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Published: August 18th 2009
South Colony Lakes Basin
Crestone Needle to the right, Broken Hand Peak to the Left and Broken Hand Pass (our worksite) in between. Our daily hike began below the lake around 7:30am. The world still turns outside of the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness! Back from 30 days of wild wilderness work without wash or waterproof boots. Sadly, my leather companions did not hold up to the harsh elements and my final two weeks were spent with copious amounts of ducktape and superglue holding things together. They were unceremoniously retired but I hope to give them new life as flower pots when the occasion arises.
But the Sangres -- let me go back -- are the most glorious, majestic and spiritual mountains I've ever explored. Everything feels raw, exciting and alive. Time is not directed by the hourly norm but instead by the movement of the sun and arrival of storms and wind. We spent many afternoons watching eerie and ominous storms approaching from the west as we hustled to move rocks, build steps and create retaining walls, all the while knowing we'd be hauling ass down the mountain when we could delay no longer. On a few occasions the storms caught us and happily dumped rain, hail and all other manner of harsh weather on our group slipping-and-sliding down the mountain. On a side note, I did alot of sliding both going
Larkspur
Blooming season in the Rockies. Hundreds of species of flowers bloomed during the month. up and down the trails due to a combination of my broken boots, injured knee and lack of center of gravity. One day I remember particularly well was hiking down the talus (loose rock) fields when I lost footing on both feet and slipped and fell in a very defeated manner onto my back. Staring up at the perfect blue sky I cursed the mountain and myself but quickly decided that even if it took my blood and tears, this mountain certainly wouldn't defeat me. I stood back up, straightened my pack and continued on my way back to camp.
EarthCorps is a program run through the Rocky Mountain Field Institute of Colorado Springs. RMFI is a non-profit committed to (I'll just copy this from their website): assist public land managers in completing critical preservation and restoration work , provide high quality and challenging environmental stewardship opportunities, promote a public lands stewardship ethic based upon preservation values,
and enhance understanding of restoration and preservation needs and challenges.
The EarthCorps program brings together 10 undergraduate students to help restore and preserve alpine vegetation by way of limiting erosion and revegetating damaged areas. Three leaders (Rich, Becky, JB) instructed us Commute
We hiked across these talus and snowfields to reach Broken Hand Pass, elevation ~13,000ft. in technique and every day we hiked 1,500ft to work on Broken Hand Pass and Mount Humboldt in the South Colony Lakes Basin. Probably needless to say, this was utterly exhausting yet incredibly satisfying. Our 1.5hour commute to work was free of traffic, pollution, billboards, etc and instead filled with wildflowers, mountain sheep, emerald lakes and bouldering. I think everyone in the group was keenly aware of how lucky we were so the tiring hike was always filled with laughter, jokes and moments of appreciation.
Much more to say but for now I'll end with a few pictures swiped from Lauren, an EarthCorps teammate.
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Jack Cannon
non-member comment
What a job!!!
You write so well! I felt like I was in Colorado. Great job!