The forecast called for a windy, but mild day with temps reaching the high 40's in town. But, it was SO windy. My mom said she saw on GMA that morning that there were wind advisories in the Rocky Mountains for up to 60mph. I thought that was odd to be reported on national news, especially since the park ranger didn't give us any warning when we entered the park. Looking up high into the mountains, it looked calmer than the day before, actually. But, when we got out of the car at the Glacier Gorge trailhead it was extremely windy. We both had that feeling inside that we could have been talked out of the hike, but we are both too stubborn to ever actually SAY anything like that out loud. Luckily, as soon as we got into the trees, the wind quieted down and it was actually quite nice and mild. Less than a mile into the hike, I had to take off my coat to prevent sweating.
We stopped at Alberta Falls first, which was frozen and snow covered. It just looked like a steep hill. Naturally we had to climb onto it, just to say we did. I was satisfied just to hike out to the middle, but Paul hiked up that steep hill to the very top.
This is me climbing into Alberta Falls
Paul in the middle, where we are used to seeing rushing waterfalls
Paul's view from the top of Alberta Falls
After a small little pitstop we continued on to Mills Lake. It was pleasant hiking and we kept up a nice pace for awhile in the mild weather.
In the snow it is really easy to get off track. For one thing, they have purposeful detours called "winter routes". I like to just follow obvious trails, but these are not so obvious. And then sometimes it is. It looks like a trail. It's packed with snowshoe tracks. But often the snow has blown over and it's smooth and you have no clue where to go. So we got off track at some point.
We think it might have been here.....
Paul is standing in Glacier Creek (it drains out of Glacier Gorge into Alberta Falls), which normally is a stream and not part of the summer trail for sure. *cough* I don't think it's part of the winter trail either *cough*
Yep, it was steep
Soon it was clear we had gone wrong somewhere and were off track
Paul had his compass and a map and was able to tell where we were and where our destination was. We did run into 2 other experienced hikers who also got off trail (probably following our tracks), which was kind of encouraging to me. Paul was never worried because we weren't "lost". He knew where we were on the map. The way the crow flies it wasn't too far. But, getting there was not so easy. We were first going through snow not well packed and it's physically hard when you go down deep and lift up your foot with snow piled up on your snowshoe. It's just a hard workout. And at times, I was in knee and even thigh deep. Pretty soon, Paul tells me we are going to have to do a little bushwhacking. By the time we got through the area of dense trees and hiked down to the bottom we could finally could see the creek/drainage from the lake to our right. The actual "trail" was across the drainage and up quite a bit higher on a ridge. We stopped for some GORP and Gatorade and I felt more energy, but just wasn't sure how long I could go not knowing when it would ever end.
Paul said he was 100% sure he'd get us there, so I said we would keep going, after him asking if I wanted to turn around.
As we were getting closer and passed a couple of hikers coming down they warned that it was really windy up there. We could start to feel the winds pick back up and knew that it would be very windy on the lake.
Getting closer....
So my first impression is sheer awe at the beauty of it while simultaneously amazed at the powerful winds. HOLY COW. It was way worse/windier than the day before that we thought was bad.
Paul told me to go out there and we'd get a few pics and leave.
