As Tundra Guardians (great title, huh?) we begin every other Sunday by packing up, driving to Rocky, loading our TG vehicle, calling ourselves into service, and rolling off toward the tundra above 11,000 feet. Last Sunday was no exception. The day was beautiful with thundershowers expected in the afternoon. The beautiful lasted for the first hour of our patrol. Soon the clouds closed in and rain started. We stayed "up top" (11,500 - 12,300 feet) until 3:00 when the visibility lowered to about 20 feet. At that point we moved down to a spot at about 10,800 feet to advise visitors that conditions further up were worse. As we couldn't see the end of the parking area, that was enough to discourage most from going on. Good decision. We called out of service about an hour before our shift normally ends at 5:00 p.m. We returned home (8,200 feet) to Windwalker and a calm evening with only a little rain.
On Monday afternoon, Lee and Mare returned from Minnesota and the last of the Katy and Philipp wedding celebrations. Don and Elvon (with help from family) put on a party for 30 on Friday evening and a party for 65 or more on Saturday. "Ugh!" said Lee and Mare, "we peeled 15 pound of potatoes for salad. Elvon mixed all of it...how we don't know. Don cooked more than 30 slabs of ribs and a zillion pounds of pulled pork!" By the end of the weekend the food was gone, the guests were winging their way home, and soon Lee and Mare were home tired but happy.
Tuesday there was a good deal of rain and clouds. We were worried as Lee, Pam, and I had planned an ambitious hike for Wednesday in the Indian Peaks area. As luck would have it, Wednesday morning dawned clear and cool. We were off by 6:00 a.m. as it would take more than an hour to drive to the trailhead for Mt. Audubon (header picture is Pam and Lee on the summit). There was a four mile tramp to the summit. We were surprised that the first mile was gentle and wandered through pine trees and duff packed trail. Soon enough though we were hiking through granite and rubble packed trail and came out beyond the krumholtz (trees dwarfed because of temperature and altitude). Now we really began to work. The trail book advised hikers to stick to the trail that winds through beautiful meadows marked by cairns (piles of rock). The meadows were littered with wild flowers and the views as we slugged higher and higher were amazing. The three of us were not so amazing. We stopped often to breathe and rest. The summit of Mt. Audubon, which seemed a reasonable goal at 6 a.m., looked almost out of reach. The longer we hiked, the farther away it appeared. People who were ahead of us looked like ants and never seemed to get bigger. Finally however, three ants did get bigger, and just before we got to the final slog up a huge granite strewn shoulder of mountain, we caught up. The ants turned out to be two 30 something guys, a small boy (son of one of the guys), and a black lab. They were resting--sprawled out on the side of the trail, having a snack. The dog was begging to be let off leash so he could chase marmots and pikas, and the little guy seemed to be happy as a clam. No whinging. No whining...just a big grin and happy to be on the trail.
We pushed on after a few minutes. Halfway up the granite mass, we stopped to rest by a large cairn. None of the three of us knew if we had enough energy left to push on, so we decided to have some water and eat our lunch. After about 20 minutes, we decided to leave our packs where we were and climb on to the next cairn and see how we felt. At the next cairn, we took a few minutes to catch our breath and decided to try going to the next cairn. We knew this was it. None of us anticipated coming this way again. When we reached that next pile of rocks, we met a woman and a dog coming down from the summit. She told us the 360 degree view was worth any effort to summit. "And," she said, "you're almost there." That was enough to get us scrambling from boulder to boulder, stopping to breathe every few minutes. There was no more talking. No more discussion about whether to go on or not. Every bit of energy went in to just getting there. And then! We WERE there. 13,223 feet on the summit. The views were breathtaking. There were only two or three others on the summit and no wind. How lucky can we be? Now we could talk. "Wow!" "Oh, look over there." "That's the back of Long's Peak." "And there, north and south Arapahoe..." What an incredible place. We took pictures, mugged, pointed out other places we'd hiked, sat down in one or two of the rock walled wind shelters that others had built for protection, and cheered when the two guys, the lab, and the little boy got to the summit.
