Just Our Nature: Winter

Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts

Lake Helene Snowshoe Hike (Feb 24, 2015)

Susan and I have been talking about a bigger snowshoe hike for the past month or so, and we kept coming back to the idea of hiking up to Lake Helene in Rocky Mountain National Park, especially after a couple of our friends skied up there recently. We've hiked this area before, but not in the winter.

We'd gotten quite a bit of fresh snow recently and heard trail conditions were excellent.

So when Tuesday dawned and promised another bluebird day, we got our snowshoes out and headed up to Bear Lake to begin our hike.

The drive in to Rocky and up Bear Lake Road was beautiful and dramatic, as always.

Make your browser full screen and then click any image to see a larger version of it.

Entering Rocky at the Beaver Meadows entrance

Along Bear Lake Road

We didn't get going all that early, hitting the trail at just before 11am.

Susan at the Bear Lake ranger hut

The hike starts at 9,475' at Bear Lake, then heads up the Flattop Mountain Trail and then joins the Fern Lake Trail. The "published" distance is about 6.4 miles round trip, with a gain of about 1,300'.

We were well-equipped this time, learning our lesson from our recent winter hike to Deer Mountain.

The scenery along the snow-covered trail was simply beautiful and we were so happy to be outside!

Along the horse trail above Bear Lake; Hallett in background

Longs Peak and Glacier Gorge

Mike on the trail

Looking back to the southeast

When we got to the large open area below Flattop Mountain we could see ski tracks all over the place. This is a popular area for skiers and boarders to hike up and do runs.

Panorama with Mike at the "ski area" below Flattop

From here, we "took the high road" climbing up higher than the summer trail. It was harder, but I think more scenic.

Looking up at other snowshoers on the "high road"

The trail had other tracks on it, but wasn't hard packed, and it was made a little more difficult by having to traverse a pretty steep slope.

Susan on the trail traversing the steep mountain slope

Along the trail

As scenic as this route was, it turned out to be a minor error, as we ended up well above Two Rivers Lake and Lake Helene with no obvious or easy way to hike down. On the other hand, being above Lake Helene provided views of Notchtop Mountain and Joe Mills Mountain which we'd never seen before from this angle.

One of our first views of Notchtop Mountain (right)

As much as Lake Helene was our destination, the real draw for me was the imposing Notchtop Mountain.

Susan presents... Notchtop Mountain!

Favorite shot of the day of Notchtop.
Note the hikers on the trail at bottom center.

We'd been hiking pretty slowly and it was starting to get late, and also windy, so we chose a direct line down to Two Rivers Lake so we could hike back on the Fern Lake summer trail.

Mike breaking trail on the way down to Two Rivers Lake (center left, below)

Susan heading down to Two Rivers Lake; Notchtop at right

Detail of Notchtop Mountain

At Two Rivers Lake we tried to sit for a few minutes to rest and have a snack, but it was just too windy to be comfortable, so we moved on down the trail.

Looking across frozen Two Rivers Lake to Notchtop

Before long we rejoined the trail we came up on, and continued on down to Bear Lake and finished up the hike.

Back on the trail

Fun shadows along the way

Susan kicking it on the trail

Icicles on trees

We ended up clocking a total of 6.9 miles with about 1,600 feet of gain. Here's the hike profile and map generated by Gaia GPS on the iPhone.

Our last view of Hallett before heading to the car

Deer Mountain Winter Hike (Feb 8, 2015)

Susan and I had been talking for awhile about going up to Deer Mountain in the winter, so when this Sunday morning began with clear skies, we decided to grab our gear and head for the trailhead.

We didn't expect a lot of snow on the trail, and figured what there was would be well-packed by other hikers.

As we began the hike at 10:30am, we found the first part of the trail was patchy with snow and ice, and soon we both had our MicroSpikes on.

Horseshoe Park with Chapin, Chiquita and Ypsilon summits

The trail was pretty much what we expected until we got to the top of the all the switchbacks on the northwest side of the mountain. Then the "social" trail veered off the normal summer trail and for some reason took us more to the north. We decided to correct and had to bushwhack through the snow to head back to the normal summer trail leading to the summit.

Susan on the trail

The going got a lot harder, as there was 12-18" of snow on the unblazed trail, and we were not only post-holing a lot, but finding it hard to spot the actual unmarked trail.

As the snow got deeper we began to talk about whether we should just turn around. As we stopped to discuss, another couple about our age caught up with us by following our tracks, and they seemed to be confident of being able to reach the summit.

Susan decided that if they could do it, so could we, so we took a bearing on the summit and headed mostly towards it, tromping through the deep snow and weaving around trees and rocks.

Us, apparently happy with our decision to go on to the summit :-)

We leap-frogged with the other couple for maybe a quarter mile until they decided they'd had enough and they turned around to head down. We decided to keep going, as we were only about a thousand feet from the summit.

But with no trail, almost 2 feet of snow, steep terrain, and no snowshoes (or gaiters), we were post-holing on almost every step and were getting a lot of snow in our boots.

Finally, we reached the summit just before 2pm, and had it completely to ourselves!

Pano from the summit

We took off our boots and socks to try to dry them out a little, but the damage was done, and we'd be hiking down with wet feet. Not a big deal, as it was a very warm day, but a good lesson about always having gaiters -- and maybe snowshoes -- when we do a winter summit hike!

Mike on the "trail"

The hike down was somewhat easier, as we could avoid post-holing a little by walking in our tracks, and we got back down to the trailhead about 4:15pm.

Susan on the trail on the way down

Along the trail

Here's a hike map and elevation/speed profile.

The red line shows how much we slowed down as we approached the summit!

All the snow and post-holing, especially near the summit took a lot out of us, but we were very happy we summitted. As you may know, Deer Mountain is very special to us, as we got married on the summit in 2005. We have a new goal of hiking Deer Mountain in every month of the year, and this wonderful February winter hike takes care of one of those months!

We've now done the hike in February, April, May, June, July, and August. We'd better get busy on those other months! :-)

Morning panorama from Deer Mountain summit (Aug 2011)

Dream Lake Hike (Jan 27, 2015)

We had our heads down "working" at home when we learned that Tim and Karen, recent transplants to Colorado, were heading up to Rocky the next day, and asked if we wanted to join them on a winter hike.

We happily accepted their invitation, and recommended they purchase MicroSpikes for traction on the ice and snow. We also suggested a hike from Bear Lake, to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes. This hike is fairly easy, and has a lot of bang for the buck!

Somewhere above Dream Lake we lost the main trail to Emerald, and though we were very close, we can't quite claim we made it all the way. But at least we got them up above 10,000 feet, a hiking first for Karen (though not for Tim, as he and I had hiked Estes Cone recently).

Here are some photos from the hike.