41 replies to this topic

[Jenny]

Okay, alright, here it is. Aaron has been telling me to write this trip report for days now. I thought that maybe he should do it, because, well, he's a much better writer than I am. He's witty and even funny at times. But, he's not budging, so I thought I would tell y'all about the great quick trip!!

I had been planning this little "anniversary trip" for Aaron and I. I was going to WOW him by taking him to RMNP on the weekend after our 10 year anniversary. He would be so surprised and think I was the best wife on the planet. Well, a few weeks before our anniversary, Aaron starts getting all these bright ideas... "Let's go to Kansas City, or maybe we could just go camping somewhere like Ponca State Park", etc... I didn't want him to get ahead of himself and go booking a hotel on priceline or anything, so I said to him, "I have a little something up my sleeve, so stop trying to make plans". I never gave him any hints, just told him I already had a plan. He was a really sweet guy and let me believe I had him "surprised" about our destination. I then announced our trip to him in the forums (which was in a P.S. that he didn't bother reading until I asked him about it). That morning I went down to the basement to gather some stuff and his tent was kind of spread out on the floor. I picked it up and under it was all of Aaron's hiking gear which he had gathered the night before!! I think he suspected all along that we'd be going to RMNP. He claims that "he just wanted to be prepared for anything". Sure, uh-huh. So, I'm not the best surprise planner, but it's the thought that counts.

We left our 2 older children with Grandma and Grandpa. Cameron had the great pleasure of going on the trip with Mommy and Daddy because he's just too young to leave behind overnight yet. He's quite the mama and daddy's boy anyhow, so I don't think he would have appreciated being left with Grandma.

We left on Thursday (our actual anniversary) after supper. We drove to small town, Nebraska about 3 hours away and stopped in for a visit with my Dad and stepmom. We took a nice little nap at their house and departed the next morning at 5am for Estes Park.

Aaron drove all the way to EP. Cameron and I napped off and on, and played peek-a-boo for hours to keep him entertained. He's a decent little traveler as long as we have an abundant supply of graham crackers.

We arrived in Estes around 10am, I think. We headed straight to Safeway to gather our groceries for the weekend. Then we stopped in and visited with Lori (Lsmith) and the girls for a while. After that, we headed to Sprague Lake. We just love Sprague Lake and are sure to stop there for lunch at least once on each trip. While we were eating our lunch, the friendly ducks came over to clean up our crumbs. Cameron was delighted by them and he sat on the ground with the ducks less than a foot away. We walked alongside Glacier Creek (?) and Aaron took some pictures.

After Sprague Lake we decided to drive up Fall River Road. Aaron stopped at Chasm Falls and had the falls to himself for awhile. I stayed in the car with Cameron so he could take a nap (okay, I snoozed a little too ). About 3/4 of the way up, all the cars were stopped along the road with their engines off. The gentlemen in front of us explained that they were working on the road ahead. Apparently they were filling in potholes. So, people kept coming up and asking what was going on. I suggested to Aaron that the next time someone asked, we should tell them that there was a cow elk giving birth along side the road. We thought it might be funny to watch people grab their cameras and rush right up there. I think Aaron is proud of this suggestion because it shows that he is rubbing off on me. Unfortunately, no one else came along. After 15 minutes or so, we were on our way again. The weather at the Alpine visitor center was very cloudy and a bit rainy. We bought Cameron a souvenier stuffed moose in the gift shop. Now, all the kids have their own RMNP moose. We snapped a few pictures and decided to head back down TRR. Due to time constrictions, we didn't go all the way to Grand Lake this trip. We were sad to miss our traditional stop at Grand Lake Chocolates, but knew there would be another time.

After arriving back in Estes, we stopped and visited Erik (Malok) in his gallery. If you all think his pictures are incredible on the computer, you should stop in and see them in person!! His work in beautiful!! I definitely have my eye on a few pieces he had there in the gallery.

Before heading back to our home for the night, we stopped in at Casa Grande and had a delicious meal. We decided we better head back and get our rest for the night because we had a big day planned for Saturday.

stay tuned...

