The initial backpacking trip was postponed, remember, due to monsoon weather. So we planned to do another one August 11-14th. The boys, however, could not come because they had their YM High Adventure the same time. Due to that, I did not want to go backpack to Powderhorn lakes - it's just quite remote and sometimes no one else is there. Which Ben loves, but as the single adult going with a bunch of young girls, it didn't make me comfortable. So I decided to go to the Crested Butte area, knowing there would be other people around on the trails.
My sister totally helped me in getting a campsite at the Oh Be Joyful campground. My sister-in-law Brittany had mentioned wanting to check this out years ago and I actually tried to get a reservation last year but was not able to. Anyways, Erin helped one morning (because I was out of range) and secured us a campsite for 3 nights. One of Emmy's friends who was coming, Millie, really, really, really wanted to go backpacking. So I found a little overnight backpacking trip we could do in the middle of our car-camping.
We left Wednesday late-afternoon and got up there by 7. It was a beautiful campsite, right next to the Slate River. We set up the tent and hammocks and even had a fire - started by Lucy and Lila. We all slept well that evening. We got up on Thursday and packed up all our gear for our backpacking trip. We actually drove down to Gunnison to pick up Millie, who couldn't come on Wednesday night. Also, we met up with one of my favorite friends - Sarah. She moved almost 3 months ago and I hadn't seen her since. She was bringing her son Aiden over to Gunnison for an orthodontic's appointment to get his braces off. We all met (Millie, Sarah, and us) in the parking lot and had fun chatting for a half-hour.
Then we girls headed out and drove to the trailhead for our backpacking adventure. Copper Lake was our destination. We ate lunch at the trailhead and then started hiking. It was a really beautiful area. The wildflowers, though not at their peak, were still gorgeous. (I guess Crested Butte calls itself the "Wildflower capital of Colorado.") The hike in totaled about 6 miles - and that last mile was pretty challenging. But the girls did great. We had about 4-5 stream crossings, which also made for some great water-filtering breaks.
As soon as we got to the lake (yay!), the older girls found a campsite (you have to camp at a designated site). We all brought ourselves and packs up there and started to set-up camp. As we were working on getting set up, the winds began to go crazy! So we rushed to get it all set-up before it started raining (which looked and felt like a good possibility). Tents were blowing all over and we had to hold on to them for dear-life, ha. The older girls couldn't find their stakes and so threw their packs in their tent and then we all chilled and played BS in our tent while the wind went wild. I felt confident it would pass (I had checked the weather and there was only a slight chance of storms and only for a little bit). It sprinkled just a tiny bit, but finally passed. We spent the evening walking around part of the lake, playing cards (the older girls) and building fairy houses out of mushrooms (the younger girls).
We all played games in the older girls' tent that evening and then around 9 the three of us (myself, Lucy, and Lila) went to our tent. Lila was chatting about being warm, etc. Then Lucy started complaining of her head hurting, and her neck. Then her stomach. Uh-oh. A few minutes later (and amazingly Lila was completely asleep - although it had only been no more than 5 minutes when she was last talking!) Lucy was stating she was going to throw-up. I was scrambling to find a bag and found one and she promptly barfed into it. Oh dear. Lucy tends to get dramatic when she doesn't feel well - "I don't feel well, I don't fell well," she was shaking, crying, etc. I stayed calm, but was also really worried - what if she was going to be sick all night? How would she be able to hike out, carry her pack, etc. Lucy almost ends up hyperventilating every time she's sick and that night was no exception. She ended up barfing again about 10 minutes later. Now I had barf to deal with - I couldn't leave it in our tent, our bear-bags were already up and hanging . . . so I just walked it down the path a bit and put it underneath one of our packs. Fun stuff. I prayed and prayed that Lucy wouldn't barf anymore and would be able to sleep well that night. Apparently I forgot to pray that I would sleep well, too. :) Lucy finally fell asleep around 10:30, but for the next 4 hours would wake up about every hour and cry out something. I would say something like, "You're okay" and she would fall right back asleep - she was probably never fully awake. But it kept me awake for sure. I was probably still a bit worried she'd barfed again (so I kept my headlamp on so I could see the barf-bag quickly). Plus, I heard all the crazy night noises that you hear in the outdoors that never makes you comfortable sleeping! There were definitely times of huge stomping going on right outside of our tent - or at least it seemed so. So it was a bit of an unsettling night for me. But after those first hours, Lucy fell asleep and was fine for the rest of the night. She woke up completely great. (I think her barfing was maybe due to her headache that just got worse - plus a little bit of dehydration and over-exertion?)
Anyways, that wasn't a great night for me, but whatever. We got up the next morning grateful that none of us had been devoured by a bear. :) We ate breakfast and then packed up and headed back out. It was a nice, mostly down-hill hike. There weren't tons of people that hike all the way to the lake (we saw 2 other groups there at the lake), but there were definitely a small number on the trail - many of which commented on the awesomeness of the girls backpacking all the way into the lake. We stopped about a 1/2 miles from the trailhead at Judd Falls for a lunch break and then finished up our hike. It was great!
We drove back to our campsite and were there by 1:30, I think. Heather, Holly and Lila's mom, had come the day before with her two younger kids and had camped in our tent and was staying Friday night, too. So it was fun to finally have another adult around! The kids spent the afternoon and evening in the hammocks, playing and even swimming (in the deep spots) in the creek, playing card games, etc. They had fun. I attempted two dutch-oven meals - well dinner (Sprite chicken - it was pretty decent! But the potatoes and carrots could have cooked a bit longer) and dessert (peach cobbler - yummy). We had a fire, played Sushi Go, etc. Heather and her three youngest (including Lila) and myself and Lucy all slept in our huge tent. The three older girls (Emmy, Holly, and Millie) slept in their own tent and they sounded like they were having lots of fun together. :)
I got up about 7 the next morning and started waking up everybody around 8. We were going to hike the Oh Be Joyful trail that literally starts right out of our campsite. The younger kids didn't get too far and went back with Heather. I "made" the older girls hike with me for a while longer. :) It was so pretty! I really want to go back and do the whole trail! We probably hiked about 5 1/2 miles (round-trip) and I think it's about a 12-mile hike. I loved it and it felt so good hiking without a pack! We found and ate lots of delicious raspberries along the way. :)
We got back and basically got packed up and the kids played and swam some more. On our way home we stopped by Crested Butte (I need to go back and check it out more) and went to a super-cute mini-donut and ice-cream shop. Millie had been there before and talked about it and so we decided to treat all of us to some sweets. It was such a cute store and the donuts were adorable. Then we drove home, dropped off the girls and said goodbye, then unpacked and put away all of our stuff. It was exhausting. But totally worth it!
Wednesday:
1 comment:
Ugh, bugs are so annoying and I'm so glad you didn't have them. Also, not getting eaten by a bear is tops. This just looks incredible.
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