Backcountry Birthday

I’ve always wanted to wake up in the mountains on my actual Birthday, this year my amazing husband made that happen.

Thursday evening we drove north towards Clear Lake. Thinking of an easy dinner that also includes tradition, we decided to order a pizza from our favorite ‘olde school house cafe’ and pick it up on our way to the mountains.

We arrived up at clear lake and quickly found a perfect spot to set up for the night, not many sleep here because it’s @ 12,000ft.  It was a very clear evening, so we set up the tent (without the rain fly) and set up our chairs before settling in to enjoy our pizza.

After pizza, we celebrated with a hostess cupcake and sparkler before mike gave me his gift on “Birthday Eve”. His gift to me was an actual medical book on high altitude medicine! How awesome! We spend a lot of time in high altitudes in Colorado and around the globe, so knowing more has always been an interest.

Before long the sun set and the stars starting to show themselves. I love the night sky, but this was seriously one of the best night sky’s I’ve ever seen. The milky way was very clear, the black outline of mountains on all sides and a sky FULL of stars. It was quite chilly at this point so I got in my sleeping bag and laid on my camping pad, looking up at the stars. I spotted 5 shooting stars and my man saw 8.

The next morning, we both woke up early and walked down to the lake for some incredible reflections! Then we ate our bagels, cream cheese and cold-brew coffee. I had asked for Birthday snail mail with wisdom, scriptures, promises for my next year, so I collected all my mail and brought it up to read on my birthday morning.

After soaking in the gorgeous morning, we packed up camp and got ready to hike the ridge.The trail is straight up the mountainside, so not far but incredibly exhuasting as you climb over 1,000ft in .25miles.

We summited and took it all in. No one else was on the ridge, just the wind and beauty! Coming back down was interesting as well with the steepness factor, but all in all it wasn’t bad.

Perfect start to my Birthday!!

Escape the crowds

The longer you spend in the backcountry, the more you crave solitude. While some favorite  hikes have become overpopulated, we look for places less traveled. A big part of refreshment comes from being alone in nature, no one else around.

I found this hike online, but found that it is not heavily traveled. We set out and found that it was quite difficult, finding the trail head. Once we found it, it was our own private hike the rest of the day.

We neared tree line and the clouds started rolling in thicker and heavier. Though we did not make our destination, we enjoyed the quiet beauty of mountains looming above and valleys full of wildflowers.

Perfect date day, if I do say so myself. Once the school year returns, I’m really going to miss these times, however I’ve been soaking them up this summer and very thankful for the time we’ve had.

What do you like to do for date days? Do you prefer populated trails or solitude when you hike?

Everest themed movie night

Hosting themed movie nights is something I love to do! So naturally as Everest was our favorite movie from last year,which is now also out on DVD…we decided to have an Everest night!

We started brainstorming ideas for it and quickly decided on the menu, dessert and chai.

There would be ‘Everest in a blanket’ and Masala Chai. We love our local Himalayan Kitchen and were thrilled to be inspired by their menu. Thankfully for us they have a store next door to the restaraunt that sells packets of the loose leaf tea for the chai. And Everest in a blanket? well, it’s a crepe with vanilla ice cream in the middle rolled up and chocolate syrup on the top.

I like to decorate as well…I went online and found the famous sign that says “this way to m.t. Everest b.c.” and figured out how I would make it. All I would need would be a bright yellow posterboard, red paint and a sharpie. Next we started thinking of other snack idea’s. Mountain man suggested “DEX” which is the high altitude medication many climbers take. So we got a bowl of skittles together for that. I started looking online for mountain shaped treats, I found no bake mountain cookies. So I made those a week before to see if they would work…it wasn’t as cute as the ones I saw online. But it got my brain going and I remembered we had a bag of hershey kisses (from Halloween…don’t tell anyone). I thought ooo I could use those for the mountain and then use white chocolate for the snow on top, perfect! I started unwrapping all the hershey kisses and then stuck them in the freezer for a while so that when I was adding melted white chocoalte my mountain wouldn’t melt. To offset all the sweet I added some pretzel rods and tons of popcorn. Oh and of course glacier water.

