Sounds of the Desert

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by roamaround
by gobluehiker

Crazy doesn't begin to describe this weekend.

I've been looking forward to this weekend for a long time. This was the weekend of my birthday and New Year's. Roam Around, T-Mac, and GoBlueHiker had been trying to decide where to go for quite some time. It switched up a few times, going from Indian Peaks Wilderness to Rocky Mountain NP and back to Indian Peaks Wilderness. They finally settle on Indian Peaks Wilderness and a little area near Lake Mitchell. They're guys, they're not allowed to change their minds so often.

So, Friday night before the trip entitled a quick trip down to the "Mothership" REI in downtown Denver. RoamAround met me down there. He picked up his mittens and I started my shopping spree. I picked up a silk liner to boost my sleeping bag rating, down booties, a white gas fuel bottle and gas and I think that was it. It seemed like much more at the time.

I came home that night and promptly started to chuck all my gear into a pile. I still have boxes in my living room, see. It was a process to find some of my gear.

Well, that night, I got a tad side tracked, but figured I had stuff together enough that I could throw it in the pack in the morning. I wasn't to meet up with everyone until 9am anyway. So, I got up bright and early on Sat morning. Happy Birthday to me. I threw everything together and was ready to go by 7:30am. I got a text from Roam saying that Armymedic and T-Mac were running late. So I moved my leave time back to about 8:30.

I arrived at GoBlueHiker's place and introductions were made to Tracy and Tommy. What a cute family! Tommy is adorable.

Shortly after I arrived, RoamAround, T-Mac and Armymedic showed up. We gathered GoBlue's gear, including pulk and COOLER (WTF?) and loaded the vehicles. The ride up to Indian Peaks was really pretty. Roam attempted to point out climbing features to me in Boulder Canyon which led to a bit of swerving. Lots of mountains and Eldora Ski area could be seen off into the distance.

We got up to the Indian Peaks snowshoe/cross country ski parking lot at around 11am, used the "facilities", as they were, geared up, donned our snowshoes and started our 4 mile hike to lake Mitchell. Roam noted after standing in the parking lot for a bit that his thermometer read 7*. Seven. That's cold.

Lots of cross country skiers and snowshoers were out dayhiking today. The first 2.5'ish miles is a road walk, as the road is shut down for the winter. The road is semi hilly and the elevation at around 10,000'ish feet. Give or take. I hadn't been in snowshoes for about a year and the last 2 months haven't been particularly active for me due to the move. It was a bit of a task for me. I left the parking lot wearing my thermal top, softshell jacket and down jacket. A mile later, we stopped. T-Mac had to add clothes while I stripped. The down jacket had to go. I was getting entirely too warm and didn't want to become chilled by being wet.

We got to Brainard Lake and at that time, it had been the highest I've hiked so far. Brainard Lake is a shallow water lake at 10,300'. We rounded the corner and wind became so strong, it nearly knocked me over. Did I mention it was 7*? Without windchill, even. Roam noted the coldest we witnessed it get was -15* (without windchill).

So, a couple of obligatory shots of the lake in winter (and sans hoards of people) we headed on to complete the last half mile of road walk and to pick up the trail going to Mitchell Lake. By this time, Roam and GoBlue had donned their snowshoes as well. The snow on the road was drifting, but was manageable without snowshoes up until around Brainard Lake.

We reached the trailhead for Mitchell Lake and the first thing Roam points out is the Mountain Lion warning. hehe Apparently, there have been sightings in the area. I'm surprised by this as they are pretty elusive creatures. They prefer to stalk their prey.   Anyway, the sign went into great detail of what to do in case of an encounter.

From here, the trail starts going up. Again, I was feeling the effects of elevations coupled with my poor fitness level. I hadn't been wearing my sunglasses and about a quarter mile up trail I started seeing prisms in my peripheral vision. It got to be a little freaky.

We had been on trail for about a half mile when Roam started having issues with his new pulk. The issue being it didn't want to stay upright. It kept flipping over. Finally, he had had enough and decided that wearing the pack would be better than fighting with the pulk on trail.

We got to the last section of trail before the area opened up to Lake Mitchell and Roam took a sharp left. We followed down the snowy hill and into a little valley area. He found a nice spot near a creek bed (which was now covered in snow) to set up camp.

