Sunday –
Missy decided to go hike the Ice Lake Basin Trail
today. This trailhead is right by the
pay campground at the end of our forest road.
It seemed like it was a popular hike, because each time we rode our bike
to the campground that parking lot was always full. We had a brochure that showed the trail on a
map, but it didn’t give any information about how long the trail was. Since I was feeling lazy, Missy went
pioneering by herself (well, not completely by herself because Cassie went
along).
While Missy was away hiking, I was getting busted by the
fuzz. Kinda. Today was the end of our allowed 14 days,
and at 3 pm the ranger came by. I
explained our issue with the tire and how it won’t be here until
Wednesday. He seemed like he wasn’t too
excited, but in the end he said he understood that emergencies happen. I chatted him up a bit and we parted on good
terms. When I told him how we’d been
looking for the rapid from our book, he was shocked that Lime Creek road was
listed as a run in printed literature.
He knows it, of course, because it’s part of his beat (there are free
campground sites on that road). I guess
he’s never seen kayakers there and I showed him the pages describing the run so
he’d know what we’d been looking for.
Strange. The book did mention
that getting on this run is tricky. You
need perfect luck to find the sweet spot whereby there’s adequate snow run-off,
but yet not too much snow that the road is unpassable. Stupid Lime Creek Road.
Missy came back limping and busted up at dinner time. She had a minor accident on the way back to
the car, within sight of the car.
Tee-hee. Is it mean to
laugh? She said she looked up from the
trail for a second and then stepped on a rock, which twisted her
weak-as-newborn-kitten’s ankle and caused her to skid in the gravel. She has a nice road rash on her shin. She also had tales of an amazing trail.
We looked this up later, but we found that this trail is
described as having the best views in Colorado. That’s really saying something. Missy said the hike was amazeballs. You get to start out in the forest, and make
your way up and into clearings with 360 degree views. Then you go back into the forest for
peekaboo views of cliffs and waterfalls.
The climb is just as high as our
epic mountain climb from earlier. So
it’s tough and slow going on the way up.
Missy mentioned the weird behavior of mosquitos on the upper forest
trail. She said when she stopped for
breaks, they would swarm her and she’d be covered. But as soon as she started climbing again,
they disappeared. Missy had to turn
around before she made it to the end of the trail because we had dinner
plans. But since this hike sounded so
incredible, I was determined to hike to Ice Lake the next day.
Monday-
For some reason, we got up super early today. Since it’s cold in the mornings, we passed
some time playing scrabble. I wanted to
wait until it got to at least 50 degrees before heading out for my turn on
ILBT. I finally got underway at 9. The weather was perfect, and the trail was
mostly empty. (On Missy’s hike, she
passed lots of people). This hike…is
incredible. What an awesome display of
nature, just there for the taking!
-Such a surreal experience…the trail in spots was so narrow
and was perched next to a sheer drop-off that you literally could not take your
eyes off the trail. I once foolishly
tried to look up and around at the mountains, and I almost went down the drop-off. Strange to have to actually stop if you
wanted to take in the scenery.
-It was amusing to see that Missy described the mosquitos
correctly. I’ve never seen anything like
it. On that super steep section, I’d be
sucking wind after 10-15 feet. But like
Missy said, if you stopped moving, the squitos came out. But when I got moving again, I was sooooooo
slow. There’s no way a MN mosquitos
wouldn’t have gotten me while I was moving.
I wonder why they didn’t attack when I was moving? It turned out to be a great motivator to get
your butt in gear again quickly!
-After 1hour50minutes, I finally made it to the huge basin
clearing and ice lake. Or so I
thought. At that point, there wasn’t
any one around. I knew there were 2
teenage girls ahead of me, but I didn’t see them anywhere. I finally decided they must have made it to
the tent that was across the meadow. I
sat down to enjoy the day, and then I spotted 2 ants moving up the mountain
across the way. It was the hikers…the
trail continued on! I was bummed that
I wasn’t at the end of the trail, but I wasn’t at all tempted to go on. The proportions in Colorado can be
mindbending. While the meadow and the
opposing cliff seemed small and intimate, the meadow must have been a mile across. (Basing this on several other pairs of hikers
who came along and how long it took them to cross). As we read later, the trail makes a
dramatic and somewhat dangerous turn up at that point. You gain a ridiculous amount of elevation in
a short period, and have to manage it on a scree-type surface. I sat in the basin for almost an hour, and
those girl hikers never came back along down.
So it’s got to be a long way to the end of the trail. Later, I googled the hike (to see the trail
map and deets on distance and elevation).
It sounds like I missed out on even more amazing stuff, with cascading
waterfalls and fields of wildflowers.
Drat. (Here’s the link, if you
are inspired to learn more: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/497596
)
-I have to say, not having a snowpack this year is a mixed
blessing. While it sucks to not be able
to kayak…without this dry patch we would not be able to enjoy these fantastic
hikes. As the ranger pointed out to
me…usually at this time of the year, this campground and the trails are still
snow covered. So we’ll take the pain of
no flowage in exchange for enjoying Colorado on dry land!
Tuesday-
Our last day at Sultan camp. Sniff.
It will be tough to leave this amazing site. To commemorate our last day, we drove to the
end of the road and parked to walk up the creek. This is the same hike that Missy did way back
at the beginning of our stay. It was hot
today, so a waterfalls hike is just the refreshing activity called for. I had seen the pictures from Missy’s hike,
but like I’ve been saying all along, pictures just don’t do justice. I was delighted with the hike, each level up
offering a new waterfall and a new vista to the ones we’d just visited. We spent a couple of hours enjoying the
views and hiking up and down the couple hundred yard stretch. I really started to get sad as I looked
around at the views for the last time.
I worry that no place we visit in the future will compare with our time
in with our time in Colorado. Are we
spoiled for the rest of the country? I
did posit that perhaps we wouldn’t care so much about surroundings if we found
a place with whitewater. :-) I would have been happy to spend the rest of
the day staring at the water, but Missy got whiny about the mosquitos and
biting flies. So we headed back for
camp.
Tomorrow morning we will pack up
and move to a private campground in town.
We will dump our tanks, possibly fill up on water (depending on if our
next destination has water or not), do laundry and take long hot showers. We will research and make a final decision
on where to head next. We will also get
our new tire installed. Thanks to the
National Forest Service for sponsoring these 17 days in paradise!
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