RMNP trip report

“Long trip...11 days from home. I'll spend some time this week collecting my thoughts...actually, they are already collected, but I need to unpack my stuff, so, I'll post upa whale of a trip report...all I can say at this moment is there was a whole lot of snow...more later...”

“Hey stikmon!

Glad you made it home safe and relatively sound.

That disc I gave you probably won't work, if it doesn't let me know and I'll send you a new one.

here's a link to my attempt at trip report:

http://www.roamaroundonline.com/trips/eugeniatr.html”

“great trip report...the end...LOL.

I'll add my own $.02 sometime this week. Thanks for your graciousness in letting me crash at your home, taking me out to a great place to drink and eat and also for letting me drive your car...LOL...ain't driven a stick in YEARS. This will be a trip that I will be talking about and thinking about for the rest of my miserable life.”

“anytime bro!”

“Roam...you let that dope drive your car....whatta ya nuts? This man is a terror behind any vehicle and it was manual drive too?....sheesh....you still have a clutch left in that vehicle?....

Yo Stikdud....where's the trip report you slouch???

C'mon now....git wit the programme man...

You need to tell about how you guys snowshoed through a blizzard for 29.304 miles and that was after you did a nicely done glissade down a avalanche and did so whilst eating a tasty tofu burger......then you need to explain how you wrassled that mean old polar bear which has been lurking and terrorizing Estes Park recently...sheesh...c'mon man...let us in on the coolness you mook...”

“Glad ya made it out alive stikkie!”

“Hmmmm,,,,there is a 50% chance that this trip report will involve dragging a canoe over a dry river bed.




The other 50% is that it will involve launching a canoe into a raging torrent of water and losing all his gear.



I can't wait to see how this turns out.”

“Naaaaaaaaaannnnnn...
He rode his canoe down the snow covered mountain slope. Worked fine untill he came to the cliff edge.”

“And found out a tent fly really doesn't work like a hang glider.”

“compared to many of my previous adventures...this one was tame. There were NO close to disaster encounters. So, the story will not rival past tales, but since these reports are mostly for my own amusement, I will endeavor to treat it with the respect that it deserves. You, my adoring fans, will have to wait a bit to see if it lives up to my usual standards, and I'm sure you will have comments. Please, hold your applause till the tale is told in its entirety.”

“Who is this stikmon person? Newbie? Haven't seen him around.”

“I'm pretty sure this person has been lost in the Rockies for some time and is just now getting out. ;-)”

“Stikmon who actually goes backpacking. sheesh...”

“Get on that TR slacker!”

“I been gone for 11 days, you think I have NOTHING to catch up on. tomorrow.”

“priorities man! priorities!”

“slacker”

“Bucks Marriage Report. I now regret not writing this earlier.

But finally, I get to sit and ponder and write. Its been a long 3 days since returning from the epic adventure. First for the stats.

11 days from home. 2 nights spent in the bag (we declared them by decree that they would count as double bag nights too. 2 nights spent at Roam's. 3 nights in the hotel, then 4 nights in the luxery condo on Fall River in Estes Park. Life is good, but landing at home for a spell is better. The pack and fishing gear and all the other items remain in their bags in the center of my living room (and will for a bit longer).

Left out to head to Memphis...oh yeah, another typically long trip report that will take a few postings, so hang on for the tale (again, I do this strictly for myself and my own amusement...you may come along if you like)...Memphis...Wednesday night April 27 6pm, depart to head to Colorado for the final backpacking expedition of my season. Went through check in as usual with no problem. "whats in the bags?" the counter human says..."camping gear for a trip to the Rockies" I says to her. "Oh, theres snow there now" she retorts back, and I say, I certainly hope so, I'll be snowshoeing for the next 4 days, and she gives me this "OMG, you must be crazy" look, and I laugh and say I got NO fuel of any sort, and weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....I'm off and waving goodbye to my bags and I head to the local brew house, but, its gone and I have to eat Corky's BBQ and 2 Fosters drafts.

Board plane, sit down, plug ear plugs in and as the plane departs the earth, I say my ritual prayer to the Powers that Be, "May you take this plane and its travelers, grant us safe passage through your air, to return us safely to your earth".

I'm asleep in 10 minutes.

