Skip to Content

Taking a ride to the top

This morning, we woke up to much better conditions. Bright sun and we were not freezing our fingers off. We had 2 objectives  today. We have to figure out which mountain to climb. This mostly depends on conditions of the trails. It would be either Mt. Bierstadt in Georgetown with a 7 mile round trip climb or Mt. Evans with similar distance hike.

The other objective is for Stephen to go fishing while I go exploring the lodge and restaurant. I had to find a Christmas ornament or part of the trip won’t exist. I HAVE to find ornaments from each place on our trip, except for Telluride. That ornament cost an arm and a leg so we just write the dates on the back each year we return. Seriously, the only ornament shop in the town had crazy expensive ornaments. Anyway..exploring and fishing.

The ride to the top of Mt. Evans was gorgeous. We stopped at Summit Lake, which was frozen, and played nice with a marmot. We also found the lake trail.

2014-06-10 10.26.29

2014-06-10 10.27.37

2014-06-10 10.38.28

2014-06-10 10.40.15

At the top, while gasping for breath, I found some more furry friends. These guys were drinking up the salt water from the melting snow mixing with the sidewalk-clearing salty stuff.

2014-06-10 11.18.48

 

The rest of the afternoon, Stephen fished and I found ornaments. I also found a great dinner menu with soup and ice cream. I was tired and we needed to get up REALLY early to climb. We ate at the lodge and observed some awesome weather changes. Sun, rain, hail, snow, back to sun. It all happened in about 50 minutes. We had a great view up in the restaurant so we got to see the clouds and whiteout conditions creep in. Beautiful!

2014-06-10 16.34.56

2014-06-10 17.26.51

2014-06-10 17.31.19

2014-06-10 17.31.25

While waiting for the conditions to improve, I had to try some salted caramel ice cream. I think this is my new favorite flavor.

2014-06-10 17.33.22

After much discussion, we will climb Mt. Bierstadt tomorrow. Early rise to summit and down before storms after lunch. Big day tomorrow!