Now keep in mind, our whole cabin is only 800sq ft, the living room is only a teeny tiny part of that amount. However, we have managed to fit 20 people in there before for a movie night. We have a love seat, one recliner and stadium seating (aka the stairs). We also throw down 3 mattresses on the floor for people to lay on etc.

The night was perfect! We drank 4 gallons of chai, ate 19 Everests in a blanket and all the mini-chocolate Everest’s and DEX were gone. Along with the popcorn and pretzel rods.

Here’s to hosting parties even in smaller spaces! We had 19 last night and it was a great night.

more pictures to come….these are not the highest quality but it gives you an idea

 

Free National Parks Day

I’ve always wanted to visit one of the National Parks on one of their free days. Mountain man and I do not live close to any of the National Parks that we enjoy visiting. However, this year I found myself in Colorado Springs for my best friend’s (from highschool) wedding.

Jan. 18th was a free day for Rocky Mountain National Park. There is one winter hike in particular that I had done way back in highschool. Ever since then it has sat at the top of my favorites list.

My parents were up for the adventure, so we decided we would go for it. It is a 2 1/2hr drive from Colorado Springs, well worth the drive for the beauty you get to see.

We packed up a lunch, some mint brownies (to celebrate my mom’s Birthday early) and plenty of water and layers of clothing. We reached the park along with everyone else in the whole state (it was a free day, afterall).

The moment we opened our car doors, it felt like the wind would blow them off. You would open the trunk to grab something out and the wind would slam it down. Thankfully we were prepared. With merino wool long underwear, fleece long underwear and REI windproof/waterproof hiking pants the lower half was toasty warm. The upper half just needed merrino wool longunderwear, Patagonia fleece and my Patagonia down sweater hooded jacket and of course my favorite pom pom beanie.

We went from Bear lake, crossing over nymph, crossing over dream lake and ending at Emerald lake, 3.6miles roundtrip. Such breathtaking scenery!

 

1. Before entering the Park,  we are headed to the white out between the mountains2. Mom crossing Nymph Lake (below)3. Getting closer to Dream lake4. Dream Lake crossing…the wind was fierce! the face was cold (below)5. Me at Dream Lake6. Isn’t this place incredible? the final climb up to Emerland lake7. Our final destination, Emerald lakeIt was so cold up here, the winds were intense, we did not stay very long. Just long enough to set up my ELEVATE HAMMOCK

 Where are your favorite places to snowshoe?

Oatmeal, the breakfast of mountain Champions

Goodmorning from the cabin!

We have been without proper heating for over two weeks now. Our only source is the wood stove & the oven/stove top. I woke up this morning feeling chilled.

I started considering my breakfast options and thought, hmm…what would help warm up me up a little bit?……………..Oatmeal.

Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of oatmeal because it’s typically blah. However, I had a lightbulb moment. I have some heavy cream in the fridge and a bag of Durango Chai mix. So I poured in a bit of heavy cream and added some of the powdered vanilla chai.

Oh my goodness! I’m in love with oatmeal and I don’t care who knows it. It only took me 29yrs to find a flavor that I love.

Here’s to a winter full of Chai Oatmeal, mmm. What is your favorite way to eat it?

The mountains are calling, I must go

How often do we allow ourselves a couple of hours to “get away”, be refreshed? I’m just as guilty as the next person, for only doing that…on occasion. My soul screams at me to go…head high into the mountains and be renewed. However, I’m amazed how infrequently I actually do it.

I realize to create new habits, it takes starting somewhere. So I have begun, twice a month going to my favorite place. Eventually I would like it to be weekly, that I pull back for a couple of hours (on my day off) and find refreshment for my soul.

The most important aspect is God…getting away with Him, but location plays a part in that as well.

Molas Pass is my Go-to place

 

Training Hike #2

We have one more week until we step on the airplane to South America. We packed up our gear for a nice day hike outside of Silverton. Logging in 8.4miles, some hail, some lightning and beautiful sunshine.