[Aaron]

*I assume we shouldn't post until Jenny's done with the report, so hold off on replies until then*

[Jenny]

... Saturday morning when we awoke, we were unsure about the weather. I think the forecast said that there was a 60% chance of afternoon thunderstorms. The sky didn't look too bad yet, so we decided to go ahead and give our plans a go. We got to Bear Lake around 8:30 am, got our packs all ready, hit the bathrooms and we were off.

I must preface this part of the report by telling you all, that I am a self professed "hiking wimp". I am not in the best shape of my life (understatement) and usually struggle a bit with altitude. But, I really, really wanted to finish this Odessa Loop hike. So, I was going to muster up whatever it took to see it through.

On the hike up to Lake Helene, we took it pretty slow. Aaron was great about letting me take breaks as often as I needed. He reminded me to drink enough water and was a great encourager. There are some magnificent views along this section of the trail!! I was feeling pretty good and not struggling too much with the altitude, for which I was thankful. The bees seemed to be pretty thick in the pine trees. At one point we stopped and I was standing in front of a pine tree. I could hear this intense buzzing above my head and commented to Aaron that there must be tons of bees in this particular tree. He then pointed out to me that I was hearing a plane overhead, not bees. So, perhaps the altitude was getting to me a bit??

We got to Lake Helene and decided to go ahead and eat our sandwiches and have a little snack by the lake. When we sat down, the skies were blue with a few scattered clouds here and there. By the time we finished eating maybe 20 minutes later, an obvious storm was building. The wind had picked up and we decided we better get moving. So, we were off again.

It began to thunder, lightning some and rain almost as soon as we hit the trail heading down to Odessa Lake. I was immensely thankful that this portion was downhill. We moved at a pretty good pace since we were feeling pretty exposed. The storm showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. I prayed a lot on this section of trail for our safety (both from the storm and from our quick pace), and that this storm would pass.

When we got near Odessa Lake, we could hear people yelling and singing very loudly. We weren't sure what was going on until we got closer. There was a huge bull elk on the path that leads to Odessa from the trail we were on. Apparently, he had the loud singing people trapped at Odessa Lake and they were trying to scare him off of their path. He didn't seem to be affected by their noise in the least. He just continued on with his eating. We are pretty certain that we heard dogs barking as well. Since the bull elk was blocking the path we would take to stop at Odessa and it was still raining pretty good, we decided to keep on moving.

Even though it was storming, and I was a bit nervous to be out hiking in the weather, that didn't stop me from enjoying the hike. The Odessa Loop has so many incredible views and pretty places along the way. I was in awe at God's magnificent creation!!

By the time we got to Fern Lake, the weather had cleared up. I could see the clouds breaking up and beautiful blue sky was beginning to appear. We sat down at Fern Lake for quite a while. We enjoyed a snack and Cameron enjoyed getting out of his carrier to stretch his legs. There were quite a few people at Fern Lake.

Again, we headed down trail towards The Pool. Along this section of our hike, we had a rather relaxed pace. We just enjoyed the sites, smells and sounds of the park. A couple in front of us stopped us to let us know that there was an elk standing right on the trail up ahead. We had no choice but to stop and wait for him to move on. He was a smaller and younger elk than the one we saw near Odessa, but still big enough to command a little respect of his space!! He stared us down for quite a while. Aaron walked up on the hillside above the trail. He tossed some rocks down near the elk to try to get him to move on. Eventually, he took off. He did have us a little nervous because he stepped toward us a few times and we weren't sure if he was thinking about charging us. I love to see the Elk out in the park, but I'm glad he was happy to just stare us down for awhile!

Once we were at the pool, we took another rest break. I think the Pool is much neater in person than in most pictures I've seen. It's a great place to just sit and relax. It's a good thing we decided to relax for a while too, because our next section of hike was a bit of a challenge for me!!

Instead of heading down to the Fern Lake Trailhead from the pool, we decided to hike UP to Cub Lake. It's only 1.2 miles to Cub Lake, but 1 mile of that is UP, UP, UPhill!! We had already hiked several miles so I was a little tired but I persevered. We took it nice and SLOW with lots of breaks. Aaron assured me that once we got to Cub Lake, it was downhill again, so that was my motivation. Plus, I really wanted to see Cub Lake in person. We stopped on a slanty bridge so that Aaron could use his pump at a stream to refill our water supply. I enjoyed this break and tried to keep Cameron from eating rocks off the bridge. The cool (filtered) stream water tasted sooo delicious!

