Colorado Adventure Recap Part 2

Ready to head out from Lory.

So we got dropped off at Lory State Park on Saturday morning. (Read about the first part of my trip here.) After waiting for the ranger station to open, because the camping permits were missing, we headed out to begin our hike.

The view from our break.

The park is well used by hikers, bikers, horseback riders, trail runners, and who we guessed were ROTC from one of the local colleges doing some training. We spent much of the day passing, but mostly being passed by others who could go much faster than us with our 40 pound packs on. We took a break only about an hour after setting out because it was hot, we were in the direct sun and we were going uphill. We had a very nice view of the park down to the reservoir from where we were.

The view from our lunch site.

We stopped for lunch on a rock outcropping in the early afternoon and had another great view on the "Outlook Trail," so called because of all the great views along the whole trail. I had my first of three tuna salad pitas. Great meal, but I need more alternatives, three days of tuna in a row was a bit much. This was the day that I got frustrated. We had been going all day, I wasn't used to the constant climbing, or the heat, all I wanted was to be at the campsite. And I really had no idea how much further we had to go. Sharon asked me on about the 5th switchback up the side of the mountain how I was doing and all I could respond was, "really hot." So we sat down had a snack, I had to wait to cool off before I could eat anything, and then we waited while 6 or 7 mountain bikers went by. According to the map there were only supposed to be about 8 switchbacks, we ended up doing at least 10 or 12. The map wasn't very detailed. 

Sunrise at our first campsite.

We didn't see much of a sunset that night, but supper was good. I had Ramen, Sharon had cheese tortellini which I am going to make one of my meals for my long hike. Sunrise the next morning was worth the hike. We got packed up and headed out with a shortened hike planned. We cut out a few miles, plus the day was cooler with a bit of cloud cover. We made it into Horsetooth Mountain Park and to our campsite with time to spare. I did not have any meltdowns this day. 

Almost to Horsetooth Mountain Park.

Supper was a failure for me. Luckily I packed enough food that even though I didn't eat more than half of the soup-like meal, I still had enough to eat. One of my extra breakfast bars came to the rescue.The dehydrated veggies only halfway re-hydrated so I had some crunchy peas, leathery beans, and weird carrots. Plus the soup base, a veggie bouillon cube, had a really strange chemical flavor. There were several hikers still on the trail as darkness fell. It didn't appear any of them had headlamps or light of any kind.

Trying to preheat my supper.

Sunrise was again wonderful. Our sunsets were less than spectacular. This morning Sharon made some pineapple upside down cake for breakfast. Very sweet, very filling and very good. We had to backtrack a little on the trail before we could head up to Horsetooth Mountain, we got some great views again. Every time we came over a rise or into a valley, the views just opened up and you could see all the way back down to town.

Sunrise at our second campsite.

Our third day of hiking was short also. We got to Horsetooth, but didn't climb it, and headed down to our site. Both of us took baths/showers on the downhill side of our site away from the trail. Had a good view of Fort Collins from there. We wandered in our meadow watching the stars that night. We were supposed to be able to see the Orionid meteorites in the early morning and luckily for us we each got to see one before going to bed. I was woken up at around 3:30 or so by the wind, and when I crawled out to see the sky, we had complete cloud cover and no chance of seeing any more meteorites.

Sunset over Rocky Mountain National Park from our third campsite.

The last day of hiking only took us an hour as we went basically downhill for 3 miles. The easiest 3 miles of the whole hike thanks to the downhill, the reduced food weight, and the knowledge that we would be getting real showers once we got home. We talked to several people over the course of our hike: one biker apologized for his caterwauling, he was listening to his mp3 player; a couple with a foreign accent asked us about our plans for camping and whether we were worried about the potential for wildlife, we weren't, not really, but I couldn't help glancing up at the rocks every now and then expecting to see a mountain lion like in Homeward Bound; one lady trail running with her dog discussed our plans to go back downhill and come back up to our campsite, wondering if we were training for something; and a brother and sister from New York had something in common with me, it was all of our first times in higher elevation.

The clouds started rolling in around sunset and it appeared to be precipitating in RMNP.
The two peaks in the background behind us are Meeker (on the left) and Longs, my reference points for the RMNP.

The sunrise was less colorful than the first two, but when the clouds broke and the hills toward Rocky Mountain lit up, that was wonderful. I kept expecting to see Sam and Frodo, there was a very Lord of the Rings kind of feel several times over the course of our hike. On our way down we again saw Stellars Jays, mule deer, and magpies. I kept hoping to get a good picture of the birds, but as soon as I worked my camera out they had taken off again. We got to my van and as we were loading gear in, it started to sprinkle. And on the drive home, it rained enough I had to turn on my windshield wipers. I had to tease Sharon, she kept telling me it wasn't going to rain, and lucky for us it waited until we were back in the car, but it did rain!

This is almost the end of my Colorado trip, I have a little more to share about the drive home. Next time!