Was he ever pleased. It was his first 13,000 foot summit. Pam asked him how old he was. "I'm five," he said snuggling in to the boulders in one of the rock shelters. "Not too many fives get up here. You are pretty special," Pam told him. Later on Lee asked him how old he was and he replied with a grin, "I'm FIVE! Not too many fives get up this high." We all laughed. Clouds began to gather to the south and west...serious looking clouds. So we decided it was time to go down. Getting down was no easy feat either as it took a good deal of scrambling over big boulders--butt sliding, and watching for cairns so we didn't miss our packs. Finally packs found and large boulders behind, we started the long walk back to the trailhead. On the way down, there was time and breath to think about taking some pictures of the flowers. There was time to think about the sound of walking on granite rubble strewn trails. The sound is hollow...as if each crunching step almost echoes...as if the rocks were hollow. None of which is the case. The small rocks twist and turn as you step on them...and so too do your ankles and knees. I marveled (as I do often) about how wonderfully the human body is constructed...how ankles act as gimbals so that the weight can be transferred from hip, through knee, onto foot without breaking something or falling over. (Here I've looked up a meaning of gimbal... interesting: A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis). So, precisely what was happening with us over and over and over...four more miles.
We stopped in a beautiful meadow, and with not a good deal of grace, but sweet compliance, I asked Lee and Pam to dance so that I could get a "Sound of Music" like video. The clouds pushed up toward us and down we went again. Four miles are not a lot, but the end of a hard hike seems never ending. Finally we were back at the parking lot. Gratefully we shucked our packs into the back of the car, plopped down on the hot seats, and rolled for home. Later, we were crushed to find this description of the Mt. Audubon hike: Unlike some of its neighbors, Mount Audubon is a gentle mountain that is best characterized by broad ridges and large expanses of tundra. As such, it is a mountain best appreciated by those who favor a leisurely stroll among the wildflowers over a hard scramble among the talus. Is it our age? The day? No matter. We have summited Mt. Audubon!
The next day, Pam and I drove to Denver to help celebrate the birthday of our dear friend, Donna Brennan. We had a wonderful lunch, great conversation, and as always...for Pam and me it is a bright day when we can see Donna. As we drove back toward the mountains we got several texts telling us that there were flash flood warnings for Rocky and that it was pelting rain up there. When we arrived home and turned on the 5 o'clock news, we learned that indeed there had been a flash flood in the burn area of Fern Lake. Two riders on horseback had to take shelter behind a huge rock formation, and four of our hiking rangers and two law enforcement rangers (called L.E.'s) had to hike in, reroute hikers who were higher up on the trail, and rescue the riders and horses. At the same time, a woman was struck by lightning on a trail off of the Alpine Visitor's Center (11,790 feet). We have not learned about her condition.
And so it goes in the mountains. Lucy got a new haircut on Saturday and she looks sweet and shiny black with very white, clydesdale feet! We went over to Cheryl and Kay's to see Cheryl's nephew Rustin and his wife Jenn and their two kids Liam and Nealy. So wonderful to be connected to three generations and more of our family and our friend's families. We played with the now moms and dads when they were but wee ones themselves.
If you have gotten this far in the blog, I thank you so much for sticking with me. There are pictures of everything at this address:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mtnpostpics/sets/72157634732513037/
I've been playing with a new ap for my iPhone. It's called Photosynth and it does amazing 360 panoramas. You can find the four I took on Mt. Audubon here:
http://photosynth.net/userprofilepage.aspx?user=windwalker1&content=Synths
Just an fyi...the pano's are best seen on an iPad. If you have a Mac, you'll have to download and install microsoftsilver to have the pics be interactive. Those of you with PC's should be fine.
For this time being...we wish you a good week, love to make you happy, sunshine to warm you, and rain to grow your grass...so it goes.
Bonnie
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