Ever Wanted to Hike the Rocky Mountains? (VERY pic-heavy)
Moderator: Beowulf
Ever Wanted to Hike the Rocky Mountains? (VERY pic-heavy)
Well, now you can hike them vicariously through me! From June 30 to July 7, my Boy Scout troop and I went on a backpacking trip to the Rawah Wilderness, and I have, from a collective pile of about 750 pictures, culled the best to share with you.
Us all ready to go. That's me in the back row, third from the left.
Crossing the Mississippi out of Illinois and into Iowa. Eighteen more hours of flat land!
We're almost there, but after twenty-four hours of straight driving (excepting rest stops), some of us are desperate to piss.
The first group unloading and getting ready to pack out. The troop was larger than the maximum allowed number of people per group, so we split into two hiking groups.
This is a sign and list of regulations -- DO NOT USE FIRE, e.g. -- which greeted us as we hiked out, and greeted the other group as they hiked in. We started at opposite ends of the trail and met in the middle for two days to peak-bag.
Water pumping on the first day.
Hiking in to the mountains.
Some beautiful wilderness pictures.
A stream, crossed on the second day of the hike.
Pumping our water bottles full at that stream.
Traversing a tributary to Camp Lake (IIRC, that's its name) on the way to lunch.
Lunch on the second day.
This was on our second night in. After a largely downhill hike, we were recuperating well from the brutal first day, which was uphill and vicious to our oxygen-deprived lungs.
Mmm, apple fritters for breakfast on the third day!
Looking to the east toward North Rawah Peak across Lake Two, I believe.
More beautiful pics.
Nature is cruel.
Looking down from a pass into McIntyre lake (IIRC).
Sunset inlined for format -- this is a great desktop background!
I especially like the halo of light around this mountain.
Neat little piece of wildlife.
(This picture is sideways.)
Crossing the river toward the future campsite.
Looking down the river towards our campsite and Lake 2.
Campsite for the two days we stayed together as a troop. Actually, we ate together for dinner, and we hiked up to North Rawah Peak, but the groups camped separately. My group camped down by the river, and the other group camped up closer to Rawah Lake 3.
We spotted a moose grazing in the brush nearby.
Rainbow over a mountain.
Leaders conferring; I'm second from left, with the blue bandanna on.
Looking up the North Rawah Peak, which we're going to scale on the fourth of July.
Us as a troop, before we attempt to scale the mountain.
Hiking toward the mountain.
A mysterious standing boulder at the base of the North Peak.
Looking up. Intimidating, isn't it?
Staying with the stragglers.
More looking up. Actually, more like across.
Eagle
We spotted this eagle (which is something of a big deal, considering that Eagle is the highest rank in scouting) wihle were were climbing the mountain, as well as these elk:
Elk 1
Elk 2
The peak, tantalizingly close. We were within 100 feet, and we had to go back down because one of our group members became very ill with altitude sickness.
From the (almost) top of the world.
More mountaintop photos.
Me! At the top (or close thereto) of a mountain!
Look at that thunderstorm in the distance.
Looking across the crest of the mountain (we saw the Elk in the lower left-hand side of the ridge.
Climbing down. This should give you some sense of scale.
More climbing down; more idea of just how big those rocks are. Some of them weren't terribly stable, either; I was afraid I was going to trigger a landslide.
Sliding down a snowbank on the fourth of July! This is our group leader, going first. The picture should give you an idea of just how steep the snow is, and since the ambient air temperature was in the 70s, it was also very wet snow.
That's me, getting ready to slide.
This should give you some idea of how high up I am.
Losing control.
Wheeeee!!
Recovering at the end, with a little help from the preceding sliders.
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit ... . (this is not me.)
Helping someone else up at the end of the slide. In earlier pics, you can see some nasty rocks right at the end of the run; since we're two days from civilization and medical aid, it would be disastrous to let anyone run into them.
Here's the slope, after we're all done sliding. Damn, that maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.
Cheeky little bastard stole some of the other group's food. Fortunately, they got him:
That's my brother holding the line. Speaking of him:
Exactly in the middle of our 11-mile hike, we stop for lunch. I consult the map.
About halfway through our 11-mile hike, we stumbled out into the Big McIntyre Burn, a huge forest fire which ravaged the north part of the Rawah Wilderness Area in 1944. The forest still hasn't fully regrown.
More Big McIntyre Burn. Note that there aren't even any trees; the land is bare save grass and twisted, dead wood.
More Big Burn.
Coming out, toward the end of our 11-mile hike on the second-to-last day, we passed through some pretty amazing birch groves, which seemed very clearly demarcated from the lodgepole pine forests around. There was an abrupt transition from brown to white to brown trunks again. (That's me, by the way).
More of the birch grove.
Done at Rawah; now to pack up into the car for the hour drive into Fort Collins to shower and eat real food, then the 24-hour drive back home.
Mmm ... Beaujo's Pizzas. Wonderful food, especially to boys who have eaten nothing but camp food for an entire week.
The drive home. That's western Nebraska, I believe.
We're back; we all survived. Unloading.
More unpacking. And that's how a trip ends: you unpack, and you move on with life.
Us all ready to go. That's me in the back row, third from the left.
Crossing the Mississippi out of Illinois and into Iowa. Eighteen more hours of flat land!
We're almost there, but after twenty-four hours of straight driving (excepting rest stops), some of us are desperate to piss.
The first group unloading and getting ready to pack out. The troop was larger than the maximum allowed number of people per group, so we split into two hiking groups.
This is a sign and list of regulations -- DO NOT USE FIRE, e.g. -- which greeted us as we hiked out, and greeted the other group as they hiked in. We started at opposite ends of the trail and met in the middle for two days to peak-bag.
Water pumping on the first day.
Hiking in to the mountains.
Some beautiful wilderness pictures.
A stream, crossed on the second day of the hike.
Pumping our water bottles full at that stream.
Traversing a tributary to Camp Lake (IIRC, that's its name) on the way to lunch.
Lunch on the second day.
This was on our second night in. After a largely downhill hike, we were recuperating well from the brutal first day, which was uphill and vicious to our oxygen-deprived lungs.
Mmm, apple fritters for breakfast on the third day!
Looking to the east toward North Rawah Peak across Lake Two, I believe.
More beautiful pics.
Nature is cruel.
Looking down from a pass into McIntyre lake (IIRC).
Sunset inlined for format -- this is a great desktop background!
I especially like the halo of light around this mountain.
Neat little piece of wildlife.
(This picture is sideways.)
Crossing the river toward the future campsite.
Looking down the river towards our campsite and Lake 2.
Campsite for the two days we stayed together as a troop. Actually, we ate together for dinner, and we hiked up to North Rawah Peak, but the groups camped separately. My group camped down by the river, and the other group camped up closer to Rawah Lake 3.
We spotted a moose grazing in the brush nearby.
Rainbow over a mountain.
Leaders conferring; I'm second from left, with the blue bandanna on.
Looking up the North Rawah Peak, which we're going to scale on the fourth of July.
Us as a troop, before we attempt to scale the mountain.
Hiking toward the mountain.
A mysterious standing boulder at the base of the North Peak.
Looking up. Intimidating, isn't it?
Staying with the stragglers.
More looking up. Actually, more like across.
Eagle
We spotted this eagle (which is something of a big deal, considering that Eagle is the highest rank in scouting) wihle were were climbing the mountain, as well as these elk:
Elk 1
Elk 2
The peak, tantalizingly close. We were within 100 feet, and we had to go back down because one of our group members became very ill with altitude sickness.
From the (almost) top of the world.
More mountaintop photos.
Me! At the top (or close thereto) of a mountain!
Look at that thunderstorm in the distance.
Looking across the crest of the mountain (we saw the Elk in the lower left-hand side of the ridge.
Climbing down. This should give you some sense of scale.
More climbing down; more idea of just how big those rocks are. Some of them weren't terribly stable, either; I was afraid I was going to trigger a landslide.
Sliding down a snowbank on the fourth of July! This is our group leader, going first. The picture should give you an idea of just how steep the snow is, and since the ambient air temperature was in the 70s, it was also very wet snow.
That's me, getting ready to slide.
This should give you some idea of how high up I am.
Losing control.
Wheeeee!!
Recovering at the end, with a little help from the preceding sliders.
Ohshitohshitohshitohshit ... . (this is not me.)
Helping someone else up at the end of the slide. In earlier pics, you can see some nasty rocks right at the end of the run; since we're two days from civilization and medical aid, it would be disastrous to let anyone run into them.
Here's the slope, after we're all done sliding. Damn, that maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.
Cheeky little bastard stole some of the other group's food. Fortunately, they got him:
That's my brother holding the line. Speaking of him:
Exactly in the middle of our 11-mile hike, we stop for lunch. I consult the map.
About halfway through our 11-mile hike, we stumbled out into the Big McIntyre Burn, a huge forest fire which ravaged the north part of the Rawah Wilderness Area in 1944. The forest still hasn't fully regrown.
More Big McIntyre Burn. Note that there aren't even any trees; the land is bare save grass and twisted, dead wood.
More Big Burn.
Coming out, toward the end of our 11-mile hike on the second-to-last day, we passed through some pretty amazing birch groves, which seemed very clearly demarcated from the lodgepole pine forests around. There was an abrupt transition from brown to white to brown trunks again. (That's me, by the way).
More of the birch grove.
Done at Rawah; now to pack up into the car for the hour drive into Fort Collins to shower and eat real food, then the 24-hour drive back home.
Mmm ... Beaujo's Pizzas. Wonderful food, especially to boys who have eaten nothing but camp food for an entire week.
The drive home. That's western Nebraska, I believe.
We're back; we all survived. Unloading.
More unpacking. And that's how a trip ends: you unpack, and you move on with life.
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
F. Douglass
- Gil Hamilton
- Tipsy Space Birdie
- Posts: 12962
- Joined: 2002-07-04 05:47pm
- Contact:
I hate to tell you this, mate, but someone took a dump in your apple fritters.
Anyway, very nice pics.
Anyway, very nice pics.
"Show me an angel and I will paint you one." - Gustav Courbet
"Quetzalcoatl, plumed serpent of the Aztecs... you are a pussy." - Stephen Colbert
"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
"Quetzalcoatl, plumed serpent of the Aztecs... you are a pussy." - Stephen Colbert
"Really, I'm jealous of how much smarter than me he is. I'm not an expert on anything and he's an expert on things he knows nothing about." - Me, concerning a bullshitter
-
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1162
- Joined: 2004-12-27 08:58pm
- Location: GO BU!
- Contact:
Looks like it was a great trip, Surl . And if there's one thing I've learned from my trips out west, it's that there is no sense of scale when you're looking at those mountains. They could be a mile away, they could be 10 miles away.
Come to think of it, I should get our pictures from our family out west trip this summer and upload them...
Come to think of it, I should get our pictures from our family out west trip this summer and upload them...
Parrothead | CINC HABNAV | Black Mage In Training (Invited by Lady T)
The Acta Diurna: My blog on politics, history, theatre tech, music, and more!
The Acta Diurna: My blog on politics, history, theatre tech, music, and more!
Actually, those were the fritters in the other cook group. I assume he put chocolate or something in them. So -- not my apple fritters.Gil Hamilton wrote:I hate to tell you this, mate, but someone took a dump in your apple fritters.
To be honest, I wasn't sure what they were when I was looking at the pic, so I guessed they were the fritters we had. They could very well have been feces de shite, a special camping food.
In the long-distance pictures of the North Rawah Peak (the one with a large plateau just below the summit), the stuff up near the top that looks like gravel is actually boulders the size of a person. It amazed me when we were actually up there climbing on them.Fleet Admiral JD wrote:And if there's one thing I've learned from my trips out west, it's that there is no sense of scale when you're looking at those mountains. They could be a mile away, they could be 10 miles away.
It rained 4 afternoons out of five while we were backpacking, and in one of those, we actually had to run a half mile in the rain without ponchos back to our camp. Afterwards, I decided that staying at the other camp to eat in spite of the rain was one of the stupidest things I'd ever done. It literally took me all night to warm back up.Feil wrote:You can't possibly be Boy Scouts. It's not raining in any of those pictures! Everybody knows that Boy Scouts cause rain...
A Government founded upon justice, and recognizing the equal rights of all men; claiming higher authority for existence, or sanction for its laws, that nature, reason, and the regularly ascertained will of the people; steadily refusing to put its sword and purse in the service of any religious creed or family is a standing offense to most of the Governments of the world, and to some narrow and bigoted people among ourselves.
F. Douglass
-
- Jedi Master
- Posts: 1162
- Joined: 2004-12-27 08:58pm
- Location: GO BU!
- Contact:
Indeed, I remember seeing what looked like boarder shrubs that were actually trees. Driving through Idaho, you get a lot of that sort of thing. The same loss of sense of scale happens in the deserts of Utah, Arizona, Etc.Surlethe wrote:
In the long-distance pictures of the North Rawah Peak (the one with a large plateau just below the summit), the stuff up near the top that looks like gravel is actually boulders the size of a person. It amazed me when we were actually up there climbing on them.
Parrothead | CINC HABNAV | Black Mage In Training (Invited by Lady T)
The Acta Diurna: My blog on politics, history, theatre tech, music, and more!
The Acta Diurna: My blog on politics, history, theatre tech, music, and more!
- Brother-Captain Gaius
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 6859
- Joined: 2002-10-22 12:00am
- Location: \m/
Yep, them's the Rockies. Nice pictures. Though I laugh at your oxygen-deprivedness, bwaha.
PS: Colorado has the coolest Rockies.
PS: Colorado has the coolest Rockies.
Last edited by Brother-Captain Gaius on 2006-07-27 07:10pm, edited 1 time in total.
Agitated asshole | (Ex)40K Nut | Metalhead
The vision never dies; life's a never-ending wheel
1337 posts as of 16:34 GMT-7 June 2nd, 2003
"'He or she' is an agenderphobic microaggression, Sharon. You are a bigot." ― Randy Marsh
The vision never dies; life's a never-ending wheel
1337 posts as of 16:34 GMT-7 June 2nd, 2003
"'He or she' is an agenderphobic microaggression, Sharon. You are a bigot." ― Randy Marsh
- SylasGaunt
- Sith Acolyte
- Posts: 5267
- Joined: 2002-09-04 09:39pm
- Location: GGG
You live in Ft. Collins? Shit I was up there just over 2 weeks ago visiting my grandmother.. and once more finding shit in the Gryphon games store in old town that I can't find down here in Florida.Sriad wrote: I see you stopped by my town (Fort Collins) on your way out!
BeuaJo's is good stuff, even though I prefer Cozzola's (about 250 yards northwest of where you were).
On topic nice pics Surlethe.. I can practically feel the wheezing I end up doing every time I go up there.
- Einhander Sn0m4n
- Insane Railgunner
- Posts: 18630
- Joined: 2002-10-01 05:51am
- Location: Louisiana... or Dagobah. You know, where Yoda lives.