we car-camped the first night at a beautiful area on BLM land that we found on a whim while driving on a sandy 4x4 road north of Moab.

looking northwest into the "Island in the Sky" as the sun sets

The next morning we packed up and set off for the first leg of our hiking trek into the backcountry. We'll be camping at the western outlet of Upheaval Dome for two nights, but first have to hike 4.9mi around the northern ridge of Upheaval Dome. This sign cast us on our way, and we figured, "heh, it's a national park... how hard can it really be?!"

It was smooth sailing for the first several miles, meandering through a pleasant canyon valley that follows a seasonal streambed. Then we hit a section referred to as 'The Breach' where the canyon narrows into extremely steep walls of large broken boulders and loose scree. The streambed cascades over a precipitous dropoff, so the trail switchbacks up the north wall and then back down as a way to get around the seasonal waterfall. It got pretty sticky, some 4-5ft ledges to navigate and essentially no trail, just following rock cairns indicating the route. Doing all this with fully loaded hiking packs proved strenuous and sometimes stressful, but we pushed through and made it back down to the streambed... and soon saw a small rattlesnake crossing the trail ahead of us without incident.

looking west from "The Breach"

Got camp set up in the late afternoon and fixed a restful dinner. Today's 4.9mi wasn't a long hike, but wore us out. Camping two nights at the mouth of Upheaval Dome was worth just about any effort! (Note that the tent is the small, light green spot in the photos.)

Syncline camp looking east

Syncline camp looking west

We had the whole second day free and hiked 3.5mi down Upheaval Canyon drywash to the Green River. Flow was high from the spring runoff and it was actually backing up into the wash and flooding out parts of the White Rim Trail. Lots of lizards scurrying around and many interesting flowers, grasses and myriad of colors and textures of rocks.

"Hardscrabble Bottom" section of the Green River near Upheaval Canyon

We got some gentle rain on the second morning and packed up a wet tent, but the drizzle let up just about the time we began the 3.4mi hike out via the southern section of the Syncline Loop Trail. This leg regained all the 1100ft of elevation we lost on the way in and spent a good portion navigating through broad boulder fields. Luckily no real technical sections, just a lot of rocky switchbacks.

our trail ascends this rock field, then up the one above it on the right

April looking back into the canyon we hiked out of

We wheeled into Moab and got the cheapest hotel room we could find. Time to get a hot shower, buy some supplies, wash a load of laundry, dry the tent in the hotel bathroom, and enjoy a cold beer at the local brewpub. View from the room wasn't too shabby either!

Miner's Cabin / Mohawk Lakes - outside Breckenridge, CO

We heard a tale of this refurbished miner's cabin up outside of Breck / Blue River from our neighbors and wanted to check it out for ourselves. Evidently this old, abandoned mining shack had been fixed up at some point and was now open to whomever stumbled across it, wood stove and all. We headed up after work on Friday, and it was plenty dark before we actually arrived to the trailhead.

But it was only a couple of miles on a well established trail to the cabin, but in case we didn't find it we brought tent and supplies to camp on our own. And plenty of headlamps. After an ultra-quiet, moonlit walk in the woods, we found the cabin and to our luck it was unoccupied. We poked around with limited light, sparked a fire in the stove and settled into the cozy sleeping loft.

It wasn't 'til the morning light that we even grasped where we were at:

1883 miner's cabin we stayed in

Not a bad scene to wake up to, that's for sure! But we also quickly discovered that this cabin is along a very very popular hiking trail in Summit County. Cooking up some eggs for breakfast outside rendered us the de-facto tour guides for dozens of hikers, kids, dogs, etc. It wasn't anticipated, although it wasn't surprising either given the novelty and location. They all asked the same innocent and curious questions, but it got old fast. Most of these folks would have passed on by had a couple of morons (us) not been fixing breakfast and coffee here.

We were staying a second night, so we cleaned up and headed uphill as soon as possible to avert the prying crowds. Joining the day-trip masses on the trail, we came to some great features:

Upper Mohawk Lake

This alpine lake lies a couple miles above the cabin in a historically rich mining area. Lots of pits and mines and rail tracks and trailings litter the hillside.

Further up around treeline another alpine lake hangs within the glaciated bowl. Looking west:

After hiking back to the cabin, the daytime crowds meandered off downhill in the afternoon and it was back to just us. So quiet and pleasant, and just a tad spooky... knowing that tough miners had erected this place for shelter and rest and their toil of riches ~130 years ago.

We cooked dinner, as they had, although we are lazy westerners who bought fun food & wine at the supermarket and hiked it in a couple miles from the car. They did not even conceive of such luxuries, I'm sure.

A huge thank you to whomever the ambitious folks were that restored this cabin to an 'inhabitable' state in 1989. I imagine you guys are long gone from the regular scene, and I figure this trail was a lonesome hike back in your day, a quiet place mostly of your own... 21 years has brought a lot of development and visitors to Summit County. Ourselves included. Thank you for sharing, all the same:

photo of the original visitor's log, mounted and weathered on the cabin wall, 1989

An uneventful hike back to the car and a stop for coffee and made-to-order donuts in Breckenridge before heading north over Berthoud Pass and through Winter Park, Frasier & Granby. We drove through Rocky Mt. Natl Park, eastward over Trail Ridge Road for some spectacular motorized views.

I had to work in the Boulder office on Monday, so we made it back to Camp Dick near Peaceful Valley (along the Peak to Peak Highway) just as darkness arrived on Sunday night. An easy night of car camping before heading down the mountain in the early morning, and I arrived back to work just in time for a day in the office!

August 14-15, 2010 -- backpacking to Woodland Lake

Backpacked about 6 miles up into Indian Peaks Wilderness to camp a night at Woodland Lake, 11,00ft.

This has been a bountiful year for wild mushrooms, and we harvested a few edible boletus (porcini) mushrooms to try to cook up at home.

sunrise from the campsite

July 10-11, 2010 -- backpacking near the Big Thompson River

A mellow 3.5mi hike in along the north fork of the Big Thompson River, through Dunraven Glades area northwest of Loveland. Really nice trek, the weather held and we enjoyed a beautifully silent night in the woods. April's first ever overnight backpack trip... and she loved it.

cozy campsite on Natl Forest land

After hiking out Sunday, we popped into Rocky Mt Natl Park for an afternoon hike up to The Loch, a beautiful lake at 10,200ft. Some blustery storms were swirling and spitting, but luckily no lightning or heavy rain.

The Loch