When we got into camp, at around 10,800', Roam noted it was now -7*. At 2 in the afternoon. Negative 7. Br. It had also started snowing and the wind picked up.

Everyone started leveling out their tent pads and getting set up. I found a sweet spot on top of a hill that was almost surrounded by trees. Would have been perfect. As I was leveling the snow, I started hearing a rather loud creaking noise. I looked up to find a dead tree swaying back and forth in the relentless wind. Well, this spot won't do.

So, I moved down to just above Roam's tent. Once I got the area somewhat level, I pulled out my tent and inserted the poles into the sleeves. Uh oh..... No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the damn poles into the grommets. It was entirely too cold and the sleeves wouldn't give.  Roam was nice enough to put me up for the weekend.

Once everyone was settle in, we all kind of disappeared into our respected shelters. The cold and wind were a lot to be out in. Not much to report for the evening. Roam and I sat up and talked about almost everything under the sun, it seemed. But 10pm rolled around and we were sacked out.

It was strange to sleep so warmly in sub-zero weather. I can only attribute it to the lack of humidity in the air. I was in my -5* down REI bag, with a silk liner, my hiking pants, snow pants, thick wool socks and my down booties. Up top I had on my thermal hiking shirt, soft shell jacket, fleece sweater, and down jacket on. I had also brought my thermals, which I just stuffed into my bag with me for a little extra oompf and two pairs of gloves.

4am rolls around and I decide I can't hold it anymore. I had to get up to go to the restroom. I started walking up toward my spot. It had snowed and blowed the entire night and previous tracks were now gone. I was making new. I get up by some trees and all of a sudden, the snow gives out under my right foot. Tree trap!   Thankfully, only one foot was stuck, but I was stuck none-the-less. So, I started yelling for help. I figured Roam would be the first to hear me since I just got out of the tent. Both Roam and Go Blue heard me, but still had to get themselves together to come out into the cold to help. Roam was the first to come out. With a little help, I pulled my foot out of the hole. When I pulled it out, my down bootie came off my foot. That's how tight that hole was around my ankle.

After I gathered my bootie, I tucked my tail between my legs and wandered back to the tent. Sheesh. Shortly thereafter, GoBlue wandered over to make sure all was okay. lol Who knew that going to the restroom in sub-zero temps and blizzard-like conditions would be so much work?

It was a slow morning as everyone started getting up and mulling around. I was quite content staying put in my sleeping bag. It was quite obvious that Roam Around had the same idea. So, occasionally, we'd poke our heads out the door of the tent and brave the blowing snow to see what everyone was up to. Go Blue had brought some fixin's to make donuts for us. He's a good man. We were served cinnamon donuts in our tent while waiting for snow to melt. Turns out, all those Snickers bars I spied in his cooler the day before were to make deep fried Snickers for my birthday. hehe...  A little cold for that, maybe another time.

The plan for today was to go find T-Mac's nemesis, Blue Lake. Seems the guys have never made it there in the winter. However, ArmyMedic had a terrible night in his tent. He woke up to about 4" of snow in his tent and his sleeping bag was wet. He would be hiking out today. T-Mac decided to join him. With blizzard-like conditions, the wind would be brutal up above tree line, where Blue Lake was located. It was bad enough in the trees. So, GoBlue, Roam and I decided we'd make it a lazy day and just hang out. It still hadn't quit snowing and the winds were gusting to or above 50 mph. The most brutal conditions I've been out in, willingly.

The entire landscape we had spied the day before was changed over night with the blowing, drifting and new snow. As we were standing around, GoBlue asks us if we wanted a beer. Goddess love that man. He opened up the cooler and it was like opening up the heavens. GBH, RA and I grabbed a bottle each and toasted. Note: beer gets slushy after being out in the extreme cold for a mere few minutes. Blech!

T-Mac and ArmyMedic took off for the 4 mile hike out at about 1:30pm. About 45 minutes later, I wake from a nap and T-Mac asking GoBlue with finding their way back to the trailhead. GoBlue takes off to help them out. I go back to sleep knowing they're in able hands.

