περιπλάνηση: Cjo Saturday

Saturday morning we were up with coffee and cheerios pouring over the Mt. Evans Wilderness chapter in The COMPLETE Guide to Colorado's Wilderness Areas by John Fielder and Mark Pearson (yes, COMPLETE almost made me not buy it, but it was John Fielder), trying to decide between the Chicago Lakes hike (4 miles one way) and the Beaver Meadows hike (8.5 round trip loop).

We agreed the Beaver Meadows hike sounded more appealing since we would be following the creek most of the way, so we headed for the mountains in search of Beaver Meadows.

Lots of coffee meant our first stop after the hour drive to Echo Lake was the restroom, which was a one spot hole in the ground. While Courtney took her turn, I enjoyed the bear warning sign which looked like it had a big bear paw swipe out of the bottom of it.

Then we set out around the lake looking for the Bear Meadows sign.

We spotted Chicago Lakes trail head, but kept on walking without a sign. It was about 9:45 and still very cool in the shade. We kept on going around to the Lodge to see if we could figure out the missing sign.

The view from the Lodge is always refreshing.

So first Courtney buys a trail map and we sit out on the steps to figure out what corner of the lake we are supposed to be setting out from. Then we go back inside and ask the lady who sold us the map why we can't find it anywhere. She looks at us funny, opens the map and folds it to a section we weren't even looking at, and says, that's probably a good 5 miles to the trail head.

So, Chicago Lakes it was.

After I got back and had time to review the chapter at my leisure, I realized it does say the trail originates from Camp Rock campground (not Echo Lake campground) but the map leads you to believe otherwise.

It wasn't but a few minutes into the hike that the vistas opened up and turned spectacular.

But the front of the hike is descent. Note how much higher I am above Cjo ahead of me on the trail. We dropped and dropped and dropped, with tight switchbacks turning us downward all the time. I occurred to us that the return was going to be brutal and it would be at the end of the day in the heat of the afternoon. We'd gotten a later start than we'd planned, so it was already 10:30 when we got to this point.

At the very bottom of the trail was an oasis at the creek, with great little falls and perfect shallows waiting to be waded through.

So, of course, in I went. I'd even packed a towel for just such an occasion!

Now, as you can see, we weren't the most efficient hikers, stopping for pictures and stream wading, and just soaking it all in. But this was so much more fun. However, it was noon and we'd already eaten the trail mix we'd packed along. (I'm always amazed at how good trail mix tastes during a hike.)

I'd almost just hiked in my running shoes, but decided to put up with the extra weight. I'm so glad I did. This was a very rocky trail, some with narrow, ankle bending angles. After getting my feet in the cold stream, it felt really good to tuck them back into my boots.

Another group of hikers had a 4 month old border collie pup along for the hike. He was soooo cute!

And we spotted a fossil. How long do you think that pop-top has been living in the forest?

Now for the honest part. I almost gave up after the creek when I saw the road that joined up with the trail. This sucker was seriously inclined, hot, and a mile long. Couldn't we just go back to the creek and play? I'm more of a leisurely wanderer, ya know?

But Cjo was cheerleading me up and onward. Here's her personality at this point:

And here's mine. I won't tell you what word I was saying here, but I guarantee it wasn't "cheese."

UP and UP.

And then . . . just when the road couldn't get any rockier and the incline could get steeper...

it leveled out at the reservoir, which was filled with cool winds off the water and a beautiful vista.

We stop to look at the map and reevaluate the rest of the afternoon. According to the trail map, to get up to Chicago Lakes is another 4 miles there, which also doesn't square with the book that gave us a total one way of four miles. It's already been two hours. To do another 8 miles and then the longer ascent back would be way more time that we were counting on.

So we took our pictures and promised ourselves that some day we'd get an early start, plenty of fuel, and less stops to make it all the way through the Chicago Lake hike. It just wouldn't be today.

On the way back, we stopped one more time for some water wading.

The color didn't turn out like I'd hoped, but I took a picture of the feet because they turned bright pink from the snowmelt-fed creek.

And then it was time to do the dreaded ascent.

We would climb and stop to catch our breath and then do it again. And again.

But what a view to reward ourselves with.

And suddenly we were back to the sign at 3:00 and ready to EAT.

So back to the Lodge we went.

The food here is good, but notoriously slow, so we amused ourselves taking pictures of the half dozen hummingbirds feeding right outside the window by our table.