This weekend I went on a wonderful 25 mile backpacking loop from Ouray. I started at Bear Creek, a few miles up the road from Ouray, hiked up to the rolling green tundra paradise of the Uncompahgre Wilderness, along the Horsethief Trail to the Bridge of Heaven Trail, then back down into Ouray. I camped two nights along the way.
The tundra is so beautiful right now, with lush green grass and wildflowers popping up everywhere. In contrast to last week’s brutal bushwhack, this trip was a stroll through paradise. I was practically ecstatic as I walked through one gorgeous basin after another. This hike easily ranks among the best I’ve done in Colorado, and it’s basically in my backyard!
I haven’t posted my photos yet; I’ll update this later.
Here’s a goofy video for you. It’s pretty awesome how this guy Matt got paid to travel the world to do exactly this… read more about his adventure at Where the Hell is Matt?
I was just notified in a round-about way of this post of my Croatia waterfall photo on a Christian blog. (The blog is ironically titled “Atheist Central”).
The author posts my photo of the beautiful waterfalls, then states “Look what our God created. And it’s nothing but a trash bin, compared to what He has in store for those that love Him…” I understand that he’s just trying to make a point here, but the wording rubs me the wrong way. And since it’s my photo that he used to illustrate his point, I feel that I deserve a chance to express my opinion too.
During the last three days, I bushwhacked through the Cow Creek valley, a rugged and remote mountain valley in the Uncompahgre Wilderness of the San Juan Mountains east of Ridgway. My original plan was to hike through the valley and continue up to the high alpine zone, where I would hike a high loop route around to Wetterhorn Basin and then take a trail back to my truck. However this plan was thwarted by geography - the Cow Creek valley is absolutely impassible six miles up, forcing me to turn around and bushwhack all the way back out the way I came.
This photo shows a sample of the kind of terrain and bushwhacking I was dealing with the entire time. There are many obstacles along the river which forced me to constantly hike up and down through thick bush and forest and along steep, loose, rocky slopes. Over the three days, I spent 23 hours of tough hiking to cover a mere 12 miles round trip, for an average of about 0.5 miles/hour! I can think of a few words to describe this bushwhack; it was brutal, tedious, frustrating, demoralizing, maddening, hellish, unrewarding, exhausting, etc, etc.
Below are some more photos from this fruitless exploration.
A couple weeks ago, I booked flights to Santiago, Chile for October/November. I was going to hike volcanoes in the Atacama Desert and the Lake District. Read my post about the short-lived plan here.
Well two weeks later, I noticed that Orbitz still hadn’t charged my credit card. Odd. So I logged onto their site and sure enough, my reservation had been cancelled! Apparently they didn’t feel that it was important to notify me of the cancellation or explain why they cancelled. But, no matter, because a quick flight search revealed that flights all the way to the South Island of New Zealand would only be $200 more! New plan! Tickets booked!
I’ll be flying from Montrose to Denver to LA to Aukland to Christchurch - 24 hours total travel time each way. I’ll be there for seven weeks, leaving in mid October and arriving back home to Colorado in early December. (Or if McSame wins the election while I’m gone, perhaps I can figure out a way to just stay down there forever).
Anyways, I’ve long dreamed of visiting New Zealand but it just seems so far away and I just never thought of it as a realistic possibility anytime soon. So, I am really really excited for this trip. I have no plans figured out yet, except that they will surely involve lots of trekking (or “tramping” as they say) and photographing the beautiful scenery.
The best New Zealand landscape photos I’ve found so far are from Andris Apse. Incredible stuff.
WATER FIGHT!!! This is a Ouray 4th of July tradition dating way back to the mining days, in which 4 people (2 vs. 2) blast the hell out of each other with fire hoses, for as long as it takes until the losing team falls down or just can’t hold on to the hose any longer. It’s a ridiculous mix of hilarity and brutality, and as I look at these photos I still can’t stop laughing.
This year I got right up along the ropes and snapped some photos while getting completely drenched. Good times! Check out all my battle photos below.
[+] Sunset behind Potosi Peak, 13,786 ft., as seen from the Hayden Trail above Ouray, Colorado. Although it’s only the fourth tallest peak in the Sneffels Range, Potosi dominates the southern side of the range, soaring 5,000 vertical feet above Canyon Creek and Camp Bird Road. It’s a forbidding seldom-climbed peak, surrounded by sheer cliffs and rugged canyons. Read more about Potosi Peak on SummitPost.org.
On Saturday I camped up in Blaine Basin, with Mt. Sneffels towering above. That evening, I hiked up to the summit of Peak 12,910, which has an incredible vantage point directly facing the rugged north face of Sneffels. I’ve hiked to many different vantages around Mt. Sneffels, and I think this one is the best!