At about 4, GoBlue wanders back into camp. Seems he ended up pulling the pulk that he set ArmyMedic with. The one that Roam got fed up with the day before. ArmyMedic's knee was bothering him pretty badly while he was pulling the sled, but moved okay when he didn't have to worry about the sled. They only made it to the Wilderness Boundary before GBH had to turn around and make his way back to camp. Thankfully, there were CC ski tracks for the guys to follow and blazes on the trees. They still had about 3.5 miles to hike out to the car. We wouldn't find out until the next day that ArmyMedic had hit a hole, caught his snowshoe on a rock and fell forward to hit his other knee on that rock. He ended up cracking his knee cap. The poor guy had a terrible trip. We owe him a good one.

It was to be another early night as the wind was fierce. I got some snow on to boil and made GoBlue a nalgene while he got changed into dry clothes and warmed up again. It seemed like we spent most of the trip melting snow. Roam Around wandered over to the cooler and grabbed us a couple of beers to have with dinner (cup-a-soup). That beer tasted damn fine that night.

We fell asleep somewhere around 9'ish that night. I woke up at 2am to a screaming headache. I found my Excedrin Migraine and chugged some water. Of course, the caffeine in those pills had me up for a couple of hours, but at least they helped. I was able to go back to sleep around 3:30 or 4am.

We were up early and got to packing. The wind had died down somewhat with occasional gusts and the snow had finally stopped. We even started seeing the sun peak out from behind the clouds. Roam and I were packed up and just waiting for GBH to emerge from his Twin Peaks. The Tree Ents were relentless the night before throwing snow balls at our tent and startling us awake. This morning was no different. We saw with our very own eyes a Tree Ent make a snow ball and hurl it at Go Blue's tarp.   He said it dropped about an inch of frost from the ceiling of his tarp, showering everything inside. LOL!

So, we gear up, put really cold boots on (that part SUCKS!), put our snowshoes on and start hiking out. Roam was leading the way. He picked out all the good holes to let us know where they were. Thanks, Roam!   One particular hole, we walked up and he was sitting there with his pack off. It was the only way he could get out of the hole. We were definitely not on trail heading back. Somehow, I'm still not certain how, but Roam found the tracks of GBH from the previous day. Just a few feet ahead was the Wilderness Sign. lol Back on trail now, it was a fairly easy slog down to the trailhead.

We hit the road and I started having issues with my snowshoes and boots. At one point, a fairly windy one, I had to sit and take off my boot. It felt like something was in between my toes. Turns out they had lost complete feeling in them. I loosened my strings and it seemed to improve my circulation. Thanks for the tip, GBH.

When we hit Brainard Lake, the wind let loose. 50+ mph gusts easy. Thankfully, the wind was at our backs and pushing us along. It felt like we were flying. Only not.

About 3 hours after leaving camp, we arrived at my car. Now the real fun started. hehe

I started my car to hear this horrible noise. Seems my vehicle wasn't pleased with being left in the sub-zero temps for two nights alone. We got the car loaded up and started heading down the mountain. The road conditions were just a little on the icy side. I was only going about 10mph on that first curve and my car didn't want to take the curve. It slid right into a snow bank. The boys got out, grabbed their shovels and diligently started to shovel my car out. I was still not going anywhere. A couple of nice boys in a 4WD pulled up within minutes and asked if we wanted a tow. They got us out and I went about 5mph to get off that mountain. Dicey would be a good word for that road.

On my way down, Roam pulls out a pack of birthday candles from his jacket, lights it and says "here, make a wish". They were going to put candles in my deep-fried snickers bars had that worked out. They're so sweet!

Fast forward about an hour later and we finally reach Nederland, CO. I felt like a grandma driving around. LOL  I'm not used to going that slow on bad roads. But those roads were bad!

We find a parking spot in Nederland to grab some lunch. Mental note. You can be completely comfortable, some might even say warm, in sub-zero temps, but once you reach civilization, it suddenly become blustering cold! We went into a little bar who has decided to not pay their heating bill. I swear! It was so stinking cold in there. I went to the restroom. No hot water. WTF??

All in all, it was a terrific trip. Just wish ArmyMedic had been able to enjoy it a bit more. And our bragging rights are through the roof right now!