Arrive in Denver 8pm, bags come down, head out to the curb to await Roam and daughter Sarah...BTW, again, Sarah, thanks again for your warmth and friendliness...No Roam. 1 hour...still no Roam. I think, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (me thinking)mmmmmmmmmm...where could he be...snapping fingers and remembering my last visit to Denver with Sonja...she was waiting for me at baggage claim whilst I circled the parking lot and was waiting for her to emerge from the airport, 1 hour...I went in and picked up the paging phone and paged him and in and 10 minutes later, he and Sarah were walking down to me. They had been waiting for ME, up at baggage claim...(Sonja, you have been avenged...miss ya too)...

We headed out to his home in Loveland and hung out for a bit and played with the packs and then made ready to sleep. In the am of Thursday the 28th, we headed out to go to retrieve our permits...FREE!!!till May 1, otherwise $20.00, Good break for us.

I won't repeat what Roam already has written, about the encounter with the ranger and the discussion we had with him, nor the fact that it was snowing and was predicted to continue the entire time while we were up in the backcountry...(still with me, or have you gone and got bored and went to read some other more mundane thread, but that's ok, because I'm going to bed, I'm tired. I worked on the Drowning Witch all evening and skipped dinner. I installed skid plates and did some damage repair that was present when I purchased her, so, ...

to be continued.”

“Yo man....nice start....but....don't forget to add that you snowshoed for 29.045825 miles and that was just to get to the TH.....and the other really really important need to know information is how you GPS'd the entire CDT within RMNP.....oh oh oh oh don't leave out the glissading episode down an avalanche whilst eating a tofu burger....whew....you gots lots to cover...”

“slacker, finish this baby up!”

“packing of the canoe gear tonight in a timely manner, I will indeed write up another installment of..."as the Snow fell in the Rockies"...stay tuned.”

“Oh yeah....forgot to ask....what brand of snowshoe did you wear? I really need to know this information....not sure why but...anyway post it when you can....

BTW....is a right handed zipper on a sleepy bag better than a left?”

“I was on that trip, and don't remember seeing you. I think you're making this up.

In fact, I distinctly remember you denying you were there.

So there.”

“i wish i could be some place and not be there at the same time..”

“thats deep man...wheres the pot?”

“If i could be someplace, AND not be there at the same time, I'd like my job a lot better.”

“Permits in hand, visitors center and the business of the day completed, (snow still falling), we head on out to drive up to Long's Peak parking area. As we continue the ascent in elevation while driving, the snow gets heavier. Roam and I are giggling over it, wondering if we are doing the right thing, we decide that a day out in the woods in the middle of a spring snowfall is WAY better than being stuck in the office working, so we say "ja mon!!! lets rock". We get to the LP ranger station, strap on packs, head on up the trail, to register in the trail register and off we go on the trail...vergin snow on the trail, and everywhere makes it hard to find the hard pack of the trail. Roam says that only a week earlier there was NO snow anywhere except the hard pack on the trail. We hike on and every once in a while, we mistep and one foot plunges hip deep into soft snow. Its a great hike, pristine air, no wind and snow falling. This is percisely what I had wanted all the time, and here it was. I had little problems with the altitude, but towards the end of the hike, I could feel a bit of a headache, but the legs felt great, and the lungs were working as expected considering I live at 200' above sealevel. We hiked @ 3.5 hours and finally reached the Eugenia Mine area and thought that it would be a better camp site than the original plan of going to Moore Park. At the mine site, there is a remnant of a cabin, 2 half walls, and a real nice flat area. Roam stamped out a large enough area for 3 tents. I thought that if Stratusloop was present, that his tent would have gone next to mine. Missed on this trip dude...one of these days...you and me. Your spirit walked with me the entire time on the trip.

