Wilson Mesa Trail

Fall was quickly turning to winter as the mountains from our front porch were starting to get snow covered. We knew we only had a few more weekends of good hiking left. We went back out to the Woods Lake Trailhead, which was quickly becoming one of our favorite places to go. We thought briefly at attempting to climb Little Cone. It looked like a gradual slope to the top, but thought better of it and instead chose to hike the Wilson Mesa Trail. We parked a ways above the trailhead since there was no parking there and walked back. The trail was in good shape and almost immediately we saw a very scared coyote. We were happy to see it, but you could tell he was sketchy of humans. We learned that in this area people just shoot coyotes for the fun of it, so it was not surprising. The trail climbed steeply at first, but then began to level out. It was a perfect trail for Jacqueline now a month pregnant. It climbed slowly through the trees which were just on the edge of being too late to see much color. There was actually more color on the coniferous trees looking like Christmas trees decorated with Aspen leaf ornaments. The views of the jagged peaks around Mt. Wilson were excellent today. It made me excited for the next summer when we could go climb those peaks possibly. The trail hit an old road and we followed that until it became the Elk Creek Trail. We took this one uphill. If we would have had a map, we would have realized that this trail met up with the Navajo Lake trail and we could have made a loop. Not feeling too ambitious with a pregnant lady, we decided to call it a day after between 4 and 5 miles. We had to come back the same way and putting in more than ten miles might be a little too much for the zygote growing in Jacqueline's belly. A quick picture and then back down the same way. We took our opportunity to soak in the mountain views as we knew we may not get another opportunity to get into the mountains for a while. We finished nicely and I was proud of Jacqueline for still getting out even growing a little baby.

Come on Ride the Train

Occasionally I will break away from backcountry experiences in the blog. Celebrating the best decision I ever made in my life I believe is a good enough reason. It was our anniversary weekend and Jacqueline had really wanted to take the train ride from Durango to Silverton. To make the process easier for us, we figured out that you can take the train from Silverton to Durango. This was an odd way to do it, but it was much more convenient for us. We had to meet the train about 3pm in Silverton. So we took the drive over the pass going up from Ouray. Crazy road with steep drop-offs on the sides, but very beautiful. It dropped us into Silverton just in time for us to get our tickets, get some lunch and wander around. We found our train and had a good conversation with one of the workers. Jacqueline was worried because something happened to one of the trains on the way up, but we were not worried. Once we finally got on the train, we were sitting right next to a crazy family. We had some great views of the river, the trees, the mountains, waterfalls, and eventually the city of Durango as we pulled in 3 hours later. This put us in at around 6pm. Once we checked into our hotel and Jacqueline got herself ready, we hit the town for the anniversary dinner. The problem was that restaurants were mostly full being that there was some Cowboy Poetry deal going on in Durango. We wandered forever and were unsuccessful. We actually went back to the hotel and went swimming first and then went back out for a 9pm dinner. We found an Italian restaurant where we were able to get some decent food. After having a sleep, we awoke to go get some breakfast and then back on the train. Today was our actual anniversary, so we got an anniversary picture. We were both a little bit more dressed down than last year at this time. Today we were next to a bunch of French people who talked insanely loud the whole time. We got to sit on the side where we saw all the drop-offs today to the river. You could tell there was a lot of ingenuity in building this railroad. We were seeing the end of the trees changing color at high altitude. The train ride was fun, but long and slow. Jacqueline and I both agreed that we were glad we did it once, but once was good for the both of us. Now we just had to drive over the pass again and lucky for us it was snowing. I was nervous, but we did fine and made it back safely. One last photo is the bumpdate. Not much, but you can see it is something after less than a month.