Anniversary dinner

I just posted about going on our 8th year anniversary trip a month late, but thanks to my mom, we did go out to dinner on our anniversary here in Kansas City, too. Last year on our 7th we got dressed up and went out to the Capital Grille. Great service, Great food if a bit high brow. This year, we headed to Southwest Boulevard and hit up Ponaks. Good margaritas and good eats. That's all we needed. Love this man and can't believe it's already been 8 years of marriage.

Time away

It had been over a year and a half since Mandy and I had a weekend alone together without the kids.  We love the little buggers, but it sure is nice to have an entire conversation, or even speak an entire sentence without being interrupted.  So we arranged a babysitter, booked flights to Colorado and went.

We landed at DIA at 7:30, hopped into the rental car and met our friends who lived about 30 minutes away.  We shared some fun conversation amidst a few beers and slices of pizza, and managed to keep their four-year old up way too late.  We left and headed to Boulder, checked into our hotel and fell asleep fast, two hours past our normal bedtime.

Short hike around Boulder

The next morning, we went to a great Creole cafe (Lucille's) for breakfast, followed by a short hike on Flagstaff Mountain, just west of the UC campus, in order to help get acclimated.  We wandered Pearl Street after our hike, and had lunch at Pasta Jay's.  We had no particular agenda, and it was nice to just relax without having to rush back to kids.  After our late lunch, we drove to Estes Park.

We arrived at our little cabin - a mother-in-law's quarters, really - around four.  We unpacked, went into town to get some food for our hike the next day, and capped off the night at the Rock Inn, a local hangout that has been one of our favorites since our snowshoeing trip out here.

The next morning, we left early to do a hike up to Black Lake, a nice little lake nestled high in Glacier Gorge.  The drive into the park was pretty, with low-lying fog highlighting the alpenglow of the mountains in the background.  It was cold at the start, around 35-40 degrees, but it was a beautiful day with little wind and bright sunshine when we weren't in the shade of the trees.

Looking off into Moraine Park

 We cruised past the ever-popular Alberta Falls, on up to Mills Lake.   The lake looked much different than the last time we were here, in February 2011, when it was frozen solid.  It was also blowing about 40-60 miles per hour, and at one point we were hurled across the ice.  We stopped and took a quick snack break, but it was too cold to stay put for long, so we continued on.

Looking off into Glacier Gorge

Mills Lake - that large rock in the lake on the right was what we tried to take shelter behind when we were up here in the winter. 

Another strong wind event in November 2011, with gusts up to 90 miles per hour, blew down a mile or so of trees from Mills Lake to  Black Lake and making the trail impassable for some time. The scale of this was hard to imagine, almost as though a tornado had touched down and heaved these massive trees everywhere. In some places, it was almost like walking through a canyon, with rock walls on one side, and massive tree roots on the other.

We passed Ribbon Falls just before we finally arrived at our destination.  We were starving, so we found a rock at the edge of the lake and devoured our Subway sandwiches.  After lunch, we agreed to go on to Blue Lake even though we were pretty tired by then.  There is a steep uphill along the falls for about three-quarters of a mile when we finally called it a day and turned around.  We were in the right spot, and I was certain the map showed the lake to be "just over that hill", but I saw no trail and we were too tired by then to do any bushwhacking, so we turned around and headed down.

Ribbon Falls

Above Black Lake

It always seems to take longer to go down than go up, especially if you're covering the same ground.  We were both dog-tired, and stopped to rest at Mills Lake again.  After a few minutes, we heard blood-curdling screams towards the end of the lake.  Thinking someone was seriously hurt, we practically ran in that direction.  We eventually caught up to a couple with two kids in backpacks on their backs, including a two-year old who had fallen in the water, and who was pissed when her mom made her ride in the backpack rather than walk in her wet shoes.

We finally made it back to the car, made it back to the cabin and quickly showered.  We "face-timed" with the boys, who both seemed to be having a great time with the babysitter, headed out to do laundry and then, gratefully made to Ed's Cantina for mexican food and margaritas.

The next morning, we almost decided to go to Starbucks instead of hiking.  We were both tired, a little sore and I thought we had gotten up too late to do the hike we had discussed the night before.  Mandy convinced me we had time, so we packed our backpacks and set off for Twin Sisters.

