Backpacking Colorado
Tuesday, August 9th, 2005I just got back from a backpacking trip across the mountains in Colorado with a group from the University Scholars Program. It was an amazing trip, with a lot of fun people. We hiked (by my estimate) nearly 35 miles. We managed to play in the snow, hike over the continental divide, swim in a 45 degree lake, camp above the tree line in a thunderstorm, and climb a 14000-foot peak (Huron Peak), among other things. Bengt, from the Scholars office, led the trip, along with his brother Granger. His parents were nice enough to open up their place for us for a night.
I took a lot of pictures, until my camera’s battery gave out about halfway through the week. Click the picture to go to the album. I tried to get shots that showed the natural beauty of the Colorado mountains, as well as ones that stayed true to how we felt and acted at the time.
Though he pictures are plentiful, they don’t cover everything. There really isn’t a good way to explain how awesome the trip was, or all the things we did. The things I mentioned in the first paragraph are just highlights of accomplishments. There was so much more. Elbert the Elk Skull, Neal’s biff temples, lots of ramen eating and various power slamming, private reflection, stinky tents, evening conversations, plane flights, “No no no no no” . . . the list just goes on.
There was a lot of toil, too. I actually got altitude sickness the first day we hiked up which took me out for most of that afternoon and night. I just got a throbbing headache that made me feel nauseous everytime I moved. The climbs and the hiking we did were really hard, leaving me sore and tired. In all though, I felt that the suffering we had to go through made all the successes even better. When we reached to top of Huron Peak, we were all elated, not so much in spite of the cold and hellacious hike up, but because of it.
All in all, a great trip. Some of my favorite shots: