Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Backpacking Day 1

Jo and I have been looking forward to backpacking for months now.  It's something that we both love to do, but we don't get to go often.  Actually, we only get to go once a year during the summer, which is a crying shame since we both love it so much.  There's just nothing like getting way out in the wilderness, far away from people and civilization.  Since I had to quit my job because of my four week field course (more on that later,) I simply quit a bit early for the backpacking trip.  We had five glorious days, Wednesday through Sunday, and we were both so excited!!!

In order to maximize our time out on the trail, we woke up super early to get a good start.  We're talking 4:30 am, early.  The spot we had picked was about 7 hours south, so we wanted to get going in order to have a good amount of time on the trail.  Jo, bless his heart, always drives first so I can continue sleeping.  I really try to stay awake to keep him company, but car rides lull me to sleep as it is, so if I'm sleep deprived, I simply can't do it.

The drive down was fine.  Nothing too crazy, nothing too memorable, just fine.  We did make a point to stop at our favorite RV park in the whole wide world, CORA.  We just love this place.  We may just have to retire there.  The driver of the red truck in the pic below probably thought we were crazy.



We hit up an outdoor store in Buena Vista for some dehydrated meals...



...then stopped at a gas station so I could put in my contacts.  While there, Jo bought what may be the best root beer in the world.  Henry Weinhard's.


And I got gum.


Then we made faces for the camera before hitting the road again.



We did have one more stop to make in Salida.  I hate to admit it, but it has to be said.  Yup, that's right.  Jo and I shopped at Walmart. 

We had to pick up a few things before the trip and it was the only place available, so we went in.  Immediately, so was overwhelmed by all the cheap, brightly colored goods on the endcaps.


The fake cheese aisle was a little too much to take; soon after this, we left.



We cleared our heads on the open road, and soon felt better.



Our last, last stop was in Creede, a cool little mountain town with a history steeped in mining.  We decided to have one last meal before hitting the trail.  We found this place.



It was really hard to miss.  Impossible to miss, actually.  The bright primary colors suckered us in; we decided to give it a try.


It was pretty awesome, actually.  First of all, look at these prices.  Nothing was too fancy, mind you.  But that's what made it so awesome.


They grilled your hotdog or hamburger (or veggie burger, in our case,) right outside.


I grabbed a picnic table while Jo grabbed the goods.


Next, you went inside to grab whatever fixins you wanted.


The final result was a simple, but delicious, meal.  No bells and whistles here. Just good food.


I had to take a picture of this cutie.  How very appropriate, right?


And this sweet fella' was waiting for mom, looking as cute as could be.


After taking a random shot of some flowers right outside the bathroom, we were off!  At this point we were less than an hour away, and Jo and I were more than ready to hit the trail.



After leaving Creede, we pulled off the highway and onto a little road, which soon turned to gravel.  We followed the road up into the forest.  After about 30 minutes, we reached the trail head.  We were the only car there.


As we were getting our packs ready, we kept hearing what sounded like an enraged moose out in the woods.  I was a bit freaked out, especially since it sounded like it was getting closer.  I kept looking into the woods, trying to find the moose.  Alas, it turned out that is was just this little cow, who seemed to be looking for his mom.  I hope he found her.



We posed for the camera...


...and then we were ready to go!  With thunder rumbling in the distance, we set off for the great unknown.



The first part of the trail took us through a meadow with pines and aspens in the distance.  The brown trees below were the victims of the mountain pine beetle.  Unfortunately, this is not the last picture with dead trees in it.  It really is a shame.


The aspens, however, were thriving, and caused the hillside to be a gorgeous lush green.  Jo and I agreed that it would be an amazing place to hike in the autumn.



About twenty minutes in, we officially entered our beloved Weminuche Wilderness.



"A wilderness, in contrast to those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."



Jo loves taking pictures of mountain streams.  Here's another one for his collection.



We followed this stream for quite awhile.  Here, we are looking down at it, admiring its sexy curves.



Gradually we left the meadow and headed into the aspen forest.  The first mile of the trail was flat, but then we started to descend pretty steeply.  I'm not a fan of downhill hiking because it hurts my knees, and we weren't expecting to be doing so much downhill right off the bat.  We plugged along.  Actually, I plugged along while Jo patiently waited for me.  I'm faster uphill than downhill, so he's always having to hold back when we go down.  He's very good about it and didn't make me feel rushed.



Along the way we found some wild strawberries.  We took a break to indulge in the little suckers.  Very tiny, as you can see, but the flavor is great.  Those teeny little guys pack a punch.



We continued hiking for about five miles.  Eventually, the downhill evened out and we started to hike on level ground again.  When we came to a meadow, we decided it would be a perfect spot for the tent.  We set up in the trees, with the meadow all layed out in front of us.  There was a river behind us that provided fresh water and a place to wash up. It was a perfect campsite.


We had hiked about six miles total, and were both very hungry.  Following proper wilderness guidelines, we prepared our food at least 100 ft away from our campground because of the bears.



Dinner that night was vegetable lasagna...


Fruit....

 and, of course, gorp...

Before I forget, can I just say that it is not the smartest idea in the world to take fresh fruit on a backpacking trip?  Sure, it's lovely to bite in to a crisp apple, or a juicy orange, after a long day of hiking, but fresh fruit is HEAVY!  Jo and I have decided that from now on, it's dried fruit or nothin'.
We hung a bear bag after we were done eating.  I wish I would have taken a picture...it was awesome.  After that, we cozied up in the tent and read until we got sleepy, which didn't take long.  It felt sososo good to be out on the trail, and both of us were so excited for the next day!

As a parting shot, here's Jo doing...actually I don't know what he's doing.  Being Jo, I suppose.


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