Twin Sisters from our cabin

Not having been there when he did it, Mandy really wanted to see what Noah climbed the last time we were here.  Twin Sisters is actually a couple of peaks, both over 11,400 feet, that overlook the city of Estes Park, and several other peaks in the area, with awesome views of Longs Peak.  It's a 7.2-mile round trip, mostly forested, but with the last .7 miles above tree line over rugged ground.  We were tired from the day before, but actually feeling better - a little more acclimated, and feeling a little stronger overall.

It was another beautiful day, with cool temps and almost no wind.  Toward the top, Mandy was moving a little slower than Noah was on our last trip, but we eventually made it to the top.  The views are excellent from here, and we ended up spending nearly an hour on top, taking pictures, eating a snack and enjoying the views.  We hoofed it down in about an hour and a half, and finished the entire 7.2-mile hike in about 5.5 hours, only an hour shorter than it took Noah and I to do it in July.  Mandy was impressed that he was able to do it at all.

Singing at the top

After the hike, we hit Ed's Cantina again for a bite to eat, then grabbed a shower at the local laundromat before heading to Denver to see our friend Paul, who married us both at Chasm Lake eight years ago.  That remains, to my knowledge, the only wedding ceremony the good Reverend has performed.  We enjoyed great grilled pork chops over a few beers as we got to know his wife and kids.  Afterwards, we  headed to the airport, dropped off the rental car and hung out until our flight back to KC.

Best post-hike snack

It was late when we got home, so we checked on the sleeping kids. They handled the weekend just fine without us, according to the babysitter, and we enjoyed the time away alone.

Chasm Lake

We decided to hike to Chasm Lake again this year.  Although we've hiked it a few times in the last few years, together and separate, this was the first time in 5 years we've hiked it alone together.

This hike is well-known to us, but it's always different.  This year, the weather was much warmer than usual, and instead of being frosty at the start, we were fine in just t-shirts.  The trail, the first part of which also shares the route to the top of Longs Peak, was unusually free of other hikers, providing much more solitude than we sometimes find.  And the mountains held much more snow than we've ever seen at this time of year, creating a unique hike and a very cool environment at the lake.

When we planned it, I wasn't so sure about doing it.  For a number of reasons, I'm in a lot worse shape to do this thing than I've been in in years past.  The biggest physical issue is the torn meniscus in my knee, and the ensuing layoff from running has apparently shrunk my lungs, especially at this altitude.

But I like having the chance to spend a few hours alone with my wife, talking about whatever we come up with, so I'm willing to give it a try.  However disappointing it would be to me to turn around, I know she'll understand.  I'm generally pretty quiet, but she's one of those people who can draw me out, and make me want to talk, so we have a lot of fun doing it.

We talk about a lot of things, including our history of coming to this place since she discovered it in 2003. It's a nice day, no one around, and as hard as it is, it's feeling kind of easy.  We get to Chasm Junction, where you can either go to Longs Peak or to Chasm, and we keep going without stopping.  This is the part it should get briefly easy - a slightly downhill (but exposed) trail to Chasm Meadows, before you climb the boulder wall to get to the lake.  This year we encounter a snowfield, a remnant of all the snow that fell this year, and something new to us.

There are steps chopped into parts of the snow, but if you fall, it's going to be a pretty rough ending.  We didn't bring spikes or crampons, so we plan to take care, but it's our first time across.  There has been a tremendous amount of snowfall in the West this year, so there are more of these stories going around, and we have no desire to become one of them.  Mandy, although nervous, listened to her inner voice and decided she could do it.

We take our time to get across, but enjoy the rush of doing so, and head to the lake.  Once we arrive, we find ourselves completely alone.  The lake is high with snowmelt, and has a few large floating icebergs in it.  The first or second year we were here, a local cross country team ran up here and jumped into the lake.  It was freezing cold then, but there was no ice in it.

We find the rock we were engaged and married on, and due to questionable clouds above, spend only a few minutes having lunch and reminiscing.  After we got back, we headed to Ed's Cantina for a well-earned margarita and some Mexican food.  Despite being out of shape, we got up and down quicker than we ever have. 

