Day 39 Perfect Campground to Celebration Lake

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Mileage: 13 miles 

Chippity chip chippery! That means good morning in chipmunk talk. The chipmunks were mad this morning that we were camping in their homes. 

A view of the sunrise this morning 

The huge moon was still out 

Gone as the wind changes! Hobbit had to leave us this morning to finish the trail a day earlier. He had already booked a flight and needed to make it to Durango in time. The rest of is were on "vacation" (Pippy, Zippy, Sparkle, and Duke Harrison the dog) as we had no real time that we had to finish. So after emerging from our cocoons, doing our princess yawns, and jumping around to our dance video, we were ready to start our day of hiking. 

We began by what???... Oh yes climbing! 

The scenary of the mountain range had changed from a rocky, pointy grey to a green and red stratified dirt rolling mountains. 

Up and up we go 

The wildflower pose 

Gorgeous paintbrushes. The natural color of them are so vibrant 

Even the muddy rain puddles are so pretty with a beautiful reflection 

We emerge from the trees into alpine no-tree land 

Alpine lake with awesome reflections 

Intersection of the Colorado Trail with Engineer Mtn trail. That trail is a popular day hike/bike from Durango. About 12,972 ft at the top...not sure why it can't just be rounded up to 13,000 ft. So particular. 

Dun dun dun dah! The wheel of fortune girls displaying the hidden phrase of the day....can you guess what it should say?

We climbed through shaly rocks....

And oh yes! It started raining. So Sparkle put her hunchback of Norte dame uniform on to celebrate the rain 

Zippy and Pippy sported their Mary Popppins umbrellas. Here's the view of what we see when we have our umbrellas on..a.k.a. Staring at the ground with our heads down like mules 

Finally reached the top of our first climb of the day on the saddle of Rolling Mtn. About 12,300 ft or around there 

As we descended down into the next valley, we began hearing what sounded like hundreds of cows. Actually, as we got closer to the mountain "rocks", they turned out to be a huge herd of sheep!! They blend in so well!

We walked through another meadow and descended into another forest until we reached a....

An amazing cascading waterfall!!!

Here's a closer picture of the hidden, sacred waterfall

We were starving so we thought this would be a good place to have our lunch by the river. What's for lunch??? Beans of course! 

After our lunch spot, we came upon a golden meadow of "TP" plants. The leaves are super soft and supposedly great for using as toilet paper. Sparkle tried it with no side effects so there you go!

Not to mention, we also came upon another trail friend. Sparkle was about a 1/4 mile behind us on the trail and we heard a loud squel from the direction she was. First thought was that Sparkle had been abducted or Duke had been hurt. We froze in our tracks and started walking back and soon enough, we began hearing gabbing and laughing coming our way. A tall, lanky human being appeared behind Sparkle. It was our friend "Dr. NO"!!!!

 We first came upon Dr. No at the trailhead near Lake City about a week ago. He had just completed his hike for the day and was heading into town to resupply his food. We saw him lingering around and thought he might be in need of some water. So we said

"Hey! Were thru-hikers too! You need some water that you don't have to pump?" 

Dr. No: " No"

Us: " you need some food?"

Dr. No: "Noo"

Us: thinking in our mind 'what a grouch'. Pippy pulled out a banana and a protein bar and shoved it in his hand.

Dr. No: "Well, I'll take it"

Us: "Where are you going? Need a ride?"

Dr. No: "Noooooo. I'm not ready."

Us: "hmmm..  Okay well see you later!"

We rolled up our car windows and begin driving down the road alongside him. After 3 seconds of contemplation, we realized his name was Dr. No!!!! We drove away and simultaneously yelled "your name is Dr. No!!!!!!!!!!". He tried giving us the leftover banana peel and we said "Noooooo!". Muahaha! 

But the story doesn't end there....a day later we check into the local hostel in Lake City for the night and who do we see on the couch trying to blend in? It was Dr. No! 

But the story still doesn't end. Five days later in Silverton, sitting on a chair, drinking coffee, and texting on his phone is dun dun dun.....The Notorious Dr. No! We asked him if he wanted to hitch a ride with us back to the trailhead and can you guess what he said? You're right! He said "N0. I'm not ready." And that was that. We thought we would never see him again. But, the world has a way of being funny and ironic so of course we had to run into him again. 

Here's the infamous Dr. No in Silverton. He wasn't ready to go. Were doing the "No" face. 

The afternoon fog began settling in and transformed the day into a gloomy, Adams family one. 

The fog was low enough that the majestic peaks were still visible and picture friendly 

We finally arrived at our camp and set up our first vestibule to vestibule tent party with Sparkle. Pippy's blowing up her pillow while Sparkle is doing.... something. Smiling? Nice flat hair Pippy. 

We stayed under our vestibules for the remainder of the night as it started raining  soon after we set up camp. 

That's all for now folks!