Friday, 24 July 2009
Glacier National "walk in the" Park
The week that was in facts and stats:
- immigration officers (1 Canadian, 2 US)
- US National Park Rangers (several, all very concerned that we hang our food into the provided bear safe hanging tree over night, make lots of noise on the trail so as not to startle a bear and use the pit toilets at the campsite - "but don't put trash in them")
- moose (10, grazing in a lake)
- marmots (hoary and very friendly)
- Columbian ground squirrels (standing bolt-upright like mercats)
- mountain goats (white as snow with black eyes, kids and nannies)
- Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep (group of tups lazing around, groups of ewes busy looking after lambs)
- golden eagles (soaring)
- bald eagle (soaring)
- black bear (digging up stuff at the side of the trail)
- tourists (thousands at the roadside visitor centre - very scary - only a hand-full on the trails)
- miles walked through the park: aprox 90
- weather: sunshine, hot
- flowers: carpets of them (bear grass, forget me not, indian paint brush, penstemon, cinquefoil, Schafgabe, hollyhocks, geraniums, delphiniums, asters, glacier lillies and lots and lots I don't know by name!)
- mountains: SPECTACULAR
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Flip-flop through the hot springs
Dear Reader,
we have made is through the Wemanuche Wilderness in 5 fabulous days with wonderful trails and flowers and wildlife and got back to Wolfcreek Pass where we left off a month ago. The flo-flop to mid-way Colorado has been well worth it since we had perfect conditions (as far as the snow went) in this highest part of the trail. Quite a lot of thunderstorms - which was FUN when you are walking on the Divide!
From Wolfcreek we hitched into Pagosa Springs again and had a dip in the hot springs in the evening. Then Trail-Witch Mary Joy picked us up and took us for a v interesting morning to ancestoral pueoblo site Chimney Rock. Ruins on a narrow ridge leading up to spectacular twin sandstone towers at the end - aprox 1000 years old and related to the famous Chaco Canyon ruins in some way - but very little is known about the people who built them and their culture (or even why they would have built up there, far from water and fields). V intersting!!
Leisurely wound our way back to MJ's home in Montrose via Silverton and Molass Pass. We were guests at MJ's for two nights and managed to pick up a hire car from the nearby town. This we are taking to a town near Glacier National Park on the Canada/US border where we will start hiking again, facing South.
On route we've swum at Glenwood Springs hot springs (Colorado), tiny but hot Saratoga hot springs (Wyoming) and we are now at Thermopolis which boasts two hotspring pools (with GREAT slides!) and the campsite we were at last night (called "Fountain of Youth") also has a hotspring pool all of its own. So over the past 5 days we have visited 5 different hot springs. They say they are good for your health but my face now looks like Pizza and both B and I smell noticible of sulfur. Heading for Montana today and hoping to start hiking from the Canadian Border in 3-4 days time!
we have made is through the Wemanuche Wilderness in 5 fabulous days with wonderful trails and flowers and wildlife and got back to Wolfcreek Pass where we left off a month ago. The flo-flop to mid-way Colorado has been well worth it since we had perfect conditions (as far as the snow went) in this highest part of the trail. Quite a lot of thunderstorms - which was FUN when you are walking on the Divide!
From Wolfcreek we hitched into Pagosa Springs again and had a dip in the hot springs in the evening. Then Trail-Witch Mary Joy picked us up and took us for a v interesting morning to ancestoral pueoblo site Chimney Rock. Ruins on a narrow ridge leading up to spectacular twin sandstone towers at the end - aprox 1000 years old and related to the famous Chaco Canyon ruins in some way - but very little is known about the people who built them and their culture (or even why they would have built up there, far from water and fields). V intersting!!
Leisurely wound our way back to MJ's home in Montrose via Silverton and Molass Pass. We were guests at MJ's for two nights and managed to pick up a hire car from the nearby town. This we are taking to a town near Glacier National Park on the Canada/US border where we will start hiking again, facing South.
On route we've swum at Glenwood Springs hot springs (Colorado), tiny but hot Saratoga hot springs (Wyoming) and we are now at Thermopolis which boasts two hotspring pools (with GREAT slides!) and the campsite we were at last night (called "Fountain of Youth") also has a hotspring pool all of its own. So over the past 5 days we have visited 5 different hot springs. They say they are good for your health but my face now looks like Pizza and both B and I smell noticible of sulfur. Heading for Montana today and hoping to start hiking from the Canadian Border in 3-4 days time!