Chasm Lake Anniversary Hike

Chasm Lake is a special place for Paul & me. We first hiked there in August of 2003. The lack of oxygen and beauty of the place apparently got to Paul when he asked me to marry him. Not being into big-fancy-overpriced-weddings, we decided to hike back the next August 2004 and get hitched on that same rock we got engaged on - the "Rock of Commitment", as my family calls it. It was fun, free and you just can't beat the view.

We went back in 2005 for our 1st anniversary and decided we'd do it annually. Between pregnancy, nursing, etc, we just haven't been able to make it happen. This was the first year, since our 1 year anniversary, we were able to hike it up again together. We are so thankful to mom for watching the kids, so we could celebrate 6 years of marriage by hiking our favorite hike together again.

We hiked up in about 3 hours and really enjoyed our time at the lake for almost an entire hour. We saw some marmots in the boulder hill area you have to climb, but they left us alone while we ate and sat and just enjoyed our view of the beautiful lake and Long's Peak. We really just enjoyed the hike and didn't break out the camera much except at the top. Can't wait for next year!

This is Peacock Pond in the background. This is one of the most enjoyable parts of the hike. It's very demanding uphill for the first couple of miles or so. Then you get to walk on a fairly flat area and have views like this. Next time we are thinking of hiking down to Peacock Pond on the way. It's not far, but the rocks slide so you have to be really careful.

This is the waterfall that feeds into Peacock Pond


Sam & Keith came along on the hike, too


This is on our rock

Long's Peak famous "Diamond" face is behind us. Paul has summited the top of this peak twice, RMNP's highest mountain at 14,259 feet. It is a serious hike that a few people do die on every year (at least 3 this year). So proud of my mountaineer husband. I'm good just below it ;)

Paul was using his water filter to fill up our camelbacks with fresh water. The water is clear, we just had some orange gatorade left in the camelback.

You can't see in this picture, but if we looked closely at certain times we saw itty bitty people at the top moving.

Sam & Keith on our rock
Stuffing our faces/meditating on the beauty on our rock
On the way back at my favorite area (flat and pretty). Love the sky here.

Almost There

Today was our 5-year anniversary. Ideally, we would have hiked back to the place we were married - Chasm Lake - but it is quite a bit longer, higher and more exposed above treeline, and we would be carrying Elliot with us this year.

Instead, we decided to hike Estes Cone, a 6.2-mile hike to 11,000 feet overlooking Estes Park, and with great views of the surrounding mountains.

Estes Cone


We planned to get to the trailhead by 5:30 AM to get up and down early, but one consequence of our marriage (kids) means never getting to leave the house on time. We finally got started at 6:00 AM, and realized we forgot Elliot's gloves - a necessity in the 40-ish degree weather. So he borrowed Mandy's fleece gloves. We stopped a couple of times to feed Elliot, and were concerned about how warm he was. We improvised an infant "snuggie" out of Mandy's fleece (don't worry, we still had plenty of clothes for her).

At the trailhead

Pausing for breath. Note the stylish gloves.

The trail towards the top

Elliot slept a lot of the hike in but as the trail ascended, the air got thinner and the temperatures got colder, and as he was being bounced around by my trying to navigate the boulders that the trail had become, he decided he had had enough of the backpack.

We were almost to the top, and decided to turn around. A disappointment after being so close, but we didn't want him to hate the backpack forever and were still worried about whether he was warm enough. He quickly fell back asleep as we decended.

Sporting the infant snuggie - he's got his legs in the fleece arms, which are tied in knots, and the rest of it wrapped around his body.

Longs Peak in the background.

Coming back down. Yes, that is the "trail".

Taking a break from the backpack

Warmer and happier

Family self-portrait: A feat that will likely never be repeated - it was my first try, with a telephoto on the camera, with all three of us in the frame and all of us actually looking at the camera.

Why does the hike down always seem twice as long as the hike up? We eventually got back to the car, and Elliot was relieved to be out of the pack after more than four hours.

We spent most of the rest of the day just relaxing at home. Noah woke up right after we left, so he was in a fine, sleep-deprived mood when we came back. He took a much-needed nap as I drove Anita and Sam to Bear Lake for some hiking. He and I went for pizza after he woke up, while Mandy took care of Elliot and a little bug he seemed to have caught.

Our anniversary dinner was grilled hot dogs and Mac 'n Cheese. Good times.