Date: February 2-3, 2018
Distance: 15 miles round trip
Elevation Change: 2,400 feet of elevation gain
Weather: Crazy windy (up to 40 mph), snowy as well
Group: Devin, Greg, Jared and Mat
Part of the fun of backpacking is trying new things each time. For February’s snowshoeing trip Devin and Greg made homemade pulks. While $600 can get you a “serious” pulk, $10 at Target (the sled), some rope, and a couple of thin pipes will get you system that works pretty well.
We left Arvada at 6AM and headed to the Wild Basin Trailhead. Unfortunately, the road to the trailhead was closed part way up, so we started the trip a little further down the mountain than would have been ideal.
The trail crosses several small creeks as well as the larger North Saint Vrain Creek numerous times on some nice bridges.
Soon enough, the snow deepened and we put on the snowshoes. If you are following the other guys with sleds, the trail is nice and compact.
After stopping for lunch, the trail got much harder. We were no longer walking where anyone had been recently and had to break the trail. Breaking trail while snowshoeing is tough. Doing that uphill is harder. Doing it uphill with a backpack on is just plain mean. We eventually reached our stopping point around 2:30. By that time we were high enough (around 10,500 feet) and the wind was blowing hard enough that we wanted to take shelter in some trees rather than closer to Thunder Lake where we would be more exposed. We were all pretty beat and a little chilly, so we took refuge in the tents for an hour or two before exploring a bit, eating dinner, and settling in to play cribbage for the first time in my life.
It snowed all night long, burying all of our tracks from the previous day. Saturday morning I decided to hike the last ½ mile or so to Thunder Lake. The wind was really howling at the lake. I know the first photo below doesn’t show much, but it gives you a feel for what the wind and snow were like.
After packing up, we headed back down the mountain (breaking trail again from all the snow and drifting during the night).
