9 replies to this topic

[dennis]

Hello, everyone! Melva here, finally getting around to doing a report on our vacation in RMNP July 22-30. For once we picked the perfect week weather-wise, 25 degrees cooler than Kansas, and only a couple of small rain showers!

We had a very nice campsite in Moraine Park Campground. I guess that is now our Home Away From Home with the situation at Glacier Basin. Ken and Marsha were in a nearby site for a day and a night so were able to get a couple of short visits in with them.

By the end of the week we were able to get 5 new Trail Tags to add to our Trail Tag Quilt. We hiked to Gem Lake, Bridal Veil Falls, Lily Mountain, and Twin Sisters. I tried to give up on Lily Mountain several times, but Dennis kept saying "WE can make it!" And WE did, and were rewarded by the scenery! There were five people at the summit already, so was a little crowded, but enjoyed visiting with them and taking pictures of each other. The young boy with them was sure he could see Wisconsin from there! I had planned to let Dennis do the Twin Sisters Hike alone, but decided to try it, and once again was rewarded for my efforts. I didn't see Wisconsin from the summit, but pretty sure I saw our back yard in Kansas!

Dennis also hiked Half Mountain, and went from Moraine campground to Cub and Fern Lakes. Rounding out the week were walks around Lily Lake, Sprague Lake, and Sprague Lake to Glacier Basin Campground.

We enjoyed the Get-Together on Thursday evening. Yes, it was cool, and we loved it! Thanks, Ken and Marsha for organizing it. The scenery driving down Trail Ridge Road that evening at sunset was magnificent. Now it is back to the real world, and planning for next year!

Has finally cooled off here so that is a relief. Hope everyone has a wonderful Autumn!! Melva

[Twinebender]

Glad you and Dennis had a good time Melva,
That's the most important thing.. the number one thing. As Nick Molle says in one of his dvds.
What will you climb next year?

[randyman]

AWESOME!

Randyman

[John]

Half Mountain is one of my favorites! What a trip!

[B-Jay]

It sounds like you had the cooperation of the weather on your trip. It's nice to get away from the heat and breathe in that fresh mountain air.

Now it's time to start planning for next year's trip.

B-Jay

[Igloo Ed]

dennis, on 11 August 2011 - 03:45 PM, said:

Dennis also hiked Half Mountain

I'm curious as to how he went up and how it went for him?
Glad you guys had a good time here and wish it had worked out that he could have joined Ice and I over Otis. Next year...

[soatley]

Lots of good hikes. I'm glad you challenged yourself otherwise you'd never know what you're capable of. You were smart to skip Half Mountain.

Sandy O

[mistylady]

Lots of great hikin'! Glad you had a wonderful time. Sounds busy.

[dennis]

Igloo Ed, on 13 August 2011 - 05:16 AM, said:

I'm curious as to how he went up and how it went for him?
Glad you guys had a good time here and wish it had worked out that he could have joined Ice and I over Otis. Next year...

HA! HA! That was a real killer! First thing I did wrong was wear shorts. I was sore at the GTG, but nothing like the next two days. I've still got scabs on my legs today from all of the deadfall I climbed over. From the trailhead I got off the shuttle and hiked with a Air Force cadet from Minnesota until we thought we were half way on the east side of Half Mt. And then we parted ways I climbed straight up through the trees and alot of dead fall. I reached the north end and got to the top and thought I could work my way to the summit that way. Wrong. I had to back track and ran into some dead ends in the boulders before I got far enough south to get to the summit. I would have saved alot of time by going just a little bit further south to begin with. I believe you said something at the GTG about getting to the drainage ditch and going up, and I wish I had. My advice is to do this hike with long pants on!

[Igloo Ed]

dennis, on 13 August 2011 - 03:30 PM, said:

HA! HA! That was a real killer! First thing I did wrong was wear shorts. I was sore at the GTG, but nothing like the next two days. I've still got scabs on my legs today from all of the deadfall I climbed over. From the trailhead I got off the shuttle and hiked with a Air Force cadet from Minnesota until we thought we were half way on the east side of Half Mt. And then we parted ways I climbed straight up through the trees and alot of dead fall. I reached the north end and got to the top and thought I could work my way to the summit that way. Wrong. I had to back track and ran into some dead ends in the boulders before I got far enough south to get to the summit. I would have saved alot of time by going just a little bit further south to begin with. I believe you said something at the GTG about getting to the drainage ditch and going up, and I wish I had. My advice is to do this hike with long pants on!

I did go up Half Mtn. a couple weeks ago but my camera batteries were dead, so didn't do a trip report.
I went to the south end of the east side of Half before heading into the woods.I crossed one small stream and the terrain uphill didn't look all that friendly so I continued and crossed a steam that flowed over the trail in two places. They were very close to each other. I felt this was the stream that I had followed my first time but the first time was in spring runoff and the streams were over their banks. I continued on up the trail to make sure this was the turn off, I went a ways and soon saw I was heading away from Half Mtn. so I went back and turned off just before the stream and headed up along the south side of the stream. I follow the steam on the south side until it looked better on the right and then followed it up some steep areas. The stream soon started disappearing and reappearing less and less, it was flowing under the rock and pine duff. The last trip had water coming right down the hill as there were still patches of snow on that trip.
The actual stream got hard to follow but I followed what appeared to be the likely drainage. There were various routes/game trails mixed in through the thick forest. I ended up crossing what I thought was the drainage and gained a ridge and followed that back into the drainage again.
Soon, the drainage was no longer apparent and the used routes tended to head right up the side. I would follow these up a short ways to get above some trashy terrain and then cut left until I got to the bottom of the gully or some trash and then head up the side again. I tried very hard to keep left in the gully and not get sucked up the right side.
The rocks kept getting bigger and more of them and finally I could tell I was close to the end of the gully and it was all rock. At this point there were dirt lines going up the right side, I'd follow those until I spotted a good traverse to the left where I would find another dirt line going up.
Then, the last push to the summit was all rock with some of it large enough to do some scrambling.
I wore shorts and only got a couple tiny leakers and one mild seeper.