-- is only a two-hour drive from my doorstep. The forest is beautiful, and completely different to any other I've ever seen. There are honest-to-goodness wildflowers, aspens, alpine vegetation, and even tundra, somewhere up around the 11,000 foot elevation.
Andy, Jennie, Chris, and I didn't have much of a plan other than to head up there with our camping gear, plenty of booze, and an intention to commune with nature for at least a couple of hours every day. The meals we cooked were tasty and wonderful, the beer cold, and the campfires toasty. Also we played cribbage.
But it rained.
Lord Jesus, did it rain.
Our first full day, we managed to get in a nice hike out to Bear Lake before the clouds came rolling in. Fortunately, we had set up a tarp shelter to take refuge under. The second day, we managed to wait out most of the worst rain in town, where we were taking showers and partaking in an excellent Mexican meal.
The third day dawned clear and beautiful. There were some big puffy clouds in the sky, and as we made sandwiches and geared up for a hike to Fern Falls we were so confident in the weather holding that both Andy and I decided not to take our fleece jackets. So there we were, about a mile into our hike, when the rain began. Not bad, just enough to keep us cool and keep the bugs down. About a mile later, right about the time we realized that we had made a turn onto the wrong trail, the storm began in earnest. Thunder and lightning were nearly continuous, and the rain had solidified into the category of unmistakably wet.
After consulting the map a few times, we realized that we would reach civilization faster by going forward for another two miles rather than by retracing our steps. Our hike turned into a cross between the Bataan Death March and a tryout for Survivor. We had to keep moving to stay warm and reach our goal, but go slow enough to avoid any broken bones. Before long, our trail had turned into a muddy stream that widened into a muddy pool in places.
Chris was our only casualty -- he slipped and scraped his leg a little, and begged us to leave him and save ourselves. We thought about eating him for energy, but Andy couldn't light a fire before Chris was up and walking again. So we brought him with us.
At long, long last we came within sight of the trailhead and the shuttle stop that would take us back to our campground. The wait for the shuttle was interminable, but it finally came and after what seemed like the longest, most miserable bus ride in history, we made it back to camp and changed into dry clothes.
I thought it was a great adventure, and even at the worst bits, it was still better than working. So I give it one thumb up. Can't give it two, because damn -- we were in the middle of a rainstorm in the Rockies with no dry clothes or shelter.
This is all very true, except for the part about trying to eat Chris. He's fine, by the way, and escaped with only a few scratches. Take a look at all the pictures here -- you can either watch a slide show or click on each one to enlarge it and see the full caption. We could have taken a lot more, but it's so pretty that you either end up with 30 pictures or 300. There will be a few more good ones when Andy emails us his share from his camera.
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