An 18 Mile Adventure Across the National Park August 20, 2008

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life.  Yes, I’m hurting a lot today, but it was all worth it.  Everyone here has their “big hike”.  This one was mine.  An 18 mile trek from one side of the National Park to the other.  This hike starts at Bear Lake, summits on top of Flattop Mountain at over 12,000ft, and then descends across the national divide and into the valley, ending at Grand Lake.  I completed this hike with two of my coworkers and friends–Larissa and Ian.

We had to start early in the morning, so we agreed to meet in Howard Lobby at 5:30AM.  I was the first one there, and Larissa quickly followed.  She then told me a funny thing that happened to her last night.  “Ian knocked on my door at 5AM, wearing full out Joker makeup!  He asked if we were still going on the hike!”  Apparently, Ian went to a party the night before our hike where the theme where everyone at the party painted their faces like the Joker from the movie The Dark Knight. Larissa said that we were still going, but that he should go back to his room and wash his face.  Even so, when he came to meet us in the Lobby, he still had the dark black circles around his eyes and the red joker smile across his face.  Larissa and I chucked to ourselves and decided it was good enough.  We hoped into Larissa’s car and drove to the Bear Lake trail head.

The sun was just coming up as we started our hike.  It was the coldest I had ever been this year in Colorado.  Luckily, Larissa brought an extra hat and gloves that she let me borrow.  We knew the first 5 miles of the hike were going to be the hardest, as we had to climb Flattop Mountain.  We started off at a good pace, probably hiking two miles per hour.  As we got above tree line however, I started to feel the effects of the altitude.  I was having a really hard time catching my breath and it was very difficult keeping my balance.  Since it had snowed a couple of days ago, there was also a lot of ice and snow along the trail, which didn’t make things any easier.  Ian decided that he was going to run ahead to the top of Flattop, but Larissa stayed behind and helped me along.  Larissa kept asking me, “Are you sure you’re going to make it?”  I answered, “I’m determined to make it.  It’s all downhill after this mountain.”  And sure enough, we did make it. It took us an hour longer to summit than we had anticipated.  I was worried Ian would be upset me with, but when we found him at the top of the mountain, he was asleep on a rock!  He was grateful for the nap and feeling more energetic for the rest of the hike.  A hiker passed us on top of the mountain and we asked her if she could take our picture (you may be able to make out Ian’s makeup if you look closely).

The next part of the hike was the most fun.  We followed the North Inlet trail down the backside of Flattop into the valley below.  There were breathtaking views all around us, and the freshly fallen snow only added to the beauty.  Running around the rocks were cute animals called pikas, which were too fast for me to get a picture of.  The trail was very well marked with carins (pronounced like my name), which are piles of rocks hikers construct keep other hikers on path, and to protect the fragile tundra from being trampled.  The carins on this trail were very tall, in some cases four feet high–very unusual. Below are two pictures of Ian and Larissa, each with carins behind them.  They remind me of prehistoric goal posts.

We were all in a great mood already, and then Ian spotted a  rare site–a herd of bighorn sheep! We continued on the trail until we were about 80ft from the herd.  We sat down, snapped pictures, and observed these fun animals for at least 20 minutes.  The horn of the bighorn sheep never stops growing and is made of keratin, the same material in our fingernails.  We could tell some of these sheep were very old by the size of their horns.  I took numerous pictures, but here are a few of my favorite.A

As we descended into the valley, we bumped into about 20 park rangers who were renovating parts of the trail.  We said “hello” and “good work” and continued on our way.  The more we elevation we lost, the more the scenery changed.  We went from alpine tundra to bushy chaparral to pine shaded forests in about two hours.  The final eight miles of the trail was all forest, but it did walk along a heavy flowing river. As we got more into the west side of the park, we could see how the pine beetle epidemic has really killed many of the trees.  They say that in about 5 years, 80-90% of the pine trees in the park will be dead.

I’d say by mile 15, we were all starting to go a little crazy.  Larissa and I started humming catchy theme songs to famous movies, which I’m sure annoyed Ian.  I also started a game I like to play with people while hiking called “Would You Rather”.  I would ask “would you rather…” and then pick two situations that could never happen in real life.  For example, one that started a lot of light hearted conversation was “would you rather have the ability to breath fire, or tickle people with your mind?  Both of these super powers can be controlled.”  Larissa would want to breathe fire, and Ian and I agreed tickling people with your mind would be too much fun.  This game helped us forget about how much or feet hurt and gave us that extra bit of help for the home stretch.  With about half a mile to go, Larissa and I decided to put our feet in the river. The water was icy cold, probably from all the recent snow melt, but it felt so good!

When we finally made it to the Grand Lake trail head, Ian threw his hat in the air in victory!  Now all we had to do was wait for our ride.  Our coworker and friend Caroline generously offered to pick us up.  We really appreciated this, especially since it’s about an hour and a half drive from the Y to the trail head. We all agreed we would go out to eat at a really good Mexican restaurant and we would buy Caroline her dinner.  All three exhausted hikers decided to take a short nap while we waited for Caroline.  However, we were resting on concrete with us our hiking packs as a pillow, so I didn’t sleep at all.  I gave up on sleeping and sat up.  As I did, I looked over towards the trail head, and there was a red fox!  I gently poked Larissa and Ian, saying “FOX! FOX! FOX!”  Larissa and I hopped up with our cameras and followed it down the road.  Larissa was able to snap a picture, but I was too slow.  It was an amazing last chapter to our wonderful hike.  As we chased the fox down the road, we saw Caroline pull up.  Perfect timing! Wonderful hike, wonderful company, and a wonderful Mexican dinner by Grand Lake.  What more could a girl ask for?

Ibuprofen I guess…