Elevation: 12,800 at peak
Distance: 14.8 plus 1.5 from jeep access road to start if trail,
Duration: Nine hours!!!😁
So. Since we have a pimped out ride in
a Lincoln navigator, "Hobbit" kindly offered us the option to hike a section of the trail without all of stuff.. How cool is that? He dropped us off at the designated trail head with bare minimals In our packs..it was glorious to only have about 10 pounds on our back... It was only water , and snacks.
But first , we stayed in a cute cozy motel in Creede. Here is Hobbit and Pippy making our delicious ( cough , cough ) trail dinner .. Yummy .
The night was very long... We had "locals only" bunking up in the next room.. And they played bebop bass music from the 80's until( helloow) 3:39 am.
Consequently we got up early and had breakfast at this table and met 91 year old Homer. Harvard graduate and is on the road preaching about the "good of life" so to speak .
Could not resist a picture with him. He is driving across the states .,.alone.
We visited with him for an hour,and listened to his life stories .. Wished we could have stayed longer. Wise wisdom with eloquence is never to be passed up.
And now back to the trail.,..we thought without all if that extra weight , we could hike 16 miles.. And what were we thinking ??? I mean it was high elevation up to 12,900 feet. Yup, it was a very loooong hike. We finished at 8:30 PM!!
However, the views once again were amazing . Here are some of the "high-lights" of our day.
Uhhh.. Do you see the trail book on the front hood of the car??? That little water logged book is like our bible. Without that little book, we are toast. Thankfully we saw it before it flew away with the butterflies.
Of course Pippy is on the lead . This is the start of our trail...
Zippy stood long enough to do her zippy pose... She always stands the same.
We climbed up and over this 13,000 foot mountain... Then, we went down into a valley ... Only to repeat that sequence 4 more times!! The best thing about this type of backpacking adventure is that you never know what lies ahead. No time to whine about the ekevation change
.. You just do it.
Pippy traversing across this mountain. Yep, that is snow you see.
Our view at around 12,000 feet
At the top !! Woo hoo. 12,800 feet and toes..🐻🌸🌸
On the other side, and then down into the valley.
High elevation displays more wild flowers!!🌸
Elephants head..,see the ears and forehead of an elephant?
Indian paint brush
Kings crown, grown in high ekevation(12,00 feet) and resembles the crown of royalty.
Love , love all of the butterflies !! Looks like a cats eye .
The top of the valley with zippy walking up and over with what looks like she is stepping onto a bluff of clouds.
More fliowers on the other side of the mountain bluff.
Pippy making her way up the hill. Cool shot.
Whew! What a view. But now we go down.. And zippy is contemplating the decent.
Ahhhh.. Look how special!!! Check out Pippy's pant leg?? Not going there.😳
Meadows like this were full of wildflowers for as far and your eye could see.
And then like a mirage, we spy "Hobbit"! He decided to hike the trail backwards to meet up with us.
Back together again!!😊
See how very small "Hobbit" is??
Pippy and a Hobbit leading.. Don't even try to pass Pippy .
Did we mention that our hike llasted for 9 hours?? We got to see the sun go down as we hiked .
Ist this point, we had 5 more miles to go-go.
And then finally ... The forever never ending lonnnnng decent down-down-down. Talk about knee buckling gumby jello legs.
And the sunset was spectacular ..even though every cracking noise we heard made us visualize a monster bear stalking us. Bring on the bear bells.🐻
Our final view in our delirium state.. And yes, it really was this late.. 8:30 pm
Off to our hostel for the night.. See you in the morning.☀️
Great shots of the late afternoon vista, good light. Light packs are the bomb!
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