Maxwell House: B&E's Backpacking Adventure

Well "real life" has kept us busy enough that I haven't had time to post our backpacking trip. But now I have some time and so here we go . . .

After Red Castle Lakes had thwarted me twice on my attempts to backpack there (due to snow both times!), I was more determined than ever to do it. So when Ben had to make a trip to Utah to take a certifying exam for his RNFA, I decided, and then convinced Ben to agree, that we were going to do it together - without kids! Whoa. It was a bit long for my girls and so I just thought it would be a neat adventure for just Ben and I.

Our original plans included taking Jonas and leaving him with my parents, while Ben and I backpacked. We didn't think Jonas could contribute to a "happy home" while we were gone . . . Then we decided to take all the kids with us as they only had a 4-day school week . . . Ben was going to take the train up on Tuesday night and the kids and I were going to meet Ben and my dad on Thursday morning - with Ben coming with me and the kids going with my dad . . . But the train was ridiculously late (arriving in Provo at like 2am) and so our plans started evolving with Ben driving up Wednesday morning, as his test was at noon in Lindon. Then . . . we just decided to leave all the kids home alone and I would ride up with Ben on Wednesday.

It was scary, in some ways, to leave the kids. Yet, I really felt they would be totally okay and the biggest threat was going to be themselves against each other. Which was pretty accurate in the end. They ended up having a pretty good time and overall did well. Jonas disrupted things a bit and wasn't as involved with their activities, but they were all breathing and what-not when we got home and so we were pretty pleased. :)

So back to our trip . . . Ben rocked his exam and is now the first *Certified* RNFA in Montrose. He's cool. I did some thrift-shopping (what else was I to do in Utah County?!) and found some awesome finds for me. :) Then we made our way up to Midway and had a great evening with my parents - including going out for dinner. Yummy and fun!

Ben and I headed out for the trailhead Thursday morning. The weather was looking good - mostly sunny, 60s-70s for the day and upper 30s for the night. The only thing I didn't like about the forecast was the wind: predicted to have windy conditions with gusts up to 35MPH. Which happened. It was especially annoying at nighttime! It was some incredible wind. Luckily, it wasn't too bad hiking in it and so it wasn't too terrible.

We headed out on the trail by around 1:00 on Thursday. We made it to the Red Castle Lake area by around 5:30; but we weren't at the official Red Castle Lake and so we continued up a steep climb and found the lake. It was big and beautiful - but also very open and extremely windy there (with no trees to break the wind . . .). So we trekked back down and found a lovely campsite for the night.

We were snuggled in our tents by 9:00 when other campers came tromping through! They couldn't see us as it was dark. Ben said something like, "Hellllo?" and they replied, "Oh sorry!" Ha. We heard some really, really strange breathing as well - which, as Ben guessed, was llamas. We visited with them (well, not the llamas, but their owners) briefly the next day as we were all hiking out. Ben and I were using our boys' sleeping bags and so we slept so toasty! Too toasty for me - I kept having to take off my socks, my jacket, etc.

Friday was our day to attempt Wilson Peak. Utah doesn't have 14ers like Colorado, but it does have 13ers. Wilson Peak is one and so we thought we'd give it a go. It was some cool hiking - very different from what I usually do and like. But it was cool! A lot of rock scrambling. I got nervous the higher we got because it was getting a little sketchy. I didn't mind climbing up the rocks on all-fours, but I was worried about having to go down. But we kept pushing it . . . until I wouldn't do anymore. We were probably about 1/5 of a mile to the Peak - but we had made the ridge and it was honestly probably at 13,000 feet so I think we did well. :) I didn't want to leave my kids as orphans trying to summit Wilson Peak, ha.

We hiked back down to our campsite and enjoyed a lunch and a lovely rest. Then we decided to hike out a bit so we wouldn't have to do all 10-miles the next day. (We hiked in 10 miles on Thursday. The day-hiking thus far on Friday was about 8 miles.) So we packed up and loaded our backs again and started back down the trail. Well I really messed it up by missing the spot we'd seen on our way up . . . We had spotted an area that looked like an awesome place for our 2nd night. . . Yet when we passed it on Friday I thought we had to keep going a little more . . . Ben thought it was it . . . I did suggest we turn around after 15 minutes of hiking and not seeing the spot . . . But Ben said that we should just keep going. So we kept going . . . and going . . . and going. Ha! There weren't very many great camping sites. I think we probably hiked 7 more miles (so almost 15 total that day) until we found a great spot to settle down. I felt so badly because Ben had all sorts of ideas of a peaceful evening at our campsite. But it all worked out and we finally found a spot, ate dinner (although we didn't even eat our planned dinner as we weren't hungry - just some hot cocoa and a Luna Bar), and then climbed in to our tent.

The darn wind drove me crazy as I kept thinking it was animals near our tent! I didn't sleep well that night, ha. I finally would make myself listen really carefully for any breathing . . . when I didn't hear the breathing I knew it was just the wind. But still, it was annoying and loud and unsettling for me. :)

Saturday morning we got up, ate a little bit, and then headed on our way back to the trailhead. It took us maybe 1 1/2 hours as we had hiked so much the day before. At the trailhead there were at least a couple dozen others getting ready to head out on the hike. Mostly 20-something year-olds. We were practically alone on our trip - which is cool (especially for Ben) and scary (for me). All in all, it was an awesome trip!

At the trailhead all eager and ready to go!

On the trail. The yellow bushes were lovely and I was glad we were hiking at this time of year so we could enjoy those fall colors.

Pictures are probably in reverse-order, but oh well. It was really a neat hike - a lot of "meadows" that were brilliantly yellow, cute boardwalks, bridges, streams, etc. Practically perfect.

Our camping site - gorgeous, right?!

This was on our Friday morning hike - if you look closely, maybe you can find the mountain goats . . .

Red Castle Lake was huge for an alpine lake!

Ben standing between the R.C. Lake and Upper R.C.L.

We had made it to the saddle. Now lots of scrambling up and up and up those rocks . . .

Cool! And kind of scary!

This was the Ridge - my final ascent. :)

The view from the ridge was impressive.

Ben on Wilson Ridge (named by me) with Wilson Peak in the background, holding my lovely sign I had made. :)

Red Castle Mountain, lake, meadows, and me.

It was so windy at this point - we had come down from the ridge (which was windy, too) and saw white-caps on the lake. It's hard to see in the picture, but they were there. It was crazy windy.