Found a use for Moleskine journals I'm too afraid to write in: hiking journals!
June 20, 2015, 9:14pm
Dean and I are currently encamped in a meadow of beaver ponds in Mount Evans Wilderness awaiting the stars. The new moon was on the 16th, so there's a sliver up there tonight and I'm hoping to see a beautiful sky. Did you know you can see the Milky Way from earth? All these years I thought those stunning pictures of the Milky Way over a barren desert landscape were a Photoshop magic trick. Now I'm obsessed with seeing it for myself. In the meantime, this will do.
The book called this hike "moderate." It definitely hasn't felt moderate. After a late start, we began at Resthouse trailhead near Echo Lake and made it only about five miles (plus a two-mile detour to Lincoln Lake) out of the 6.5 that was our goal. Maybe it's because I'm 20 pounds heavier than my old backpacking weight, or maybe because I haven't carried a pack or been above 9,000 feet in over a year (this hike tops out at 11,800), or maybe it's because much of the trail is a sludgy morass from all that rain/snow earlier this year, but this hike kicked my butt! I actually collapsed on the trail - walking downhill with a heavy backpack is hard on the legs, and mine just gave out.
Unsurprisingly, this meadow is full of mosquitos, the kind of mosquito my mother likes to call "Rodan," but we didn't have the light or energy to go further. I took care of the bug problem by lighting a fire in a fire ring a previous site occupant had left behind. I've always been a very minimal camper, so this was actually my second campfire ever, and the first one I've ever made myself! I didn't use any cool survivalist tricks, I carry a lighter for my pocket rocket, but I still had to collect kindling, arrange it, and tend it, feeding it larger and larger pieces of wood until it was roaring happily. We ate dinner next to the fire and let the smoke keep the bugs away.
Now I'm journaling and Dean is falling asleep. Some stars are coming out, I can see them through the mesh ceiling of my tent. I am going to read for a bit now. I hope it gets dark pretty soon, I'm afraid as soon as my head hits the sleeping pad, I'll be snoring.
June 20, 2015, 10:18pm
The Big Dipper! I wish I knew more constellations.
This portion of the trail was totally wiped out by this fast-running fairly deep waterfall!
Entering the Resthouse burn area, a 1,000-acre graveyard of sunbleached trees - the results of a careless campfire in 1964.
Lincoln Lake.
June 20, 2015, 9:14pm
Dean and I are currently encamped in a meadow of beaver ponds in Mount Evans Wilderness awaiting the stars. The new moon was on the 16th, so there's a sliver up there tonight and I'm hoping to see a beautiful sky. Did you know you can see the Milky Way from earth? All these years I thought those stunning pictures of the Milky Way over a barren desert landscape were a Photoshop magic trick. Now I'm obsessed with seeing it for myself. In the meantime, this will do.
The book called this hike "moderate." It definitely hasn't felt moderate. After a late start, we began at Resthouse trailhead near Echo Lake and made it only about five miles (plus a two-mile detour to Lincoln Lake) out of the 6.5 that was our goal. Maybe it's because I'm 20 pounds heavier than my old backpacking weight, or maybe because I haven't carried a pack or been above 9,000 feet in over a year (this hike tops out at 11,800), or maybe it's because much of the trail is a sludgy morass from all that rain/snow earlier this year, but this hike kicked my butt! I actually collapsed on the trail - walking downhill with a heavy backpack is hard on the legs, and mine just gave out.
Unsurprisingly, this meadow is full of mosquitos, the kind of mosquito my mother likes to call "Rodan," but we didn't have the light or energy to go further. I took care of the bug problem by lighting a fire in a fire ring a previous site occupant had left behind. I've always been a very minimal camper, so this was actually my second campfire ever, and the first one I've ever made myself! I didn't use any cool survivalist tricks, I carry a lighter for my pocket rocket, but I still had to collect kindling, arrange it, and tend it, feeding it larger and larger pieces of wood until it was roaring happily. We ate dinner next to the fire and let the smoke keep the bugs away.
Now I'm journaling and Dean is falling asleep. Some stars are coming out, I can see them through the mesh ceiling of my tent. I am going to read for a bit now. I hope it gets dark pretty soon, I'm afraid as soon as my head hits the sleeping pad, I'll be snoring.
June 20, 2015, 10:18pm
The Big Dipper! I wish I knew more constellations.
This portion of the trail was totally wiped out by this fast-running fairly deep waterfall!
Entering the Resthouse burn area, a 1,000-acre graveyard of sunbleached trees - the results of a careless campfire in 1964.
Lincoln Lake.
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