12/31/96
- Snowshoe trek to Mills Lake with George & Margaret
(drainage route)
12/29/96 -
Snowshoe trek to Mills Lake (drainage route)
11/30/96
- Snowshoe trek to Mills Lake with Darci and Darren
11/25/96
- Moonlight snowshoe trek with Ernie
Yikes, again?! Couldn't resist. Last hike of 1996. Conditions were great and I invited my across the street neighbors to go on the spur of the moment. Warm, about 32F, almost no wind, even at Mills Lake, which is usually pretty windy. Met another fella named Bob Binard and we helped each other take some pictures. Here are his: one and two. He took the one of us at right. Though it might not look it, the lake is frozen solid and we walked all the way across it lengthwise. Met a couple of backpackers that were headed up towards Black Lake to camp. On the way down, we saw Dan again (!) skiing down from Black Lake. We had a lot of fun.
Took a quick trip up to Mills via the drainage. The route was in great shape, with at least a foot more snow than the last time I was there with Ernie (see below). There was a well-packed single trail up the drainage with none of the iffy stream crossings and stuff. Warm weather (not much below freezing. Saw Dan, from Outdoor World, cross-country skiing with friends from Outdoor World on the trail. Neat to see someone you know on the trail. There's probably 2.5 to 3 feet of snow now above 9000 feet. Look at the photos below with the hitching post in them. The snow is now up to the bottom of the horizontal beams now!
Darci and Darren were here for Thanksgiving and when I told them about snowshoeing, they expressed an interest since neither had ever tried it. We decided to go up into Glacier Gorge aways to see how they like it. The conditions were very good, as we'd just gotten about 10" of fresh snow in RMNP. We rented some snowshoes and headed for the Glacier Gorge TH. When we hit the trail at around noon, it was probably about 25F. In the first 10 or 15 minutes, we stopped a couple of times to adjust snowshoe bindings, and then worked steadily up to Alberta Falls. I pointed out the drainage, but we decided not to go up that way on their first outing.
We paused briefly at Alberta Falls, then went on up to where I took Tony and Karen. The snow conditions were so good that we decided to go on farther, perhaps as far as Mills Lake, since this was only about another 1.1 miles. We saw lots of other snowshoers and cross-country skiers as we went up.
We stopped at the trail junction hitching post for coffee and a snack and then quickly got back on the trail as it was very cold, now about 15F. As we approached Mills Lake it got even colder and the wind whipped up a lot of snow. As we got to the lake, the wind was just brutal. Probably 30mph and the temp was down to about 5 degrees. We walked out onto the surface of the lake, took a couple of pictures and then left at about 3:00pm as we were getting very cold. Here's a pic of Darci and Mike, and one of Darci and Darren standing on frozen Mills Lake.
Our hike down was beautiful and uneventful. As we reached the end of the trail at about 4:30pm, it started snowing, so we were glad to be done for the day! Darci and Darren both enjoyed their first snowshoe outing.
Many times during my short hiking career I’ve heard of people who did hikes at night during the full moon. Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) even sponsors evening hikes each month during the full moon. Also, since I first tried snowshoeing just two weeks before, I was naturally interested in a moonlight showshoe trip.
I talked with my friend Ernie Petrocine (a life-long Estes Park local) about doing a hike and we agreed that going up into Glacier Gorge would be a good trek even though it was pretty early in the season. Ernie prefers cross-country skis over snowshoes and he was interested in seeing how compatible a skier and ‘shoer would be on the same trip.
Our trek actually began much earlier in the day when Ernie and I met to talk about the development of a website for two clothing stores he works with. After that meeting, we went to a Chinese restaurant for some food, and from there, Ernie and I went to the local Internet Computer Users Group. After that, we changed into our cold weather gear headed into RMNP and the Glacier Gorge trailhead.
As we drove into the Park, we saw brilliant clear skies with a temperature of about 30 degrees (F). We didn’t see another car on the road the entire time we were in the park! We arrived at the TH at about 9:45pm and prepared to hit the trail. After packing up and strapping on our equipment, we headed up the summer trail into Glacier Gorge. There was about 12" of snow on the trail and it was fairly well packed. I immediately started having trouble with the bindings on my snowshoes and kept having to stop to fix them.
Soon, we reached a turnoff on the trail that went up into what Ernie called "the drainage," the area between Glacier Knobs where the creek comes down from the higher areas of the Gorge. This less-used trail immediately got steeper, snowier, and we were constantly criss-crossing the creek as we worked our way up. Here the snow had piled up to 18" to 24" of snow and powder, but hadn’t covered up the still running creek. This was quite a bit more work than I’d experienced on my two previous snowshoe outings and despite the fact that the temps had dropped to about 25 degrees F, we started working up quite a sweat. Soon we stopped to shed our shells so we wouldn’t overheat. I was so warm that I even put away my gloves and hat (even though it was cold enough for ice to have started forming on my beard/mustache).
I was still having way more trouble with my snowshoes than I’d experienced before. In fact I felt like kind of a baby, as I kept having to stop and hold us up with adjustments and fixes. I also had to stop once after poking my eye in a pine branch. Ernie looked at it with a flashlight and it seemed OK.
The hike was magically beautiful. The bright moonlight illuminated the snow and trail quite clearly and actually cast shadows. We could easily see the terrain and the sides of the Gorge. We worked our way up the drainage, stopping to drink water and observe our surroundings in the surreal light. I’m sure Ernie must have tired of hearing me say, "Wow!" I simply ran out of words to describe what I was seeing and how it made me feel.
Before long, we reached a major junction, where the trail from Alberta Falls (which we bypassed up the drainage) merged with the trails going to Lake Haiyaha, The Loch, or Mills Lake. Our informal goal was "toward Black Lake", but we weren’t sure if we were going that far or not. After pausing a few minutes at this junction, we headed on towards Mills Lake.
Things leveled off a bit from the steeper climb up the drainage. Despite this, I managed to lose my balance and take a fall. I must have tried to use one of my poles to break my fall, because after I got up and dusted the snow off, I found I’d bent the pole a bit. Still usable though. As we started up again, I felt something like a hangnail on my left index finger and realized I’d broken the nail. I didn’t want to stop, so I tried to nibble the broken nail off while we were walking. Ernie noticed this and asked if I were alright. I sighed, hating to appear to be such a whiner after all the trouble and holdups I was causing, but I finally just blurted out, "I broke a nail!" We both had a good laugh.
Unfortunately, part of my problem in the deep snow was the size of my snowshoes. They were rentals, and smaller than I’d used before, but the store I rented them from didn’t have the larger size and assured me they would be fine on the packed-down trails I told them we were going on. Well, it turns out that on the relatively unblazed trails we were on, I couldn’t get the flotation I needed and I was working much harder than I should have been.
We trekked on and before long reached the northern edge of Mills. The wind blows pretty hard across the lake and it had stripped the rocks of snowcover, so it was pretty slow-going for Ernie’s skis and my snowshoes. We picked our way across the rocks until we got to the edge of the frozen lake. For several minutes we stood, taking in the stark and desolate beauty of the lake. We could clearly see the upper ridges surrounding the lake, and looking south, we could see a lot of clouds and obvious snowfall over what would have to be Black Lake.
The temperature had dropped to about 20F and seemed even colder with the windchill. We both donned our shells, and I added my gloves and hat back. We started up again, with Ernie scooting way out ahead of me, gliding almost effortlessly across the smooth frozen surface of the lake. I crunched robotically across the lake, riding safely on the crampons of my snowshoes. I could barely see Ernie across the length of the lake, and I paused again to take in the splendid moonlit views, constantly muttering "Wow" under my breath.
The wind, darkness, and starkness of the frozen lake gave me a fleeting feeling of powerful isolation, and I understood instantly what draws explorers deep into the remote wilderness.
With a shiver, I swallowed the lump in my throat and pushed on across the lake. Ernie was waiting for me and we found the "trail" which leads south of Mills Lake to tiny Jewel Lake. Again, we walked right over the frozen lake to the other side and then began gaining elevation again.
The terrain started looking like the drainage we’d come up, except the trees became very thick. Ernie couldn’t have been having much fun, having to step over fallen trees, stumps and rocks with his skis. It didn’t seem to bother him. He certainly never complained about it. At one point we came to a large rock blocking our path. The rock went up at about a 70 degree angle and was covered with 3-4" of snow. I had already started looking around for a way around it, but Ernie maneuvered directly over to the rock and started side-stepping right up the side of the rock! I wish I’d had a camera handy, as it was a very impressive show of strength and agility.
We were deep in the trees now and it was monotonously difficult. It had also started to snow pretty steadily and the temperature had dropped to between 15 and 20F with about a 10-15mph wind. We were comfortable warm, though, thanks to the strenuousness of the trail and our layers of clothing.
We began discussing a stop to eat the food we’d brought and were trying to decide whether we had the time and energy to go all the way to Black Lake. We couldn’t find exactly the spot we wanted, choosing to keep moving up a bit higher so we’d have a more panaromic view of the gorge over the trees.
After another ten minutes or
so, we found a relatively open spot with a rock ledge that we
turned into a kind of bench. We were probably 1/3 to ½ of the
way to Black Lake. After packing the snow down, we each pulled
out our Insu-lite pads and sat down for a much need rest and
refuel stop. The runzas and wheat-bread egg burritos we had
packed in foil and insulated bags weren’t hot anymore, but
they weren’t cold either and they tasted great! We shared
the food, water, and Ernie’s orange Gatorade and talked
about the trek.
