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.