It was still snowing, but off and on with glimpses of blue sky. It truely was perfect. We got camp set up and got our kitchen area covered with a sweet tarp that Roam had brought and pulled out when I said I wished we had a tarp. After dinking around the site, we decided to hike up to the actual mine site and try to find the boiler that is still present. It was totally cool hiking through thigh deep snow and the day was awsomely beautiful, still snowing! We headed back to the camp site and began cooking dinner and sat back to enjoy the fading sunlight on the dazzlingly bright snow and watched the water flow in Inn Brook. Everything was perfect and I felt at home. I'd missed my Rockies last year and this was like a homecoming. It soon got darker and the temps dipped and we each headed to our tent to wrap in the warm sleeping bags and drift into oblivion. We had been wondering about EddieS, and Roam thought that he would still show up, but probably late, just as we would be falling into deep sleep. Just as I was going into that deep place, I heard crunching snow and someone come into our camp and voice yell out..."hello ladies, is this the Stikmon Roam Around camp", I said NO, shut the #&%!$ up...and started to laugh and said yes. Eddie found a place to set up camp, and as he did so, I left planet earth to soar above the mountain peaks on the other wind.

To be continued after the weekend...gotta go to bed and now and get up in 5.5 hours to go canoeing...later all.”

“Dude....thanks for stamping out the snow for me....if only those airplanes would fly when ya want them too.....oh well....and you be right....my spirit was more like drifting through the Rockies with the snow.....peace out man...”

“some time to write. Its been 2 weeks since this trip and still so many memories are present.

stikmon camp...EddieS arrives in the middle of the night...wake up on Friday morning...clear, blue, sunny, very brite...I woke up saying "bright light, bright lite". and groped for my shades. I got out of my tent and laughed outloud...Roam's tent was buried. Mine was sort of but not as bad as I had risen in the night to go potty and knocked off the snow accumulation. Roam was still asleep. Eddie was next up and we met and said hello. There was alot of fresh snow on the ground and the steps that Eddie had made while coming in were almost invisible. The smile went wide as I looked at the trees that were covered with so much snow. It looked like someone had dripped hot melted marshmallow over them. Incredible. Finally that sluggard Roam rose up and we began the morning activities...I tried to get my pocket rocket going and couldn't. The gas cannister said "phhhhht". Eddie said that he had some sort of "special gas" (me too, take a whiff in my tent) and that is was "guaranteed to work in cold temps". It didn't and we all laughed. Roam had a whisper light. and I kept it humming and cranking out boiling water until we were all done with breakfast. We prepared to head out with day packs on, and snow shoes under foot. Eddie had brought in a set for me. They were MSR brand and awsome! We were blazing through fresh powder the entire day making our inevitable way to the top of Estes Cone. 4 years ago, I had done this trek with another friend, but did not make the cone. We stopped at Storm Pass and I really wanted to make the top. I'll need to do it again, as once up top, there was no view as we were in a storm one clik shy of a white out. The trek was awsome. Heavily ladden snow clad pine trees were incredible. We broke out to Moore Park and were granted a spectacular view of the Twin Sisters and Estes Cone. This view was fleeting as the front moved in and obscured the vision that we momentarily experienced.

We snapped a few quick photos and kept on keepin on. We were not on the regular trail, but it mattered not as we knew where the destination was and the journey was the immediate concern. We went up and up and up through the trees, creating our own perfect switchback trail carved in the snow. I had not much problem with breathing, and had taken my ipuprofen in the morning. I knew that I would need another dose later on though. Eventually, roam and Eddie decided that we had gone too high too fast and were a bit off our mark. We made our way though over some rocky stuff and broke out just under the "stairway of Death", which is a small chute that leads to the promontory outcrop of the top of Estes Cone. We kicked off the snowshoes and climbed up on the snow coverd rocks, taking our time so as not to slip and break ourselves. (have I mentioned the near white out conditions?) The snow was REALLY coming down and the wind was making it sting our faces. We got up to the top and stood there looking out at...NOTHING. Visibility was 30 yards. We snapped a photo on Eddie's camera and got the heck off that rock. Now anyone that has ever gone rock hopping with me knows that I am a billy goat going up, down...not so cocky. I took my time because it was a steep, long way down and one slip would have been a major blunder risking the safety of everyone. We got back down, put the snowshoes on and followed our upward path back down, to return to camp where the immediate concern was FOOD and booze. We boiled up the water and sat under the tarp out of the snow eating our dinner, then in a pretty early time, hit the sacks for a colder night in the backcountry...oh yeah, have I mentioned that it was STILL SNOWING?!? The snow NEVER stopped, even when the sun was out. It was most uncanny

sleep...wake up in the middle of the night again, unbury my tent...it was still snowing but the stars were out and blazingly brite. back in bag and bury myself in it. its COLD outside my wiggy's bag.