Monday, 29 June 2009
some south colorado images.........
Martina by some interesting trailside scenery- its her next SEPA car !
Lake City
Because we are now Southbound, we have met lots of CDT hikers who are going North and it has been nice to chat with people about their experience. We've met Ellie, Mike, three young bearded men who do yoga on the trail, St. Gabriel, Out-of-Order, U-Haul, Cruise and Reason, Johnny Storm, Wrongway and Tikka. Wrongway and Tikka we were able to spend some enjoyable time with in Lake City, mostly eating and chatting. Best of luck to all of them!
The last section was quite long (100 miles aprox) and quite high. We saw a mountain goat grazing in the sunset on a slope opposite us when we camped at 12 200 feet below Stan Luis peak, a shale-bing like 14000er Brian bagged since it was right next to the trail. Some fabulouse afternoon thunderstorms were had with hail and torrential downpours that lasted 45 minutes, lightning striking near us and lots of noise. Very little snow in the last section (hurra), but now we are heading for the San Juan mountains which, the reader may recall, were the reason we flip-flopped: to avoid their high and snowbound slopes and give them some melting time. We've seen them from a distance in the last section and they look spectacular!
Lake City is very old by Colorado standards (1877) and has some wonderful gruesome history in that this is where in 1874 (before the town was built) a party of prospectors from Utah got stuck trying to cross the mountains in winter. One of them, Alferd Packer, turned up at the nearby Indian Agency weeks later, claiming the others had left him behind and gone South when he got frost bite. He seemed to have a lot of money on him. This made the locals suspicious and he was arrested. He then confessed to having had to eat some of his companions after they had died of natural causes, but refused to take the authorities back to the last camp to find the bodies. Later that spring, 5 bodies were found, mutiliated and with clear signs of meat having been cut off them. However, they all had their heads smashed in (except for one whose head was missing), 4 of them lying on blankets by the fire pit and a 5th apparently having struggled before being killed. The accusation was then made that Packer had killed all his companions to eat them and take their money. He escaped and was free for 9 years - in the meantime, Lake City was built pretty much next to the spot where the bodies were found. When Packer was recaptured 9 years later, this is where he was brought for trial. In a second confession, he said that another man in the party had gone mad and had killed 4 men while he, Packer, was away routefinding. On his return to the camp, the mad man had attacked Packer and was killed in self-defence. But since the snow still did not allow Packer to leave the place, he then had to consume flesh from all the dead men. He stuck to that story in his trial, was granted a retrial in another county and in the end was found guilty of 5 murders and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was granted a pardon at the age of 60 but died quite soon - a life-long epileptic (without modern treatment of his conditions), he was not a well man (in many ways).
It seems that Packer the Canibal is good for business here and the local paper (the Silver World, which is still in print!) had made up their mind pretty quickly about the guilt of the man. But I just read a book with transcripts from the court proceedings and there was next to no consideration of forensics and Packer's story seems as good as the accusation. So I'm not convinced he was a murderer. The eating of dead companions is not unique to Packer in these parts. Better make sure I pack enough pasta meals for the next section.
The last section was quite long (100 miles aprox) and quite high. We saw a mountain goat grazing in the sunset on a slope opposite us when we camped at 12 200 feet below Stan Luis peak, a shale-bing like 14000er Brian bagged since it was right next to the trail. Some fabulouse afternoon thunderstorms were had with hail and torrential downpours that lasted 45 minutes, lightning striking near us and lots of noise. Very little snow in the last section (hurra), but now we are heading for the San Juan mountains which, the reader may recall, were the reason we flip-flopped: to avoid their high and snowbound slopes and give them some melting time. We've seen them from a distance in the last section and they look spectacular!
