Tuesday afternoon, June 26, a lightning strike hits the back side of Bear Peak, but soon smoke starts coming over the peak and blowing down through town. Through my clinic window, patient after patient gave us updates of the fire's progress. By Tuesday afternoon, it was too smoky to be in our house and we were on 'pre-evacuation' order. So Jason and Rachel quickly filled the car with our most important documents and a few overnight things, and we moved into our friends' home. Thanks to J, R, and A Fernandez for hosting us at the last minute.
Wed things looked a little better, but we weren't sure what would happen. So we moved another couple of car loads to our new temporary home, including all the stuff for our backpacking trip so we could pack and prepare. By Thursday I was losing my voice and coughing quite a bit, very irritated by the smoke, and canceled all my afternoon patients because I was coughing so much.
Thurs night June 28 Jason's sister Karen arrived at the Denver airport. Although, by this time, all seemed well and we were allowed to return home, we stayed at the Fernandez household anyway because all our stuff was now there!
For photos of this trip, click HERE
FRIDAY JUNE 29: Drive to Aspen, get to trailhead, hike 1.8 miles to Crater Lake
Packed up, drove to Aspen without much trouble (5 hr drive), then searched for the shuttle bus. We were not sure where to catch the shuttle - we heard several incorrect things and knew that the road was closed to cars during the day. Eventually figured it out, parking at Highlands, paying $6 each for the bus, and getting on it. A nice 25 min tour of the area to the trail head. Baby marmots at the trail head and beautiful Maroon Lake beneath the 14,000+ft Maroon Bells. Hiked up to Crater Lake, which was hard enough for a first day. Rachel did really well in the pack. Found camping near the lake without any trouble and ended up at spot # 8 of a possible 11 sites. Made dinner, set up tents, went to bed. Rachel refused to sleep in her sleeping bag and fell asleep at the foot of the tent after many attempts to get her to sleep. She slept well throughout the night, and strangely slept in until about 6:30am!!
SATURDAY JUNE 30: 9 mile hike from Crater Lake, over 2 passes, and camp in Fravert Basin
Out of camp by about 8:45am, fill up water and treat it at creek. Lots of beautiful scenery, lots of climbing, lots of creeks all around for water. Up up up we went... and it seemed the first pass - Maroon Pass - never came. Stopped for lunch below the pass at a small snowfield. Up and over the pass with Rachel doing great the whole time - minimal children's songs and rhymes needed to keep her happy in the pack. Jason took Rachel at the top of the pass because the descent was steep and windy. Into the valley between the two peaks and pushing our tired bodies up toward Frigid Air Pass. The last 100ft was a real steep push and every step was a chore. Karen did an amazing job for someone coming from sea level with no chance to acclimatize! Each of the 4 passes on this hike is over 12,000ft. Stopped and rested on the top of the pass before descending down. We were out of water and it was getting later and we were tired by this point. We really wanted to find water to drink and a place to put our two tents. Finally, as some rain started to fall on us, we found a place to camp. Sadly there were loads of flies and mosquitoes. Rachel slept well in her own sleeping bag all night and slept in again, until almost 7am!
SUNDAY JULY 1: 8 mile hike from Fravert Basin over Trail Rider Pass to past Snowmass Lake
Out of camp with good weather, we hiked our tired bodies down to King Falls and then started our long climb back up. After a fun creek crossing, the sweat started pouring as the trail seemed to go straight up. The sun hit us hard and we never seemed to level out. Jason had to take Rachel's pack for this climb and it was definitely the steepest trail on the whole hike. We had lunch at the turnoff to Geneva Lake before hitting a lovely alpine valley and pushing through the last climb to the top of the pass. Our descent was lovely toward Snowmass Lake - simply gorgeous. We hiked about a mile past Snowmass Lake and found primitive camping on the side of the trail before the marsh below the next pass climb started (Buckskin). Shortly after we set up camp, we heard helicopters and planes overhead and figured another fire was in the area. Since we couldn't do anything about it or learn about it, we ate dinner and went to sleep. Rachel slept quite well again, sometimes in and sometimes out of her bag. She does take up a great deal of tent space, spreading herself out all over while we, afraid to wake her, shrink into one side of the tent.
MONDAY JULY 2: 7 mile hike from bottom of Buckskin to Maroon Lake and drive home
We decided that if we could make it out and home today, we would, although we had initially thought we would camp one more night and drive home Tuesday. Our climb up to the top of Buckskin seemed much easier than we expected. Maybe our packs were lighter or we were better acclimated, but it seemed far less steep on this side than the other 3 passes. We hit the top by 12 noon and then started down... and down... and down... and down. The down never seemed to end and we were so thankful we were not going up. Rachel did really well in the pack, entertaining herself with trees, deer, marmots, chipmunks, creeks, and logs. Our legs were hurting with all the down and we picked up the pace hoping to make the shuttle bus and get home. At 3:10pm we made it back to Maroon Lake and caught the 3:20pm shuttle with 200 other people as it started to downpour.
We changed into fresh clothes at the car and drove to Buena Vista for dinner before making it home for bed. Aunt Karen did a great job of entertaining Rachel in the car seat on our long drive to keep her relatively happy.
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