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Published: September 17th 2008
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Stream
There were a lot of streams like this throughout the park Ryan:
So, obviously, there haven't been any posts for some time now. We're back from the trip at this point, and have been for a few days. We stopped posting because every time we'd get to somewhere where we were able to post, it was coincidentally also somebody's house who we were visiting, and spending time with them seemed more important than blogging. Anyway, we've decided to write posts about all of the things that happened in the latter half of the trip now, to the best of our recollection. Also, we forgot the camera today, so pictures will get posted later. And now, Rocky Mountain National Park.
Andrew:
So, we were dropped off at the entrance to RMNP on the highway 34 by my aunt and grandparents after a short detour/stop in Estes Park. We bought our tickets from the booth and proceeded past the entrance, fully laden, and presumably the only people without a car in the whole park. Ryan insisted on checking the rates at a campsite that was unmarked on the guides we had seen (all the others had been marked as 20$/night). After discovering that it was the same rate as the rest
Stream Running through valley
I like the way the stream cuts and winds through the valley (and that back-country camping was a mere 20$/week) we decided to make our way to the back-country office...10 miles away. We hiked for a ways, and during our lunch break were informed by some curious park rangers that hitch-hiking was legal in the park and they encouraged us to do so. Unfortunately, the cars seemed to be full, as RMNP was apparently some sort of family event. We made our way a few miles along before coming across an area where there were "No Pedestrians Allowed" on the road. Something we decided to ignore, and we continued walking. We came to a ranger station/parking area and were stopped by a ranger who asked us if we had read the sign, and we explained how we didn't have a car and there was no other way to make it to the back-country station for us. Unfortunately, she said she wouldn't let us walk through because there were wild long-horn sheep that crossed the road frequently, and they wanted to minimize human interaction. Her co-worker, however, offered to drive us to the station if we waited for his shift to end (another three hours, more or less). Without much of a choice
Bighorn Sheep
These sheep come down to the lake periodically we waited for the ride and, come 3:00, we were driven to our destination.
At the back-country station we spent some time planning a trip and getting some advice from the park rangers stationed there. Apparently, even though it was well into June, there was still a lot of snow up on the mountains (some sites had up to 7 feet). Also, some sites had already been booked by other hikers. So, we managed to work a 4 day tour out as our hiking plan, got our permit, and headed back out. Unfortunately, the trailhead we needed to arrive at was still quite a ways off, and so more walking was to be had before we could rest for the day (it was getting to be about 5 by the time we made it to the turn-off that lead to the area where our trailhead was).
Ryan:
We started walking for a while, and made it a few more miles. At this point I was getting pretty tired, the sun was starting to go down and we were still several miles from where we were scheduled to camp. On the route we had set up, we only
Hillside
Pretty neat rock formation on this one had to travel a mile or so between our first and second campsites, so rather than press on into the night, I decided to just foot the $20 to camp where we were at the time and that we would just walk the rest of it tomorrow. Ten miles one day and ten miles the next seemed like a smarter idea than 19 and 1.
Turns out $20 a night gets you things like running water, flush toilets, and a bear box for your food. We took off the next morning and started walking towards our trailhead. By about noon I was starting to get really tired again and started taking more frequent and longer breaks. With about five miles left to go I realized that I had every single symptom of altitude sickness. Unfortunately, at this point it was about 5 miles in either direction to a campsite, so I decided that if we had to go five miles, it might as well be in the right direction. Fortunately, the site we were going to camp at was also near an exit to the park, because by the time we got there, I was having enormous difficulty breathing.
Long's Peak
A view of Long's Peak from a distance At that point breathing while lying down was about as hard as it would be jogging, and while walking it felt like sprinting. I could only walk short distances at a time and had to have Andrew carry my packs out. When we got out of the park I had him call an ambulance for me because at that point I was having to use my entire upper body to breathe. The paramedics said that I was dehydrated, though I drank almost a gallon of water, but that I had enough oxygen, so it was mostly overexertion and apparently dehydration. They recommended gatorade instead of water and took us down the mountain a couple thousand feet to a motel (I opted not to go to the hospital) where we spent the night. Descending helped a lot, but my chest was still sore for the rest of the night.
I had figured that the altitude wouldn't bother me, considering that when we were in Colorado Springs (about 6000 feet) I did 23 miles without any problem. Up another three thousand feet and ten miles nearly kills me. Lesson learned, I suppose.
Andrew:
Needless to say, I suppose, that
Elk
They're obviously used to people, these ones were chilling by the side of the road I was disappointed at the end of our Rocky Mountain Adventure (as it came to be called). I enjoyed the scenery and the hike while we were there and plan to return again another time to climb the peaks which I had to pass up. On this trip, we had been considering climbing Estes Peak which stood at 11,000 ft.
Back down in the town, we stayed in that motel and got dinner, took some showers and cleaned ourselves up before going to bed.
The next morning we attempted to hitch out of the town and get back down to Denver. After a few hours of waiting with no luck, the wind picked up and it started to rain (which then turned to snow as the temperature dropped). We could see up on the mountain about where we would have been, and it was totally obscured in clouds. If it was snowing in the town, it was surely snowing more in the mountains. We decided to call my grandparents and have them come pick us up rather than spend more money on motels in a tourist-trap-town or camp in a ditch considering the weather. They came and got
Forest
This is somewhere between the two campgrounds us, and were surprised to hear about how early we were done with the rockies. We planned to head out for Denver from Fort Lupton the next day.
Our plans changed again, however, and we ended up helping my Aunt and Uncle move out of their shop (which they had sold) and move everything into storage until their new shop was available. They needed to be out by a certain day and were falling behind due to a lack of extra hands: enter Ryan and me. We stayed with them in their home for an extra few days (4 or 5 I think) and worked to help them move all sorts of things from scrap metal to paint cans and heavy machinery. We very much appreciated their housing us, and we're sure that they loved having the extra help.
On the last day we were with them, my grandparents drove us out to a truck stop near Fort Lupton on I-25 and dropped us off there so that we could get back into Denver and head out from there. We said good-bye and set out on our way.
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