Over the Misty Mountains: My First (Annual?) CO Ranger Trek!
Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2015 5:42 am
Well, maybe not OVER the Misty Mountains so much as INTO them, but you get the drift. Either way, we made it "There and Back Again," for which I am very thankful, haha. (DISCLAIMER! THIS IS GOING TO BE A REALLY, REALLY LOOOOOONG AND INSANELY PIC-HEAVY POST! YE BE WARNED.)
That's right folks, FINALLY a recap of my two-man ranger trek with my good friend Bryan (MasterStrong) into the mountains of Colorado (which really do stand in excellently for the Misty Mountains, as described by the good Professor, just noticeably missing the trolls, orcs, and stone giants). So sorry it took this long! I just haven't really had the time to sit down and write this out, go through all the photos, etc. etc. But better late than never, right? In order to make this easier to post, I have decided to split it into three sections (one for each day of the trip). I will post the first section now, and then work on the others as soon as possible.
Anyway, wow, okay, where to begin? As you probably know, early in July (starting on Friday, 7/10 and ending on Sunday, 7/12) I went on my first ever overnight ranger trek, and I'd like to think it was a tearing success (in that we did not die), although I must admit it was a HUGE learning experience. Bryan had been camping in semi-primitive conditions before, but I believe nothing quite as immersive (and, well... nerdy) as this venture, so I suspect he learned a lot as well. Since we got back, many people have asked me how it was, and I generally respond, "it was simultaneously one of the most incredible and one of the most miserable experiences of my life."
The good: we chose an absolutely stunning location, and a REALLY good year to go, since it's been unusually wet for Colorado this season, and everything is just as lush and green as yuou can possibly imagine (this time of year around here, things are generally already turning brown and catching on fire). The vistas were positively breathtaking, and if you weren't jealous of living in our beautiful state before, God willing, you will be after seeing some of these pictures. Just... WOW.
The bad: we froze our ever-loving acorns off at night! And by the end of the trek back, we we so bone-tired and downtrodden under the weight of our packs (plus the heat, and the unseasonable humidity, for summertime in CO), we were just about at the point of saying, "y'know what? Who needs the Shire anyway? It's not that great. Why did we decide to hike to Mt. Doom again? Sauron can just have the ring. We're over it."
Still, I can honestly say I wouldn't trade our experience for the world, and I am SO GLAD we did it! Honestly, outside of the people I know on this forum, I don't think I know a single soul who has ever done something quite this crazy (hiking, in garb, overnight, with trail rations, collecting water from streams, etc. etc), so I figure that gives me a fair deal of bragging rights!. And for that matter, taking into consideration the altitude and the sheer difficulty of the hike itself (much more difficult than we realized, from the material we had read ahead of time), I would be very surprised if most of the rangers on these forums would come out of it entirely unscathed. Seriously, the sheer altitude and up-hill scrambling nature of this trail were tough even on us, and we live here!
In short, I'm proud of myself, darnit!
So here's a breakdown of the trip, including some pictures!
First we made the long drive from Denver to Pagosa Springs (which is about 5 1/2 hours away). That was a bit of an adventure in and of itself, to be honest. Once we got to Pagosa springs, we followed a long, winding dirt road up to the trail-head, which overlooked some truly breathtaking vistas along the way - a forecast of things to come. At long last, we reached the trail-head, and we were ready to begin our trek! Bryan wore his garb on the car ride down (a sort of Scottish-inspired take on the ranger look, incorporating a full, 9-yard woolen great-kilt), while I opted to change out of my mundane clothes in the parking lot. Alas, this caused me to mislay my pipe, which I therefore did not have with me on the trek, but in the end I'm pretty sure that and my tobacco pouch are the only things I really left behind.
The parking lot at the trailhead had several cars there already, and we ran into a few people right at the start. I'm sure they all thought we were mental cases, but overall they were surprisingly friendly and nice about the whole thing, and talked to us about what we were doing with a good deal of interest. We told them we were planning to head to the lake (spoiler alert: we never did make it to the lake), but none of them had any advice or insight for us regarding the trek to come, because, like us, none of them had actually been there before - so we were truly going into parts unknown.