Lake City is very old by Colorado standards (1877) and has some wonderful gruesome history in that this is where in 1874 (before the town was built) a party of prospectors from Utah got stuck trying to cross the mountains in winter. One of them, Alferd Packer, turned up at the nearby Indian Agency weeks later, claiming the others had left him behind and gone South when he got frost bite. He seemed to have a lot of money on him. This made the locals suspicious and he was arrested. He then confessed to having had to eat some of his companions after they had died of natural causes, but refused to take the authorities back to the last camp to find the bodies. Later that spring, 5 bodies were found, mutiliated and with clear signs of meat having been cut off them. However, they all had their heads smashed in (except for one whose head was missing), 4 of them lying on blankets by the fire pit and a 5th apparently having struggled before being killed. The accusation was then made that Packer had killed all his companions to eat them and take their money. He escaped and was free for 9 years - in the meantime, Lake City was built pretty much next to the spot where the bodies were found. When Packer was recaptured 9 years later, this is where he was brought for trial. In a second confession, he said that another man in the party had gone mad and had killed 4 men while he, Packer, was away routefinding. On his return to the camp, the mad man had attacked Packer and was killed in self-defence. But since the snow still did not allow Packer to leave the place, he then had to consume flesh from all the dead men. He stuck to that story in his trial, was granted a retrial in another county and in the end was found guilty of 5 murders and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He was granted a pardon at the age of 60 but died quite soon - a life-long epileptic (without modern treatment of his conditions), he was not a well man (in many ways).
It seems that Packer the Canibal is good for business here and the local paper (the Silver World, which is still in print!) had made up their mind pretty quickly about the guilt of the man. But I just read a book with transcripts from the court proceedings and there was next to no consideration of forensics and Packer's story seems as good as the accusation. So I'm not convinced he was a murderer. The eating of dead companions is not unique to Packer in these parts. Better make sure I pack enough pasta meals for the next section.
Monday, 22 June 2009
Salida (pronounced like "saliva")
4 days from Leadville over many scenic high passes (with snow) and flowery spring meadows, past beaver dams and through forrests (fir, spruce, the dreaded lodgepole pine - fellow hikers will know what I mean - and sumptuous aspen). We camped in an old mining town called Winfield (now abandoned) and walked an old railway line (now derelict). We had hot and cold weather and even fresh snow. And views to die for! This has been a good section on the CDT!
Wildlife bag: squirrels, ground squirrels & chipmunks (not that exciting though cute), marmots, pikas, ptarmigan, an owl out on a flap in the daytime, deer & elk, beaver dams (no sighting of a beaver) and a PORCUPINE ! No trace of sign of bear.
Funniest moment of the section:
After 3 hours in pouring rain we get to a high point called Tincup Pass where the rain turns into sleat and snow. We are soaked thru and thru. The snow patches are melting furiously and the trail has turned into a river, joining all the other rivers gushing forth from the hill side, making crossings difficult. Below us a jeep road climbs the pass. On it are two jeeps which have stopped on account of having reached an old snowbank. It is Friday - tourist time! As we walk down, people get out wearing shorts and t-shirts, looking clean, dry and well fed (very much in contrast to us). They have with them a small child wearing a pink bathrobe and sandals and two overweight dogs. We descend and they take pictures of eachother next to the snow bank. Not in a mood for chatting, we tuck our heads deeper into our waterproofes and just mutter "hello" as we trudge past them downhill. Five minutes later the jeeps catch up with us on their way valley wards. One of them slows down as he passes and winds down the window. We are getting hopefull: are they going to offer us assistance in our wet and cold state? We wouldn't accept a lift, but we'd plump for chocolate bars, sandwiches or a sip from their thermos. And the driver leans over and asks Brian in all seriousness:
"Are you guys all right for water?"
We spent some time after debating whether that was just the best line ever to mock the afflicted or whether the guy really meant to imply that we would be struggling for water (given the deluge from the skies and the melting snow all around!!!). Possibly the guy was a towny for whom the only drinkable water comes out of plastic bottle ... who knows. We thought is was hillarious.
Wildlife bag: squirrels, ground squirrels & chipmunks (not that exciting though cute), marmots, pikas, ptarmigan, an owl out on a flap in the daytime, deer & elk, beaver dams (no sighting of a beaver) and a PORCUPINE ! No trace of sign of bear.
