I sleep an hour later than normal, but still it's only 4:00 AM here because of the time zone. The wind is absolutely, literally, howling and has been all night. It shakes the condo during the bigger gusts, and while I wonder a little bit about what it will be like in the mountains when we're snowshoeing, I have to admit I like it here. I've always liked listening to the wind at night. I leave Mandy to sleep in for once, and go out and start writing by the fire, enjoying the quiet.
A little while later as I drive to Starbucks - the only place open in this town at 6:00 AM - I see the tall pine trees that line the downtown streets swaying wildly in the wind. They are covered in Christmas lights, so the effect in the early morning darkness is somewhat like watching trees dance. The baristas tell me the wind starts in October, and lasts until Spring - they call it the "four letter word that starts with 'W'", but then say they usually don't notice it any more. They say if it wasn't blowing like this, there would be a million more permanent residents in their small town. But not today. Today they notice it, and comment on how it's particularly windy. I strike up a conversation with an older gentleman, a local resident whose artwork, it turns out, adorns the Starbucks. He too comments on how windy it is.
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| Looking up at the windy mountains from our condo. |
I drive back to the condo, get Mandy and we go out for breakfast, marveling again at how easy it is just to get out the door in quick fashion. Unlike summer hiking, where we prefer to get started at the crack of dawn, we took our time, lingering over breakfast before going home and getting our packs ready. We're used to packing for summer, but winter hiking entails being prepared for just about anything, weather-wise. Obviously you want to stay warm, but the real goal is to stay dry so you avoid hypothermia. This means you need to rapidly adjust to changing temperatures by adding and subtracting layers, requiring you to carry all those layers. It took us a while to get it just right, with everything handy, but we got it done and headed for Bear Lake.
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| Those aren't clouds, in case you were wondering. |
Our goal today was just to get to Emerald Lake and back on a winter route suggested by the ranger. It was Mandy's first time snowshoeing and my second, and we considered this a good shakedown hike for winter. The temperature at the trailhead was fairly warm - around 28 degrees - considering that it was hovering around 5-10 degrees when I checked earlier in the week. Driving up to the park, it was clear that the wind was not only howling in town, but it was also blasting the mountains. The snow being blown off the mountains looked almost like fog or clouds. We were prepared for it, but also had some reservations about how cold, and potentially miserable, it might end up being.
We put on our snowshoes at the Bear Lake trail head and started off towards Nymph lake. The snow-covered woods were beautiful, and reminded us again why we like these mountains so much. We took it slow so Mandy could get used to the snowshoes, but she did great right off the bat. We had passed some other beginners who were falling over and getting stuck in the snow, and clearly not having as much fun.
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| Starting out at Bear Lake trailhead |
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| Our first destination - Nymph Lake. Quiet, sunny and snow-covered. |
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| Mandy testing the ice - she was afraid of falling in, and having the hole freeze over. She's seen too many movies. |
After taking a few pictures on the ice, we moved on up through some less-traveled paths towards Dream Lake. We could hear steady sound of the heavy wind passing through the thousands of trees, but being somewhat sheltered in the woods and still lower on the mountain, we didn't get more than a few direct breezes. As we got up higher, we could see the massive amounts of snow blowing down the drainage between Hallett's Peak and Flattop Mountain, and got some occasional strong gusts of wind. As we approached Dream, we came out of a valley, over a ridge and onto the lake, where we were met with a massive wall of wind that we were both unprepared for.
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| Stopping to take pictures with Longs Peak in the background |
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| Hmmmmm... |
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| Ok, Mandy - you go first |
It's pretty standard in the winter when the weather is like this - the wind rushes over the continental divide, the air sinks rapidly as it crosses the peaks and it rushes down the valleys. Standing at the end of a long, frozen lake without any protection from the trees, we were just getting blasted.
I am at least 220 if you include all the gear in my pack, and I was getting pushed around by the stronger gusts, and at one point got blown down as I was turning around. In only a few seconds after Mandy removed her outer mittens to try to put on a balaclava to cover her face, her fingers got dangerously cold through her gloves. The wind was blowing ice and snow at us, and it felt like someone throwing handfuls of sand in your face.
After a few minutes of trying to adjust, we gave up and retreated back to the valley we had just come from. We regrouped, got our gear on and zipped up and tried again. We lasted only a few more minutes at the head of the lake, and we discussed going back. It was clear this was a turnaround point for a lot of other hikers. Instead, we headed into the trees to the right of the lake, where at least the wind was bearable, and continued on. When we finally got across the lake and into the trees, it became relatively quiet again.
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| Happy to be in the trees again |
When it's cold, it's difficult to regulate your food and drink intake. Mandy didn't have enough of either and was getting sluggish. The final leg to Emerald was more uphill, and the wind continued to work against us. When we finally made it, there was only one other person up there and neither of us stayed long. The wind was just as bad as before, so we just snapped a few pictures and turned around. We stopped after awhile to have some lunch, after which Mandy felt better, and then continued back down.
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| The wind had at some point frozen huge blocks of ice against the shoreline |
We took an alternative route back towards Bear Lake which took us up and down some pretty steep grades. It was intended to be a shortcut, but after a while I lost faith that we were on the right track, even though we could see Bear Lake below us, and headed back for the standard summer trail. We did get to enjoy some glissading down a few of the hills, which was a welcome breather from breaking trail in the deep snow.
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| Checking the ice at Dream Lake on the way back down. It was much less windy, or at least it wasn't blowing us off our feet. |
We finally made it back after nearly 4 1/2 hours, drove back to the condo and laid around for awhile. We went back to the Rock Inn for dinner, then soaked our tired muscles in the now-hotter hot tub. We checked in to see how the boys were doing, and it was clear that Grandma had had a long day with them. The boys had been amped up with a house full of people, but they didn't seem to miss us too badly. Tomorrow we're planning on an earlier start and a longer trip, so we didn't stay up late.
