August 27-28
I had planned to take backpacking trip with a group of friends, but they all bailed on me a week before the trip, so I went by myself instead. I had decided to trek into the Weminuche Wilderness, a place I had never hiked in before. I started at Rio Grande Reservoir and made my way up Ute Creek. The plan was to complete big loop, but I had to modify that idea based on the trail and weather conditions.
On my hike in, I soon realized the impact of the beetle kill in the area. The forest looked gray instead of green. I did see a moose, the first moose I had seen on a trail in Colorado.
Contrasting colors.
The landscape was different then most other places I had hiked in the mountains. The river bottoms were large open parks with a willow community along the streams, rather than a steep drop to an incised rocky stream surrounded by forest. I could hear elk bugling in the forest all around me, but never saw until the last mile of my hike out. That evening I experienced sun, rain, sleet and snow . . . ah, the mountains of Colorado. I woke up to ice on my tent, but I had stayed warm in my sleeping bag. I was greeted to a fresh dusting of snow on the tallest mountains.
I did hike on a small section of the Continental Divide Trail.
This picture was the reason I wanted to backpack in this area. The picture does not do justice to the awesomeness that I had witnessed. I sat in this spot for nearly an hour soaking it all in.
I would have enjoyed this experience more with someone else, but I still made the best of it. Nearly thirty miles in two day (seven the first, twenty-three the second) and well worth the time and effort.
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