Funniest moment of the section:
After 3 hours in pouring rain we get to a high point called Tincup Pass where the rain turns into sleat and snow. We are soaked thru and thru. The snow patches are melting furiously and the trail has turned into a river, joining all the other rivers gushing forth from the hill side, making crossings difficult. Below us a jeep road climbs the pass. On it are two jeeps which have stopped on account of having reached an old snowbank. It is Friday - tourist time! As we walk down, people get out wearing shorts and t-shirts, looking clean, dry and well fed (very much in contrast to us). They have with them a small child wearing a pink bathrobe and sandals and two overweight dogs. We descend and they take pictures of eachother next to the snow bank. Not in a mood for chatting, we tuck our heads deeper into our waterproofes and just mutter "hello" as we trudge past them downhill. Five minutes later the jeeps catch up with us on their way valley wards. One of them slows down as he passes and winds down the window. We are getting hopefull: are they going to offer us assistance in our wet and cold state? We wouldn't accept a lift, but we'd plump for chocolate bars, sandwiches or a sip from their thermos. And the driver leans over and asks Brian in all seriousness:
"Are you guys all right for water?"
We spent some time after debating whether that was just the best line ever to mock the afflicted or whether the guy really meant to imply that we would be struggling for water (given the deluge from the skies and the melting snow all around!!!). Possibly the guy was a towny for whom the only drinkable water comes out of plastic bottle ... who knows. We thought is was hillarious.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
Leadville - those damn bikes again!
Sooooo, just to summarise: we have travelled by Greyhound Bus (always an experience!) from Pagosa Springs in the South of Colorado to Dillon Lakes/Silverthorn in the middle of Colorado and started walking SOUTH on the CDT from there back towards Pagosa Springs to give the snow in the San Juan Mountains some more time to melt.
So after 3 days of following the trail SOUTH, we are now in Leadville - as the name suggests, this is an old mining town full of charm. However, just as in Silver City (New Mexico) we are sharing the town with hords of bikers! This time we are witnessing a stage of an "Across the Rockies" road bike event. Staying in a lovely lush hostel with lots and lots of bikers!
The last three days have been easy in terms of trail finding as we are now on the same route as the "Colorado Trail" which is very VERY well marked and made. Still some snow as soon as we get above aprox 10 500 feet and in the forrests (of which there has been quite a lot - lodgepole pine). It's been warmer, which means that instead of slipping around on top of the old snow, we post-hole into it - sometimes up to our hips which is very amusing to the onlooker. But the longest we've been thus entertained has been one morning (South of Copper Mountain) so it's been ok.
But a lower elevation we are walking through lush green aspen and fresh flowers. Still very cold and night and ice on the tent most mornings. Because of that, our routine has changes quite a bit and we no longer get up early (it is just too cold) but tend to wait till the sun hits the tent at about 7:00. Instead we hike later - it is light till 20:45 (which, given that we are approaching the longest day of the year is still a pretty short day if one is - as we are - used to long Scottish summer days with hardly any darkness!).
Met fellow CDT hikers Ellie and Mike who have been going North , bypassing the San Juans. Very nice talking to nutters like ourselves. Happy trails to them!
Heading off tomorrow towards Salida, our next stop. Weather still unsettled and we've had some form of rain every day since leaving Silverthorn.
So after 3 days of following the trail SOUTH, we are now in Leadville - as the name suggests, this is an old mining town full of charm. However, just as in Silver City (New Mexico) we are sharing the town with hords of bikers! This time we are witnessing a stage of an "Across the Rockies" road bike event. Staying in a lovely lush hostel with lots and lots of bikers!
The last three days have been easy in terms of trail finding as we are now on the same route as the "Colorado Trail" which is very VERY well marked and made. Still some snow as soon as we get above aprox 10 500 feet and in the forrests (of which there has been quite a lot - lodgepole pine). It's been warmer, which means that instead of slipping around on top of the old snow, we post-hole into it - sometimes up to our hips which is very amusing to the onlooker. But the longest we've been thus entertained has been one morning (South of Copper Mountain) so it's been ok.
But a lower elevation we are walking through lush green aspen and fresh flowers. Still very cold and night and ice on the tent most mornings. Because of that, our routine has changes quite a bit and we no longer get up early (it is just too cold) but tend to wait till the sun hits the tent at about 7:00. Instead we hike later - it is light till 20:45 (which, given that we are approaching the longest day of the year is still a pretty short day if one is - as we are - used to long Scottish summer days with hardly any darkness!).
Met fellow CDT hikers Ellie and Mike who have been going North , bypassing the San Juans. Very nice talking to nutters like ourselves. Happy trails to them!
Heading off tomorrow towards Salida, our next stop. Weather still unsettled and we've had some form of rain every day since leaving Silverthorn.
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