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Was in RMNP last week for a few days hiking after the Great American Beer Fest in Denver. (Our beers won two medals, by the way).
We arrived in Estes Saturday night after a nice dinner at Lyons' Fork in Lyons, Co. If you haven't eaten there yet, it is a must. We had a big hike scheduled for Tuesday with Ed so we wanted to just do a couple of small hikes to warm up. On Sunday we did the Odessa Loop since it was the last day for the shuttle. On Monday we thought Emerald Lake would be a nice easy hike. We decided to head up above Emerald for a bit and ended up going way up in the gorge and hitting the summits of Flattop and Hallet. I'll post a report about that hike later.
On Tuesday we met Ed in the Glacier Gorge parking lot at 5am. With me were my friend John, Geoff (friend and co-worker) and my nephew Ben. Ed arrived with Wayne (owner of Lyons' Fork Restaurant and good friend of mine, Geoff and now Ed). The goal was for us to hit nine lakes in Glacier Gorge (Mills, Jewell, Shelf, Solitude, Frozen, Green, Italy, Blue, Black). Ed said he always wanted to do this trek but couldn't find a sucker to do it with. Now he had 5.
We hit the trail in the dark and took the fire trail shortcut. It was a very clear night with no moon, so we needed our head lamps. The stars were amazing! We passed Mills and Jewell in the dark and then we hit the cut off to Shelf/Solitude just as dawn was approaching. For those who haven't been on this trail before, it is Straight the ___ up! We paused for a rest about halfway and enjoyed a snack and a nice view. The morning was spectacular.
Our resting spot
The last bit of trail before Shelf Lake
Our first view of the Shelf/Solitude area. It was nice to see it like this. The only other time I was here it was soaked in with clouds.
I always like these rock slabs. Photo doesn't do it justice.
John enjoying the views around Shelf Lake. He has an old leather backpack that we call The Pony Express Satchel.
Solitude Lake
After Solitude we didn't want to loose the elevation that we gained so we were going to try to stay up as high as possible. We tried to find a route up high that Ed thought might work but it turned out to be a bit dangerous so we headed down quite a bit. We lost about half the elevation that we gained. We headed west over rocks, trees and tundra until we were above Black Lake. We still had some significant elevation to gain to get us up and over to Frozen Lake. It was either that or head down to Black Lake and then up again. We decided to head straight up and then over to Frozen. Ed said someone told him there was a Class 5 move we would have to do. My buddy Geoff said he didn't think it was a good idea. I told him to trust in Ed. If it presents danger, we'll turn around. We managed to climb up with really no problems except for some just being a bit out of breath. I think the "5" move was exaggerated or we missed it somehow.
Geoff & Wayne resting before our trek up and over to Frozen
Ben making the climb on some tricky rock slabs with Black Lake below.
Wayne Geoff & Ed.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Edited by GLENNinPA, 11 October 2011 - 12:27 PM.
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