A couple of folks at the parking lot were kind enough to help us take a couple of pictures before starting out, so here are some of those, as well as a few shots of the beginning of our trek:
After this, we set out on the trail, which actually went downwards for quite some time (a fact we somehow completely forgot on our way back, to our extreme annoyance) into a beautiful valley, with several large clearings offering gorgeous vistas of the surrounding peaks. The trail guide says that around dawn the sun hits the dew in the fields and turns the whole area into an ethereal mist-filled fantasy landscape, but alas, we only saw this area during the mid to late afternoon. Along the way we crossed a small stream, and wound in and out of intermittently pine and deciduous forest. The most exciting moment in this section of the trek came when a wild quail BURST out of a shrub to the left of the path as we crossed. We just about soiled our breeches, haha. Alas, we did not catch a photo of the bird, as it all happened much too fast, and we were nursing heart-attacks for a few minutes afterwards. A little part of me did consider taking a shot of it in the nearby tree in which it settled, but in the end I knew I'd only risk losing an arrow and possibly get in trouble for poaching, so I thought better of it.
The trailhead!
Our first stream crossing!
Bryan, showing off a little leg! Yow! Haha.
"It ain't exactly the Mississippi! Look! I'm on one side! I'm on the other!"
Much of the trail was waterlogged in this way, because of all the recent rain, and it sometimes felt more like a stream than an actual trail.
One of the things I was most surprised about was the abundance of Spanish moss! I had no idea we even HAD Spanish Moss in Colorado! I had never seen it before this trek, but it was EVERYWHERE!
One thing you may notice is all the beetle-kill pine. There were countless dead pine trees due to beetle infestation - a common sight in CO - but there was still plenty of lush green foliage around as well, thankfully.
An orc approaches!
Wait... no... just a quail.
Bryan was always on the lookout for interesting fungi. He has a little basic knowledge of mushrooms - enough to know a few varieties at least that won't kill you when you eat them - and so he collected a few along the way to try for dinner. This is one of them. Later, he fried them up with some cheese and summer sausage, and I can honestly say he DID NOT DIE. A fact with which I was pleasantly surprised, haha. I, however, declined to try any out of sheer paranoia.
So after a while of trekking (not long - maybe two or three hours, max - do you remember, Bryan?) we were almost at the first waterfall. Fourmile Trail is well known for its waterfalls. As it turns out, there are something like five or six along the trail, and almost all of them are SPECTACULAR - but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, we caught sight of the first fall in the distance, and decided to hike towards it and look for a campsite, since by this time the sun had already started to sink, and we didn't want to be setting up camp in the dark. Along the way, off in a clearing just downwards and to the right of the trail, we noticed an area that had obviously been utilized as a campsite in the past, and recently (fellow rangers, perhaps?), so we decided that if we could not find a better spot in the next twenty minutes or so, we would turn around and use this one.
The very first waterfall of the trek! Okay, so this isn't the one I was talking about above. This one was TIIIIIINY. Just wait. JUST WAIT.
Bryan, using my Sawyer mini filter for the first time on the trip. THAT LITTLE SUCKER SAVED OUR A$$ES! Seriously, that thing was fantastic! I cannot stress this enough: if you are going on a long-ish trek (long enough that you can't reasonably pack in all the water you need), I cannot recommend enough that you invest in one of these! Such an amazing little filter! PLUS! It's super inexpensive, TINY, and weighs ALMOST NOTHING. Total lifesaver! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the members of this forum who recommended I get one!
Me, filling the water-pouch for the Sawyer Mini Filter.
Our first view of the campsite as we passed. A very nice little set-up, and I'm grateful to whoever first set it up, because it proved to be the perfect stopping point for us on the first leg of our trip.
So in the end, we did decide to double back and use that first campsite we saw - and boy were we glad we did, because it turned out to be a PERFECT location, and also, the sunlight really started to die off right about the time we were done setting up camp. We actually ran into two ladies who were overnighting it back at the parking lot, and as we approached the first waterfall that evening, we ran into them again. They said they were looking for a campsite up that direction, and asked if we had seen the other. I told them we had indeed seen the other and were now planning to double back and camp there that night, and I told them that if they didn't find another site up their direction that they were welcome to come camp with us. I was afraid they might be weirded out a little by the suggestion (mainly given our odd appearance, and the fact that they were two women, and we two men... you get the gist), but they were actually very thankful. However, we did not see them again that evening, so I assume they found a good spot. As for us, once again, I'm quite happy with our choice of campsite.