As we sat, the snow and wind whipped up more and we both had to put our hoods up as we ate. We were both starting to get pretty cold and stiff, so we had one last discussion on whether to try to make it to Black Lake. It was already about 2:30am and we decided that with the increased wind and snow, plus the loss of moonlight from the low clouds, that we should probably head back. I was a bit relieved with this decision, as another hour or more of this heavy woods trekking was really getting old.
After eating a dessert of Cherokee Chew pie, we took a couple of pictures and then packed up and headed down, hoping to find the thread of a different trail that would allow us to avoid the heavy trees. We stayed to the east of the path we’d taken up and it was a bit easier. We were again criss-crossing a creek and a bit later I had my first and only scare on this outing. We were very close to the edge of the creek and Ernie stopped to tell me something. As we stood there, my left foot plunged through the snow all the way up to my knee, with my foot/snowshoe probably in the stream bed. As I struggled to pull my snowshoe out, my other snowshoe postholed through the snow. Ernie asked if me feet were wet. They weren’t, but when I moved my heel up and down, I could hear water splashing. I really wanted to get out of this, because I wasn’t sure how deep the water was or whether it might come up over the tops of my boots. Finally, I lay down forward on the snow to distribute my weight and Ernie came around behind me to help haul the trapped snowshoes out of the holes. Finally they came out, and I rolled away from the edge of the stream and got back up with Ernie’s help.
I checked everything over and found my feet were still dry and warm, a credit to my Gore-Tex lined and Nikwax-coated boots. After shaking off this incident, we continued on down to Mills Lake, and I was much more cautious about how close I got to the obviously unstable streams. I had large balls of ice and snow forming on the frozen water on the outside of my boots. Ernie warned me I might get a similar ice buildup on my snowshoes, but it never developed.
It continued to be pretty cold and windy. In fact, I was having trouble with the water in the bottle holster on the outside of my pack freezing into undrinkable slush! We recrossed Jewel Lake then got back to Mills lake, where we paused for a few moments because Ernie thought he saw a herd of elk on the other side. Turns out it was just trees and rocks, but I could see what he meant.
We continued back across Mills and when we reached the other side, Ernie took off his skis to negotiate the snow-less rocks on the edge of the lake. Soon we were back on the trail and headed for the main trail junction. Shortly, we reached the hitching post near the junction where we sat on the posts and paused for a drink of almost frozen water and a couple of photos. I think this is the point where we realized that during our previous food/rest stop we had totally forgotten about drinking the coffee we’d brought in my thermos! Duh.
We then pressed on toward the main trail junction. I was secretly hoping that Ernie would want to skip the drainage route and go around via Alberta Falls, but considering my wimpy performance, I wasn’t about to say anything. Plus, I knew going down the drainage would be much easier than it was coming up. Ernie headed straight for the drainage trail.
Down we went. I think I was
getting tired. It was after 3:00am and I was yawning a bit and my
legs and upper body knew they’d done some work. Again, we
got into a monotonous ritual of picking our way down the
drainage. It even became kind of dream-like to me: the snow, the
wind, the constant motion, and the surreal moonlight diffused by
the low snow-clouds.
We came to what Ernie called the Beaver Pond, a tiny frozen pool along the creek. Its outlet had very thin ice and though we’d walked across the pond, we had to get off it. We maneuvered around the open water and Ernie found a frozen spot to cross the outlet that looked good to him (though not to me). As he went across it, I could see the ice breaking up and the backs of his skis touching the water. Fortunately he had good forward momentum and the breaking ice trailed behind him never caught up to him. He didn’t even know what had happened until he looked back.
After that, the rest of the trek was uneventful. We came to long stretches of gentle downhill slopes where Ernie cruised smoothly and silently ahead on his skis, and I trailed behind, kind of wishing I had skis, too.
Before we knew it, we were at the bottom of the drainage joining the main trail. We headed back for the parking lot where we stowed our gear in Ernie’s truck and headed back for town at about 4:00am. The snow we’d run into above Mills Lake had passed us and had coated the roads going back to Estes. Again, we saw not a soul before, during and after our trek. It was eerie to think that there probably weren’t 5 people in the entire Park doing what we did that moonlit night.
I asked Ernie about the snow conditions and he said that we were out a bit early, as the drainage is much easier to negotiate when the creeks are frozen and snow-covered. It turns out that a cross-country skier and a snow-shoer are pretty compatible. There were places on the way that I had to wait for Ernie, and there were places on the way down that he had to wait for me.
Anyway, Ernie dropped me off at home at about 4:30am and I immediately, hit the bed and was asleep in ten minutes or less.
Quite literally, this was one of the top three outdoor experiences I've ever had!
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