Snow Days

Hello from Moose again! So today should have some fun pictures. On Friday, Anna and David and I left to make the loop up Open Canyon Trail and back down Granite Canyon Trail in the southern end of the park. But don't let "southern" fool you... the snow was definitely there and definitely changed the course of our trip. Started out early on Friday so as to get as far as possible before the snow started softening and before any afternoon rain. First things first, we had the most AMAZING weather. That might be because it's rained straight for the past three weeks, but it did not rain at all on Friday and that was a very good thing. We probably got a good seven miles or so and lost the trail probably close to directly north of the Mount Hunt Divede because the snow was so deep. We decided we'd try the up and out method and try to figure out where we were so we climbed about 1000 ft in elevation up a bunch of snow fields to the south and realized we should have continued west some more before turning up. So... at that point, it was what the heck, we find some place to camp here with an amazing view at about 9500 feet in elevation, or we go back down and look for the trail and hopefully make it to our camping zone on the other side of the divide at who knows what time. We definitely chose the former... you should have seen the view... a little bit different than the lowcountry.

(Note: These signs are usually around waist high...)

We definitely pulled out the ice axes and crampons and used them. Tons of fun, but, man, my toes did get cold. Time to re-waterproof my boots.Sun - out + Exhausted - after zig zagging up those actually really steep snowfields = Naptime on the ground in the sun for two hours. GLORIOUS.

So, then for dinner, actually made some delicious camp food with noodles, a creamy pesto sauce, peas, s & p, garlic powder, parmesan cheese and chicken out of a bag (that smelled a little like tuna on first sniff but actually tasted pretty good once cooked). Oh, and chocolate for dessert. Can't forget the chocolate. Slept okay, but the site was a little sloped so Anna and I ended up a little squished. But, the worst part was the sleeping pad, the damn thing must have a hole, but I can't find it. Anyone want to contribute to the fund for a thermarest z-lite that won't deflate?

We slept in the next morning (temps had definitely dropped over night) and made some hot tea and breakfast and got the heck out of the there. (The weather was definitely set to turn bad in the afternoon.) This led glissading down numerous snowfields and otherwise sliding down on our butts in the snow... The snow also got really soft on the way back because of the sun the day before ,so quite a few times I ended up up to my hips in snow. We were lucky that we got as far as we did the day before, because we definitely lost the trail on the way back as well (and found it again) but we did sort of do some creative trailblazing along the river...

So, safe and soundly back, we splurged showers at the cabin and pizza at Mountain High Pizza Pie (SO worth it.). All in all a fantastic trip even though we didn't make it all the way around the loop. Probably a good thing we ended up off course anyway.... we forgot the permit at the cabin.