Friday, 28th
Flat top Mountain
This is the big one.
We’d learned a little lesson about overpacking on our Sky Pond trip. The weather was supposed to be dry and warm, and without the severe winds we had on Tuesday.
So we left our fleecies and rain jackets at camp, and brought 5 litter s of water, extra socks, and extra T shirts, because even with the dry weather, your back gets soaking wet with a 25 lb pack on it on a sunny day. Lots of GORP and fruit, too.
We predicted a 7 - 8 hour hike. The Flat top Mountain trail starts at the same location as our first hike on Sunday, what I call the Three Lakes hike, which is the most popular and accessible hike in the park. But the Flat Top Mt. hike ends up about 4 times higher, with some spectacular views of the lakes thousands of feet below, and ends above Tyndall Glacier, which we walked on and threw a rock at.
The reason we made this our last hike is because it’s climbing up A WHOLE MOUNTAIN! The trails are all very well maintained. But c’mon… a MOUNTAIN!
Also, when we were here 6 years ago, we attempted this hike but got turned back by the daily rain and lightening that usually occurs in the Rockies. Every day at noon, storm clouds typically form, the rocks literally buzz with static electricity, and the finger of god pokes down hunting for hikers to fry. In the tundra, above tree line, hikers are the closest thing for the lightening to zap.
So this time we woke up at 5:45, and got up to the trail head by 7:30, despite the road construction. We did this so we could get below tree line before noon.
You meet the nicest people on the trail. And some characters, too. But mostly really nice, college-educated, polite. But… hmmm… how do I say this. You know me (Brad), so when I say I’m just going to blurt it out, you might forgive me in advance. So I’ll just say it: White. Nothing but white folks everywhere, as far as the eye could see. White at camp, white on the mountains, white in the town. I literally saw just one black guy, and that was in Boulder. And he was wearing pajamas in the day time with a very strange spandex hat on. LOTS of (extremely fit) gay couples, asians, a surprising number of fat and even obese people… even a Samoan family. No black people. Why? I don’t know! Discuss amongst yourselves.
I mentioned before that literally everybody says “hi” on the trail. This time we met a lot of couples and had some great chats, probably because the elevation forced almost everybody to take long, regular breaks. Everybody except that guy who actually RAN UP THE MOUNTAIN.
A “thing” to on a mountain hike, about 3 to 5 times on any trip, is to take pictures of other couples or groups with their cameras. It’s a bonding experience.
We met a Boing engineer and his grade school teacher wife from Arizona who drove up on their Gold Wing motorcycle (insert as many motorcycle technical specifications as you can say without taking a breath in 15 seconds here). Again, very fit and in their mid-50’s.
There was the Texas couple. The guy was Meat Loaf large, but he made it all the way up! They had 3 kids back at the cabin with their father, and they trained with a 30 lb kid on their backs for 1 day. I can guarantee that his calves will hurt so much that he won’t be able to get a sandwich from the refrigerator without a walker for a week. Again… super friendly. I hope for his quick recovery.
Finally, we met a guy from Watertown Wisconsin, wearing a Lake Mills marathon T-shirt. He told us how time shares work, and helped me figure out that there is no way that I can afford one.
30 years as a police officer, 15 as a teacher, he’s collecting 2 pensions and now owns The Health Nut, a health food store in Watertown, with his wife, also a retired school teacher. SUPER nice guy.
Actually met a young man from the USGS (United States Geological Survey). Just in Colorado 1 month from Tennessee, he was taking readings on the high mountain lakes. Totally loaded down with gear, including an inflatable raft, as well as 20 lbs of dreads. I’ll say it again… super nice guy.
Oh, and that reminds me: Lots of teenagers, groups, couples and solo hikers. Friendly, outgoing, polite, and occasionally noisy. But MAN, they don’t even breathe hard I swear. I saw just ONE teenager with iPod headphones… and he was the guy running up the mountain.
So we finally made it up and down our nemesis mountain. My feet were sore, and Vicki’s knees and hip were too. A little bit of ibuprofen after pizza and ice cream, and we were right as rain/fit as a fiddle/hunky dory. Okay, we were beat, too.
Speaking of pizza, after this last hike we found this weird but awesome little wood fired pizza place just a block outside of tiny town Estes. Eating our pizza next to the window for about 15 minutes, what do we see…
Do you remember the opening credits for the TV show Northern Exposure? Remember the shot of the moose ambling down the road? That’s what we saw, but replace the moose with a very, very large Elk with giant, fuzzy antlers. He just kept walking towards down town. “Oh yea, we see that pretty regularly. That was a big one”, the pizza guy said.
It was all quite an adventure. This vacation did what I think any vacation is supposed to do, it took us out of our comfort zone, and even made us feel kind of out of place and time. It was a trip. We weren’t looking just to go someplace novel, look around, spend some money then come back home. We wanted real experiences with actual challenges. This time.
Checking each other, we agree that this week’s experiences, with the perfectly sunny weather every day and night, did what we hoped and expected and we’re pretty dang happy and content, and ready to head back home. The 2 months of walking up steps for an hour each and walking back and forth to work paid off, and neither of us got hurt.
So Friday afternoon we had plenty of time to pack at a leisurely rate. Driving down the twisty-turny, Vicki got the chance for one last look at all of the dramatic cliffs, drop offs and other mountain terrain. You’ve really got to take this road some time. It’s amazing. We said good by to the mountains.
As we started packing we noticed the first dark clouds in a week forming over the mountains. As we finished packing, the first drops started to fall. “Awww, Colorado is sad that we’re going”.
An hour later and into the third wave of hail, 50 mile an hour winds, trees falling and torrential rain, we agreed that Colorado was actually pretty pissed we were leaving.