I felt equipped to deal with the constant wind (25-45 mph according to the weather report), but then there would be these HUGE gusts every minute (or less), that were up to 60mph, per the weather report. We mentioned Paul was blown off his feet the day before at Dream Lake. Well that was nothing. I was shielded somewhat by some rocks in the middle of the lake when Paul was taking pictures. I got in my "stance" and squatted down, planted my poles and found a focal point to balance. I did pretty well, but Paul started running REALLY fast taking these mini short steps. It was a hysterical sight to see! He looked like a little girl running. He said he was trying not to fall down as the wind was pushing him, and I was shielded. Of course, I felt MAJOR wind and didn't think the rock shielded me. I thought I was just doing better balancing. He asked if I was ready to go back. I told him "No way, I'm having too much fun!" It was crazy out there, but such a natural high. After being exhausted hiking up, I felt my gas tank filling up with endorphins at reaching the lake and adrenaline from the crazy wind giving me a renewed sense of energy. Paul was pleasantly surprised I wanted to walk across the lake and stay longer. So I continued to walk slowly out in the wind. Suddenly another big gust came. I got in my standard "stance" (which we later laughed at looking at all the pictures, as we decided I was doing what babies do when they poop in their diapers standing off in a corner) and braced myself and suddenly it didn't work. I got blown away. And then I started doing the "girly run" taking steps trying not to fall not 2 minutes after I laughed at Paul doing it. Except it didn't work. I fell down on the icy lake as one of my poles was blown out of my hand and across the lake.
Meanwhile, Paul wasn't bracing himself well as he was taking my picture. He was not only blown down, but actually blown ACROSS.THE.LAKE. Then his hat blew off and into the mountains. After making fun of ME running like a girl, he went to retrieve his hat and both of our poles that blew away, as well. We saw some cross country skiers blown down, too.
After that gust, it felt a little more scary and out of our control and I thought it would be a good idea to start heading back and Paul agreed. It was a lot of fun and we stayed long enough to really take it in. We talked to a local guy up there. He said its always windy, but normally you can find a spot by a rock and sit down and eat comfortably. He said he's never seen gusts like that.
This is me walking just off the lake back down
Shortly after getting out of the wind and hiking down at a good pace, I realized I was hungry. Starving, in fact. So we stopped in the snow and had some food and Gatorade to refuel. The hike back down was much easier and only took 1 1/2 hours. There were only a couple of times we had to stop and make sure we were staying on the trail and a few steep areas that slowed down the pace a bit. We felt that wonderful and familiar feeling of exhilaration as we approached the trailhead after accomplishing the hike we set out to do and burning some major calories (estimates are 2,500 calories for that hike). Naturally, we had to replenish those calories splitting a large pizza afterwards while watching Bucket List at the condo. Another great movie to end our weekend.
Near the trailhead as we finished our hike. See how the trail sign is buried in deep snow.
This is how one looks after snowshoeing 5 1/2 hours and enduring major wind :)
Even though we had the condo for the night, our 6am flight was going to come early and DIA is a good hour and a half drive from Estes. So we decided to pack up our stuff and head into Denver to stay by the airport for the night. I talked Paul's ear off until we got out of the mountains and then once on a freeway I succombed to the exhaustion and passed out in the car until we got to Denver.
This trip met all of our expectations. We got away from all the distractions in our busy life and just got to have fun and reconnect, just the two of us, and it was great. But, not to be mistaken we did miss our boys desperately. We knew they were safe and happy with Grandma and Aunt Sam, so we certainly didn't let it ruin our fun, but we did our fair share of talking about them and how much we missed them.
The 4am wake up call came quick, but I was so excited to go home it wasn't hard to get up. After an hour delay due to a maintenance issue we arrived in KC by mid morning. As Monday is the day both boys go to school, we stopped for breakfast on the way home and then got some unpacking and laundry going before it was time to pick up the boys. We both picked up Noah at school together and we were all so excited. They'd had Valentine's Day celebrations and Noah broke into some fun dip, even before we pulled out of the parking lot. We enjoyed a walk and some playtime at home before it was time to pick up Elliot. Noah wanted to stay home with Paul, so i went to get him and have never been more excited to see him in my life. In just the few days we were gone he is talking even more. It was so fun just hanging out with our boys that afternoon refreshed from our getaway. And since we've been back, I've been able to parent the boys with more joy. Just taking a little break I think makes me a better mom somehow. Not sure how that works, but it just does. I'm so thankful to my family for helping us out watching the kids. It is no small feat and my mom was actually sick, so it was great Sam & Keith were there to help.
