Navajo Lake

Jacqueline and Zyla were planning to come for a hike with me, but the night before they decided it might be a little too much for Zyla. So I had to go by myself instead. I had wanted to return to the Navajo Lake area since we went up there a year earlier. It was a beautiful fall day out, so this seemed like the perfect time for the undertaking. I left early in the morning and drove up to the Woods Lake Trailhead. I saw my best fall colors of the day at the trailhead because where I was going hiking was going to be above the aspens. I knew Jacqueline would be missing the colors, but not the cold as it was a chilly 34 degrees out. I had to wear my fleece for most of the morning as I would be hiking uphill through the trees in the shade. There were a lot more switchbacks then I remembered as the trail just kept climbing and climbing. As I was getting to near treeline, there was an old cabin. I refused to take a picture of it because there is nothing like a picture of an old cabin coming up on your computer to say boring, but it was very neat to see when I was there. Popping out above treeline, I finally got one of those great views that make living through the windy cold winter worthwhile. There was a great view of the mountains we could see from our house in Norwood, just on the other side. Dolores, Middle, Dunn, Flattop, and Little Cone still remained free of snow, though we had a little dusting earlier in the week on the peaks. I could see the remnants of it as I continued on the ridge that would take me to Navajo Lake. It had been a quiet day thus far as I think my early morning had kept the trail to myself. Finally I made it to the spot where Jacqueline and I had turned around a year previous because of impending weather moving in. It was probably the best view of the whole hike as I could see the peaks that rose above El Diente and Mt. Wilson, both gnarly looking 14ers. I could also see the valley that held my final destination Navajo Lake. I started my descent to the lake, which was a little different then the constant climb. I did not want to go too far downhill because I knew I would have to come back up. It did not go down for long before I hit the trail junction with the trail that came in from Dolores. Even though that trail is in the 100 Classic Hikes in Colorado, I was still glad I took the one I did because of the views along the way. After the junction, the trail climbed slowly back up until I was at the lake. I went to the far shore where I found a nice rock to sit on and have some lunch. I wanted to keep going as the trail was not done, but we did not have very much food in the house when I left so I would not have had enough calories to keep me going. So I turned around. On the way back, I ran into a few groups who were friendly and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. One was a couple overnighting at the lake, while another was some mid-40s ladies debating whether they could make it to the lake. I tried to encourage them as one was all for it and the other was a little hesitant. All and all it was a good day with a finish just a bit after noon. I would love to come back to that spot someday with Jacqueline and Z to do a little backpacking of our own.

The Middle Fork of the Cimarron River

I debated whether going on this hike for many days. Eric Lassance, a good friend from Zion, was going to be in the area for a couple of days to do a trip with a friend that lived in Wisconsin and another who lived near Gunnison. He invited me along on the trip, but since they were finishing their trip after I was supposed to teach, I knew I would not get to go on the whole thing. I did figure that I could go for the day with them since it was Labor Day weekend and still have enough time to make it back to prepare for the week. I finally decided to go even though I knew it was going to be mostly driving.
So up at 6:30am, I was on the road and down to meet them in Ridgway by 8. We got a little food and then took a convoy of 4 cars for 4 people up to the trailhead. This seemed a bit ridiculous, but whatever. The dust we created was amazing as we drove up the road to Owl Creek Pass. We left three cars at the East Fork trailhead and then I drove them the rest of the way to the Middle Fork trailhead. We finally hit the trail around 10:30am. I knew that I was not going to get in much of a day since the drive back to Norwood would be close to two and a half hours, but I figured I could hit the trail for about 3 hours before I had to turn around.
The trail started out gradually climbing by the river. It took us mainly through forested areas. It was nice to be the only one without a heavy backpack on. The valley we were walking in was not particularly wide and we could see the massive peaks rising up above us. There were such peaks to look at as Dunsinane Mountain and Precipice Peak. The rock on these peaks was very crumbly which made for some impressive summits. My hiking partners were all good guys and it was good to get out with some people other than just me or the wife and baby for something different. We had not met many people in Norwood that enjoyed getting out at all, so this was nice to hike with some others. As we got further up the valley, we could tell that Eric's friend Josh from Wisconsin was starting to have issues with the altitude. He was struggling to make it up the valley even though the gradient was nothing incredibly steep. Adam, who had planned the trip, was hanging back with Josh, as I hiked ahead with Eric. We ran into a few other people including a huge group that must have been from Chicago area because they asked if the White Sox won yesterday. Well, we were soon approaching the Cinderella hour and I was bargaining to save some extra time. I hiked all the way up to the trail junction where I could see such peaks as Redcliff, Coxcomb, and the ridge leading up to a 14er, Wetterhorn Peak. The group was off to find a good camping spot for the night and then would continue with an ascent of the Matterhorn the next day. I was very jealous as climbing the Matterhorn had been something that I wanted to do since before I first visited Colorado. There is just something in the name that makes it worthwhile climbing. The hike down went swiftly as it was easy to go downhill with a light pack. Since near the end we were not moving particularly fast, I made it back to the car in under 2 hours, close to an hour and a half. I saw a cop at the trailhead with a flat tire and thought about offering him help, but what could I really do that he couldn't. I made the long drive home, but knew I would have to return to that area with all the recreational opportunities that waited.

Blue Lakes

I wanted to take Jacqueline to the Blue Lakes ever since I went and climbed Mt. Sneffels while passing them by. We finally found the time to do it, though it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We figured that the trail would be busy. It was a bit of a drive taking over an hour to get to the trailhead. The roads were good and we made sure to fill up the tires before we went. The trailhead was rather crowded with lots of vehicles there, such that we had to park a little away from it. We got little Z fed and then were on the trail. I got the duty of carrying her. I did not realize how much uphill was on the hike until I was carrying a 12 pound baby on my front side.

 I still did not quite know how to put the Baby Bjorn on properly so that it would fit more comfortably, so that was also an issue. She seemed happy, though and was just looking around at everything. Jacqueline was a little nervous about the hike since she had not been hiking much and was stuck with the duty of carrying the heavy pack loaded down with Zyla's accessories, almost all of which we knew that she was not going to need. Still we would rather be more prepared then less prepared. The trail started out in the trees by a river, but after a couple of good uphill miles it started to open up. We could see the mountains across the valley including Mt. Sneffels that I had climbed almost exactly a year ago. On this day we were not as ambitious and actually had to stop and take a break a little over halfway through to give Zyla a break outside of the Baby Bjorn. 

We got a lot of positive comments from passing hikers about getting our baby out when she was so young. We even saw another couple with a baby, but I don't think they made it to the lake because we passed them and never saw them on the way down. I knew that we were getting close as the views opened up a little bit. I was happy to be back here because the last time I did it in the dawn's early light, so my pictures were less than stellar. I even was able to get a picture of the waterfall that poured down the rocky cliffs near exit from the lake. Getting that picture was great because I knew we were very close and around the next bend was the junction for the upper lakes and the campsites. I was none too happy to see the lake because carrying a baby in the Bjorn was more work than carrying a 30 pound pack on your back. The water looked amazingly blue on this day and Jacqueline was also happy that she went through the effort of hiking to the lakes. I was stoked because Zyla had done such a good job. We had already hiked 3.3 miles and she was still in good spirits, though you could tell it was about eating time. The hard part was that once we found a nice private spot for her to feed, she just was not having it. She would eat for a little bit, but did not want to eat much. We even tried to give her the instant formula also and all we could get her to eat was an ounce or two. That was a little concerning because she had been so regular, but we figured no use arguing with the happy baby as she seemed just fine when we put her back in the Bjorn to hike back down the hill. We considered going to the Upper Blue Lakes until she did not want to feed and then thought we should get down. Plus we were both feeling good with this. We got to enjoy the way down with Zyla not having to do as much work and soaking in the awesome views. We still were getting lots of comments on the awesome little baby from all the late day hikers. The way down was definitely faster, but we were still spending a full day with all the effort it takes to just get out the door in the morning with the little one. We were happy that we made it to the lake and would just have to make another trip someday so that Jacqueline could see the upper two. I know they are not going anywhere, so they will always be there for us to explore.