When we got to Cub Lake, we didn't plan on hanging around long. Aaron walked down closer to the lake to get some pictures and then I spotted my reward for that uphill portion of hike. Across Cub Lake were a baby and mama Moose!! I have only seen a few moose in the park. Most have been on the West side and have been really far away (you know so they looked about the size of a kitten)! Needless to say, I was thrilled to see 2 Moose on the East side!! That was an awesome reward for all the miles I had put in at that point.

The rest of the hike was downhill, but it felt like it took FOREVER!! The clouds were beginning to build up again, so we decided to move quickly down the trail. We saw a couple of small garter snakes (ick, ick, ick) on our way down the trail. I had never seen a snake in the park before. As we were on the shuttle bus back to Bear Lake, it started to pour!!!! We were so thankful to be done with our hike at this point. Our little Cameron was QUITE THE TROOPER!! Aside from some breaks, he was in the backpack carrier from 9am to 5:30pm, with hardly a wimper!! He took a few naps on Daddy's back and was just altogether a wonderful little rider!! It was so much fun to have time alone with just us and the baby. He doesn't often get both Mommy and Daddy all to himself. It was a very special time.

We went back to Lori and Al's place and there waiting for us were Lori and the girls, Malok, RMBrit, and Luke and JDGreen and Lynda. We had a wonderful pizza and salad supper and great conversation. I was beginning to feel the pain from our many mile hike. I haven't figured out our exact mileage yet, but I estimated it was between 8 and 10 miles!! But, the pain?? It was SOOO worth it!!! I have realized that there is so much beauty I will miss out on if I don't get out on these hikes. I hope to one day do more fabulous hikes with Aaron.

The next morning, we stopped at a few downtown shops to buy t-shirts for the big kids. Aaron also got a book called "High Country Names" that tells how the mountains and such got their names. He has enjoyed researching!! Then, we headed back to our home sweet home. I love Colorado, I do, but I must say that there is still something sweet about Nebraska - the good life!!

So, even though I didn't really surprise Aaron... I'm glad that we had the chance to get away and recharge and to enjoy our time together. I hope that this trip was as memorable for him as it was for me.

The End!!

(p.s. Now bug Aaron to post some good pics to go along with my report!!)

--Jenny

[Jenny]

p.s. I didn't re-read these before posting and it's late, so please excuse any and all errors and things that don't make sense.

[weatherbe]

Awesome report Jenny! Thanks for sharing!

PS: Glad you did it and not Aaron ... JUST KIDDING AARON!! You know we all luv ya! ...

Weather

[misssilly]

Hey Jenny,

Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you had a great hike!

Jen

[Allie]

Loved your report, and I am so happy you and Aaron and baby Cameron had such a wonderful hike. Thanks, Jenny. You did a great job.

Allie

[Chad]

Excellent report! I've still never seen a moose.

I wonder what the protein content is in those bridge rocks.

[B-Jay]

Jenny,
You are an excellent trip report writer. I loved the way you included so many details and your own personal impressions of your anniversary trip. When you got to the part on the Odessa loop hike about going on the uphill section to Cub Lake, my muscles were starting to feel sore. I've taken that section, but I took it from Cub Lake to the Fern Lake trailhead making it mostly downhill all the way.

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. Now it's Aaron's turn to post more trip pictures.

[chipper]

That was a great trip report. I'm glad you had a great time.

[Aaron]

Good job on the report Jenny! Now it's back on me to get the pics finished and posted.

--Aaron

[G'ma Downs]

I, too, loved the "personal touch" you put into your report. Made us feel like, we know that pain and that joy, as you described the adventure. Thank you for sharing and glad you were able to share it with Cameron, who was a good little traveler.
G'ma

[Bill 007]

Bravo Jenny! Well done! You're a great surpriser.

Bill

[John]

This was FANTASTIC! You are a GREAT writer! And unlike Aaron's reports, you used a lot of 3 syllable words and made no mention of flatulence which is good.

[Ladyslipper]

Surprise or not, you did a great job celebrating a special occasion! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. It's always fun to read about other folks' experiences in the park.
Way to persevere, Jenny! (We've all felt the pain, on one or hike or another!)