Camping and Hiking Weekend (and Race!)

Life's been a bit unpredictable lately...  Stefano came home for a visit the second weekend of July, but then his project kept getting pushed back little by little.  I was pretty upset about it since I had to still go out of town the week after his visit, and I thought he'd have to leave right when I was coming back.  But lo and behold, things worked out, and he got delayed through the weekend, and then delayed again through this week and weekend.  It's been so hot in Chicago, though, that it's not looking likely that he'll have to go back for much this summer, and they might just start up again in September.  We'll see.

But in any case, I was already planning on going up to the mountains to camp with Christine, Sean, and Jamie, since Sean was running a 50-mile trail run on Sunday (Leadville Silver Rush).  Yep.  50 miles.  Don't worry; I have zero desire to ever run for that long.  He was running for almost ten hours... And that was a great time!   He ended up finishing 10th in his division.

So instead of heading up to the mountains Saturday with just Christine, Stefano was home and I finished a day early, and the three of us headed up to meet up with Sean and Jamie on Friday night.  There was a complication finding a campground (a lot of them in the area are non-reservable, and they were full already when Sean and Jamie went up), the two of them camped by the roadside and Christine, Stefano, and I found an easier (and closer site) for the night near Dillon Reservoir.


View Hiking and Camping July 15-17 in a larger map




It all worked out well though.  The three of us got up and headed up to a trailhead near Leadville, did an awesome 6-mile hike, and by the time we were done, Sean had found us a campsite for the night (one had opened up since there was a mountain bike race Saturday morning, so some people were just camping Friday night).  We didn't make it all the way to the end of our hike (we were hiking to Native Lake) because it was getting a bit rainy, and the trail was very wet and marshy.  Even with it being the middle of July, there was plenty of snow left on the trail melting, and it was a bit of a mess.  I'll never complain about getting too much rain or snow though!


All in all, a great weekend.  Hopefully Molly camps a little better next time -- she was a bit whiny since we kept her tied up and she couldn't jump all over everyone else.  Sigh.  And she insisted on sleeping on top of my legs a bunch of the night in our tent.  Pictures after the break.



Camping Friday night at Pine Cove campground near Frisco on Lake Dillon (just down the road from where we camped for 4th of July last year):

We got to the campsite in Frisco just in time to watch the amazing sunset.

 

Molly found a stick (bigger than her of course) while we were sitting around the fire, and she would barely let it out of her sight for the rest of the weekend.  She ate a disturbing amount of bark and charred bits (it had also been used to poke the fire).

 Hiking in Mt Massive Wilderness (Saturday):

Snow-melt driven stream -- we crossed it (on bridges mostly) about four times on the hike.

Native Lake!  We were going to hike all the way there but turned back about a half mile from the lake due to a very squishy trail and some threatening storms.  You do NOT want to be stuck on a steep slope at 12,000 ft during a storm!

Christine and Stefano posing for a picture, and Molly being oblivious.

This hammock was probably one of our best camping purchases ever.  There are no words to explain how amazing it is to relax in a hammock after a long hike.  Forgive my weird expression, I was trying to make sure Molly didn't tip us over.

Needless to say, Molly was quite exhausted after the hike, especially since she usually naps a lot of the day and she wouldn't calm down because she wanted to play with Christine and Jamie (Jamie dog sits for us so the two of them are like BFFs).

 Sean's 50-mile trail run (Sunday):

We were able to meet up with Sean at three aid stations, after about a half marathon, a full marathon, a marathon and a half.  And of course we watched him hobble across the finish line -- his legs cramped up really badly, though he was able to finish regardless.  He did have the distinction of being the first person to get pulled away on a stretcher though!  He was more or less ok after a few minutes though.

Sean's the one in red -- this is at the halfway point.

Jamie, Christine, Molly, and I waiting at the last aid station.  Only about thirteen miles left!

He looks pretty happy for someone who just ran 38 miles, right?

Waiting at the finish line.

Sean hobbling in for his awesome finish!