Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Colorado 2011 Cauthorn Style Day Three
August 9th, 2011
The morning starts the same except that Mom made pancakes! She used a recipe that had yogurt, delicious.
With the boys packed up, Sarah and I headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park. Today's hike we decided to trek from Bear Lake Trail Head to Fern Lake Trail head. In order to do this, we parked at the Park and Ride and took the shuttle up to Bear Lake Trail Head. The begin of the hike took us straight up. We hiked for about an hour before we reached the highest part of the hike, Lake Helene. To be completely honest, we did not actually know we passed Lake Helene. We did see a pool to our left and later joked that it must had been the lake. Sarah decided that we should rename the lake "Pool"-ene.
As soon as we started down the hike became extremely fun. We hiked over three glaciers, one of which was part of a rock slide and I was actually scared crossing. At one point on the hike from "Pool"-ele to Odessa we were on a narrow path that skirted the side of a mountain, any trip would lead to a LONG drop.
I felt like we were the only people in the park at times. The few times we ran into people they were extremely nice. We met a retired teacher who spends four months a year in CO. He said he had to get out of the Iowa summer heat.
The best part of the whole hike for me was seeing Odessa Lake from above. It is, as all the lakes we have seen, beautiful but it also felt more excluded, maybe because we hiked down to it. We took the extra 30 minutes to actually hike up to the lake, a great decision. The river leading out of Odessa is a fly fisherman's dream, ten feet wide, fast water, a small island in the middle, and almost no overhanging trees to attract flies. The lake was equally as breathtaking.
We reluctantly continued on after spending a few minutes being with Nature.
It was all down hill from there, in a difficult way. Sometimes hiking down hill can be more difficult that hiking up. It is easy to stop going up hill to catch your breath, but down hill your knees sometimes do not recover. For the next two hours we hiked down hill to Fern Lake. Fern Lake is a huge deep lake. I was again surprised how much I liked it. Sarah and I hiked to the opposite side, found a round flat rock in the sun and ate our lunch. We saw fish rise and took in the sun.
The hike from Fern to Fern Lake Trail Head was not as enjoyable as the first part of the hike. That could have been that I was tired, my knees hurt, or that by noon, the temperature was rising. We arrived at the Trail Head passing Fern Falls and The Pool but were impressive. We, unfortunately arrived at five minutes late to catch the shuttle and had a twenty-five minute wait. Colorado is probably the easiest place to have to wait and after nine miles we were content.
The boys had a great second day at camp. Anthony did the low ropes course in the morning which he said was only ok but the high ropes course in the afternoon was great. He got to climb a tree and ride a zip-line back down. Nathaniel played quiddich (yes, I said quiddich), swim, play capture the flag, and make crafts. Nate made a knot bracelet with was colorful. Michael participated in a Tri-Wizard Tournament, swam, and made dragon eggs. We asked the boys if they wanted to take the day off to go on a hike with us but they all wanted to go back to camp. They love it.
The boys went back to the camp five to play another fun but competitive game of capture the flag. The whole crew picked the boys up by six thirty and drove a few miles outside of town to see real beavers in action. We have always hoped to see beavers in action at the Minnesota Zoo but they are always, I mean always, sleeping. We were shocked to find them up and actively adding to their dams. When we first arrived dad saw some high grass moving and a few minutes later, a beaver came out with branches in his mouth. He swam across his lake and dove underwater to put store his food. There were three beaver dams along the side of the road. The beaver's den was in the middle of the last pond and aspen stumps were everywhere. Beavers are not as big as I thought they would be but more active.
We stopped to have burgers at the Estes Park Brewery. On the way home, we dropped Anthony off at Teen Night and went home to Jeremiah. When I pick Anthony up we realized that he had not yet showed in Colorado. That was taken care of before well all when to bed.
The morning starts the same except that Mom made pancakes! She used a recipe that had yogurt, delicious.
With the boys packed up, Sarah and I headed out to Rocky Mountain National Park. Today's hike we decided to trek from Bear Lake Trail Head to Fern Lake Trail head. In order to do this, we parked at the Park and Ride and took the shuttle up to Bear Lake Trail Head. The begin of the hike took us straight up. We hiked for about an hour before we reached the highest part of the hike, Lake Helene. To be completely honest, we did not actually know we passed Lake Helene. We did see a pool to our left and later joked that it must had been the lake. Sarah decided that we should rename the lake "Pool"-ene.
As soon as we started down the hike became extremely fun. We hiked over three glaciers, one of which was part of a rock slide and I was actually scared crossing. At one point on the hike from "Pool"-ele to Odessa we were on a narrow path that skirted the side of a mountain, any trip would lead to a LONG drop.
I felt like we were the only people in the park at times. The few times we ran into people they were extremely nice. We met a retired teacher who spends four months a year in CO. He said he had to get out of the Iowa summer heat.
The best part of the whole hike for me was seeing Odessa Lake from above. It is, as all the lakes we have seen, beautiful but it also felt more excluded, maybe because we hiked down to it. We took the extra 30 minutes to actually hike up to the lake, a great decision. The river leading out of Odessa is a fly fisherman's dream, ten feet wide, fast water, a small island in the middle, and almost no overhanging trees to attract flies. The lake was equally as breathtaking.
We reluctantly continued on after spending a few minutes being with Nature.
It was all down hill from there, in a difficult way. Sometimes hiking down hill can be more difficult that hiking up. It is easy to stop going up hill to catch your breath, but down hill your knees sometimes do not recover. For the next two hours we hiked down hill to Fern Lake. Fern Lake is a huge deep lake. I was again surprised how much I liked it. Sarah and I hiked to the opposite side, found a round flat rock in the sun and ate our lunch. We saw fish rise and took in the sun.
The hike from Fern to Fern Lake Trail Head was not as enjoyable as the first part of the hike. That could have been that I was tired, my knees hurt, or that by noon, the temperature was rising. We arrived at the Trail Head passing Fern Falls and The Pool but were impressive. We, unfortunately arrived at five minutes late to catch the shuttle and had a twenty-five minute wait. Colorado is probably the easiest place to have to wait and after nine miles we were content.
The boys had a great second day at camp. Anthony did the low ropes course in the morning which he said was only ok but the high ropes course in the afternoon was great. He got to climb a tree and ride a zip-line back down. Nathaniel played quiddich (yes, I said quiddich), swim, play capture the flag, and make crafts. Nate made a knot bracelet with was colorful. Michael participated in a Tri-Wizard Tournament, swam, and made dragon eggs. We asked the boys if they wanted to take the day off to go on a hike with us but they all wanted to go back to camp. They love it.
The boys went back to the camp five to play another fun but competitive game of capture the flag. The whole crew picked the boys up by six thirty and drove a few miles outside of town to see real beavers in action. We have always hoped to see beavers in action at the Minnesota Zoo but they are always, I mean always, sleeping. We were shocked to find them up and actively adding to their dams. When we first arrived dad saw some high grass moving and a few minutes later, a beaver came out with branches in his mouth. He swam across his lake and dove underwater to put store his food. There were three beaver dams along the side of the road. The beaver's den was in the middle of the last pond and aspen stumps were everywhere. Beavers are not as big as I thought they would be but more active.
We stopped to have burgers at the Estes Park Brewery. On the way home, we dropped Anthony off at Teen Night and went home to Jeremiah. When I pick Anthony up we realized that he had not yet showed in Colorado. That was taken care of before well all when to bed.
