What I did on my summer vacation, pt. 1

Just in case I don't get around to part 2, I'm going to start with the highlight of my trip to Colorado, which was hiking to the top of Eagle Peak. There were other great things, but at approx. 12,200 ft., Eagle Peak was the literal high point, so I'll go with that first.

No wait, first I'll give a nod and long distance hug to my college roommate and all-around great gal Leigh, along w/ hubby Zach and little pre-born Colin. The whole vanload of us stopped at their house for lunch in Littleton, and she had an awesome spread ready for us. This despite the fact that she'd had a very rough morning, one that culminated in her mother reviving her with a garden hose. But it was great to see her, even though I wish we had longer. Thanks again, Leigh, O Hostess with the Mostest!


Now for the climbing. Rainbow Trail is in the Sangre de Christo mountain range in the southern Rockies, west of Pueblo. Eagle Peak is the nearest peak to the camp. Here it is as seen from the porch of the main building:


See the pointier-looking part on the right? That's the false peak. Liar! Liaaar! That's the side we ascended, so the closer false peak was as far as we could see for most of the hike. Were we motivated by a lie, or only given as much as we could handle? There's a good metaphor in there somewhere.

The hike was certainly uphill, but not bad up until Rainbow Lake, which had a very high water level thanks to all the melted snow from Colorado's ridiculous number of huge snowstorms last winter.


By the way, my brother-in-law proposed to my sister (the first time) in this lake; not at, in.

After heading on up from the lake, things got hairier. First there was the section known among the staff as the Trail of Tears. Then came the really tough part.

That toughest part is The Meadow (not to be mistaken for The Meadows, also in Colorado, the well-known secret meeting place of The Pentaverate). Doesn't a meadow sound lovely, like you should sit down and have a picnic, or maybe frolic? Well, it's not that kind of meadow. I did wish I could sit down, but not much frolicking happened on my part.

(we're actually heading down in this picture, but you get the idea.)

It's steep, stingy on the oxygen, and seemingly interminable. One of those stretches of hike where the end never seems to get any closer, until eventually, somehow, miraculously, you've arrived. In this case we had arrived at the base of basically a pile of large rocks we had to scramble up. Scrambling was okay with me, because my legs had had enough, and now my arms could help out.


In the "glass is half-full" category, there was some lovely, hearty flora on the meadow:


We got to the top of the pile only to discover it wasn't quite the top of the pile (liaaar!), but after a not-too-uphill jaunt across a ridge in the pile, then we had summited. Yay!


Yes, that is a golden retriever behind me. She's a camp dog who invited herself along, and I was especially impressed with her rock-climbing abilities. Altogether, there were 19 people and one dog, 14 miles round trip, about a mile of elevation gain, and we all made it, the first group of the summer to have the conditions and guts to summit. The weather was clear and beautiful (at that point), and the view unbeatable.



On the way back down, we spent the last hour or two hiking through the only rainstorm we got all week, but what a payoff when we finally got back:


Rainbow Trail, indeed. That's even the building we were heading for, the dining hall. Since we returned at the tail end of dinner time, the whole camp waited for us and gave us a big hero's welcome as we hauled our soggy selves in. It was really a great moment, very warm and fuzzy despite being personally wet and stinky.

I took it easy by comparison for the rest of the week. That was a good hike.