Time for a Hike in the Snow!
Mini-Trip Report of Colleen and Matt's trip to Brainard Lake. March 2004
It seems lately that we have just been busy trying to plan for the wedding that we haven't really "done" anything lately in the outdoors, however, I was getting cabin fever and had to get out and do *something*. In typical fashion, we didn't decide where we were going until the night before. We decided upon Brainard Lake as it ranks as one of the easier snowshoeing trails...(score!)...plus it's close to Boulder...(double score!!). So this morning we woke up at the crack of dawn and headed up in the brisk morning air to the trailhead right? Wrong. We didn't actually start driving to the Ward area until noon.
Every adventure can justify another purchase at REI, and that's what we did. I stopped to pick up a map for the Indian Peaks area as I haven't been there yet, and figured there's no use me getting a map after we go hike there, so we waited for REI to open at 10am. An hour and half later we walked out with a map. I like to call it the REI time-warp. I can go in there and time ceases to exist while I walk around with my brain disconnected from my wallet putting things in my basket, while Colleen follows right behind me taking them out. Oh well, we have our map and were headed out to the Indian Peak Wilderness.
We arrived at the trailhead (or should I say trailheads) around 1pm, and there were TONS of people. The road closes at a winter gate, so everything is bottle-necked right there and there are about six different trails that branch off from this starting point. Colleen and I found "happy to take your picture" girl and posed in front of the trail sign.
As we were walking down the trail the mountains in the background look really cool with the clouds blowing over them, so I took a picture of Colleen because she looked so cute.
About a half mile later she had to take my picture because she said I looked cute.
About a mile after that I found a dead, decaying deer leg and I had to take a picture if it because it was so cu--...
When the Get-a-Long Gang (that's us) finally reached the lake, we reached a giant stop sign that was buried pretty far under in the snow. As you can see, I put Jolt Cola in her Camelbak instead of water. Just kidding. (oh by the way, for you adventure nerds, that's Mt. Audubon (13,233ft) in the background on the far right)
I of course walked out as far as Colleen would let me on the lake and sat down on a rock and marked the GPS coordinate in my Rino. I'm such a dork. But I'm cool like that. (Or at least Colleen pretends to think so...)
The wind was blowing at Mach Warp 12 (technical term btw), and so we gave a quick pose for the camera, and I smiled even though I could feel the cold wind coming in through my ear and freezing my brain.
And here we are back at the car, ready to drive home so we can eat some Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Oh, as for the hike (if that's what you came here to find out, as opposed to say read my banter and look at some pics), it was about 4.5 miles and it took us less than two hours to do the whole thing round-trip. I enjoyed the view and would consider doing it again, but not on the weekend for it was way too crowded for my liking. The End.
--Matt
Time:
| Drive |
Ascent |
On Summit |
Descent |
Drive |
Total |
| 45 min |
1 h |
15 min |
45 min |
45 min |
2 h |
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