We’d learned a little lesson about overpacking on our Sky Pond trip. The weather was supposed to be dry and warm, and without the severe winds we had on Tuesday.
So we left our fleecies and rain jackets at camp, and brought 5 litter s of water, extra socks, and extra T shirts, because even with the dry weather, your back gets soaking wet with a 25 lb pack on it on a sunny day. Lots of GORP and fruit, too.
We predicted a 7 - 8 hour hike. The Flat top Mountain trail starts at the same location as our first hike on Sunday, what I call the Three Lakes hike, which is the most popular and accessible hike in the park. But the Flat Top Mt. hike ends up about 4 times higher, with some spectacular views of the lakes thousands of feet below, and ends above Tyndall Glacier, which we walked on and threw a rock at.
The reason we made this our last hike is because it’s climbing up A WHOLE MOUNTAIN! The trails are all very well maintained. But c’mon… a MOUNTAIN!
Also, when we were here 6 years ago, we attempted this hike but got turned back by the daily rain and lightening that usually occurs in the Rockies. Every day at noon, storm clouds typically form, the rocks literally buzz with static electricity, and the finger of god pokes down hunting for hikers to fry. In the tundra, above tree line, hikers are the closest thing for the lightening to zap.
So this time we woke up at 5:45, and got up to the trail head by 7:30, despite the road construction. We did this so we could get below tree line before noon.
You meet the nicest people on the trail. And some characters, too. But mostly really nice, college-educated, polite. But… hmmm… how do I say this. You know me (Brad), so when I say I’m just going to blurt it out, you might forgive me in advance. So I’ll just say it: White. Nothing but white folks everywhere, as far as the eye could see. White at camp, white on the mountains, white in the town. I literally saw just one black guy, and that was in Boulder. And he was wearing pajamas in the day time with a very strange spandex hat on. LOTS of (extremely fit) gay couples, asians, a surprising number of fat and even obese people… even a Samoan family. No black people. Why? I don’t know! Discuss amongst yourselves.
I mentioned before that literally everybody says “hi” on the trail. This time we met a lot of couples and had some great chats, probably because the elevation forced almost everybody to take long, regular breaks. Everybody except that guy who actually RAN UP THE MOUNTAIN.
A “thing” to on a mountain hike, about 3 to 5 times on any trip, is to take pictures of other couples or groups with their cameras. It’s a bonding experience.
We met a Boing engineer and his grade school teacher wife from Arizona who drove up on their Gold Wing motorcycle (insert as many motorcycle technical specifications as you can say without taking a breath in 15 seconds here). Again, very fit and in their mid-50’s.
There was the Texas couple. The guy was Meat Loaf large, but he made it all the way up! They had 3 kids back at the cabin with their father, and they trained with a 30 lb kid on their backs for 1 day. I can guarantee that his calves will hurt so much that he won’t be able to get a sandwich from the refrigerator without a walker for a week. Again… super friendly. I hope for his quick recovery.
Finally, we met a guy from Watertown Wisconsin, wearing a Lake Mills marathon T-shirt. He told us how time shares work, and helped me figure out that there is no way that I can afford one.
30 years as a police officer, 15 as a teacher, he’s collecting 2 pensions and now owns The Health Nut, a health food store in Watertown, with his wife, also a retired school teacher. SUPER nice guy.
Actually met a young man from the USGS (United States Geological Survey). Just in Colorado 1 month from Tennessee, he was taking readings on the high mountain lakes. Totally loaded down with gear, including an inflatable raft, as well as 20 lbs of dreads. I’ll say it again… super nice guy.
Oh, and that reminds me: Lots of teenagers, groups, couples and solo hikers. Friendly, outgoing, polite, and occasionally noisy. But MAN, they don’t even breathe hard I swear. I saw just ONE teenager with iPod headphones… and he was the guy running up the mountain.
So we finally made it up and down our nemesis mountain. My feet were sore, and Vicki’s knees and hip were too. A little bit of ibuprofen after pizza and ice cream, and we were right as rain/fit as a fiddle/hunky dory. Okay, we were beat, too.
Speaking of pizza, after this last hike we found this weird but awesome little wood fired pizza place just a block outside of tiny town Estes. Eating our pizza next to the window for about 15 minutes, what do we see…
Do you remember the opening credits for the TV show Northern Exposure? Remember the shot of the moose ambling down the road? That’s what we saw, but replace the moose with a very, very large Elk with giant, fuzzy antlers. He just kept walking towards down town. “Oh yea, we see that pretty regularly. That was a big one”, the pizza guy said.
It was all quite an adventure. This vacation did what I think any vacation is supposed to do, it took us out of our comfort zone, and even made us feel kind of out of place and time. It was a trip. We weren’t looking just to go someplace novel, look around, spend some money then come back home. We wanted real experiences with actual challenges. This time.
Checking each other, we agree that this week’s experiences, with the perfectly sunny weather every day and night, did what we hoped and expected and we’re pretty dang happy and content, and ready to head back home. The 2 months of walking up steps for an hour each and walking back and forth to work paid off, and neither of us got hurt.
So Friday afternoon we had plenty of time to pack at a leisurely rate. Driving down the twisty-turny, Vicki got the chance for one last look at all of the dramatic cliffs, drop offs and other mountain terrain. You’ve really got to take this road some time. It’s amazing. We said good by to the mountains.
As we started packing we noticed the first dark clouds in a week forming over the mountains. As we finished packing, the first drops started to fall. “Awww, Colorado is sad that we’re going”.
An hour later and into the third wave of hail, 50 mile an hour winds, trees falling and torrential rain, we agreed that Colorado was actually pretty pissed we were leaving.
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