Sat morning...COLD!...little creek was VERY frozen, not solid, but there was less moving water. Our dipping spot had lots of ice build up and I had to break it away to get the pot under it for filling. Cranked out the stove and boiled up water. Eddie was packing up his gear as he would hike back to his vehicle, drop his pack and then hike back in to meet us at the trail junction to head up to Chasm Lake. He took off first after breakfast and Roam and I took more time as Eddie had the harder morning. The 2 of us headed down the trail and waited for Eddie. When he arrived we gave him a break and while standing there 2 huffer puffers came up to us. They were not dressed exactly proper for the conditions and were struggling in the snow. They did have crampons, but snowshoes would have been more appropriate. They were heading the same place as us, so, we headed out and broke trail. We were a bit lucky in the fact that somone the previous day making our work easier. The path finally ended though and we were forced to actually break vergin trail up high on the mountain. We made it up to the bridge crossing and then the subalbine zone then the alpine zone...the entire day since waking it had been snowing and now it was a blizzard with howling winds making visibility zero. Some dudes caught up to us and passed us saying that they'd break trail since we'd done such a great job up to that moment...we smiled to ourselves and stepped aside. We made it up onto the slope to change direction to head to Chasm Lake and Eddie asked if this were stupid to continue, I said stupid was 15 minutes ago, this now was assinine. We decided that to go on was a fruitless effort and even if we made the lake, we might not know it as it would surely be frozen and covern in snow, and we'd never see Long's Peak anyway due to the white out conditions. Eddie yelled at the dudes that we were turning around and we did. We had a blast hiking down off trail through 5 foot drifts of snow crossing the switch backs making the trip down fun and less time consuming. On the way down I had a thought that I shared with Roam. We had done all that we intended and gave Chasm Lake our best effort, made Estes Cone and now what was left? Another bag night? Another cold night out in the snow, another dehydrated meal...I was ready for Burgers and Beer and stated that, Roam liked that idea and when we reached the trail junction we said goodbye to Eddie and headed back to our camp to break it down and then head back to the car. It was a big mileage day, but the end of the day took us back to Roam's house for showers and fresh clothes then head out to a great place for Burgers and Beer and some kick'n rock music.

It was a fantabulous trip where struggling was non-existent. The weather was never a stopping force of our plans. We planned, we did and the memory is ours forever.

I love the Rockies and hope to live in Estes one day. Unless my plans change, that day will be on my 50th birthday in 4 years.

Eddie...great to meet you and thanks for the loan on the snowshoes. Without them, the trip would have been impossible.

Roam, thank you for your warmth, friendship, generosity and hospitality.

You both have open invitations at the House of Stikmon and Khatru anytime. Me casa, su casa.

The end of this part of the trip.

I did a second part of the Colorado trip, which was 2.5 days of conferences, but the 3rd part of this trip included my mother for her birthday and mothers day. In a nut shell, Mom thoroughly enjoyed her surprise birthday dinner at The Stanley Hotel, chooching around Estes Park, eating at all the fantastic resturants, seeing all the snowcovered mountains and driving through the park sighting Elk and Coyote's, watching me fish in Fall River in our luxery condo, participating in Ranger led tours and attending informative lectures at the RMNPark office in the evenings...It was a magical 11 days in Colorado...the only downside was being away from Khatru for so long.

I'll try and post up some photos, but, I don't know how.

Now truely...the end.”

“your a better writer than i my friend. Glad your Mom had a good time out here too - but did you catch any fish?

By the way - Sarah's passport came today - she thinks its pretty darn cool and has already put the regional stickers in their proper places. Many thanks from her and I to you.”

“She's very welcome. May it inspire her to travel and learn all that there is to learn.

Ya, I caught dem dar fishys. I actually landed 5 in Clear creek, 3 in Fall Creek and 4 in the Big Thompson.

I brought home my newly learned techniques and landed me some Rainbows on the 11 Points this past weekend on my summer opener float trip. Suweet!!!”

“Nice report there studdly....but you forgot the tale of riding that blasted avalanche whilst eating a tofu burger....then you left all the really important details like GPS coordinates, mileage, elevation gain or loss, number of farts, etc......sheesh....and what's a ja mon anyhow?? Is that like a stinky turd or sumtin'?”