Me, in my "Ranger Burrito," as Bryan dubbed it, haha.
After setting up camp, we started in on making a fire, which proved exceptionally difficult, mostly due to the damp conditions. The irony is, it's BECAUSE of the damp conditions that we were even ALLOWED to make a fire (fire bans are common in Colorado during the summer because of how dry it is around here usually), but that also meant that we could hardly light one if our lives depended on it. I had practiced with my flint and steel previous to the trip, and I had been successful in lighting some basic hemp-fiber tinder, which I had brought along on the trip, but when we were out there it just WOULD NOT light. So after that I switched to a ferro rod, and THAT wouldn't light. Finally, we resorted to using the emergency matches Bryan had brought along, just in case, and in all honesty, we even had a hard time with THOSE. In the end though, we got a nice little fire going, and hunkered down for the evening. We had some food, recapped our day's events, and then settled in for the night. At which time we bloody well nearly froze to death.
Seriously, it was FINE up until about maybe 2 or 3 AM, and then WHAM! The temperature plummeted, and neither Bryan nor myself could handle it. I know one needs to insulate a lot more with a hammock than with a groundcloth, because of increased airflow, but even Bryan, who was sleeping on the ground next to me, could hardly stand it. We were expecting it to be uncomfortably cool, but this was above and beyond that, by far. By the morning, my toes and fingers would hardly move, even though I had been awake and moving around already for at least an hour before the sun rose. Goes to show, temperature changes in the mountains can be SCARY severe.
Me, trying unsuccessfully to use my flint and steel.
Aaaaaaand trying unsuccessfully to use my ferro rod.
And finally, a 100% fake picture of me PRETENDING I totally just lit that fire you see with my flint and steel, haha.
SO THAT'S THE END OF PART-ONE, FOLKS! I hope you have enjoyed so far! Stay tuned for Part 2, very very soon! (hopefully)
That's right folks, FINALLY a recap of my two-man ranger trek with my good friend Bryan (MasterStrong) into the mountains of Colorado (which really do stand in excellently for the Misty Mountains, as described by the good Professor, just noticeably missing the trolls, orcs, and stone giants). So sorry it took this long! I just haven't really had the time to sit down and write this out, go through all the photos, etc. etc. But better late than never, right? In order to make this easier to post, I have decided to split it into three sections (one for each day of the trip). I will post the first section now, and then work on the others as soon as possible.
Anyway, wow, okay, where to begin? As you probably know, early in July (starting on Friday, 7/10 and ending on Sunday, 7/12) I went on my first ever overnight ranger trek, and I'd like to think it was a tearing success (in that we did not die), although I must admit it was a HUGE learning experience. Bryan had been camping in semi-primitive conditions before, but I believe nothing quite as immersive (and, well... nerdy) as this venture, so I suspect he learned a lot as well. Since we got back, many people have asked me how it was, and I generally respond, "it was simultaneously one of the most incredible and one of the most miserable experiences of my life."
The good: we chose an absolutely stunning location, and a REALLY good year to go, since it's been unusually wet for Colorado this season, and everything is just as lush and green as yuou can possibly imagine (this time of year around here, things are generally already turning brown and catching on fire). The vistas were positively breathtaking, and if you weren't jealous of living in our beautiful state before, God willing, you will be after seeing some of these pictures. Just... WOW.
The bad: we froze our ever-loving acorns off at night! And by the end of the trek back, we we so bone-tired and downtrodden under the weight of our packs (plus the heat, and the unseasonable humidity, for summertime in CO), we were just about at the point of saying, "y'know what? Who needs the Shire anyway? It's not that great. Why did we decide to hike to Mt. Doom again? Sauron can just have the ring. We're over it."
Still, I can honestly say I wouldn't trade our experience for the world, and I am SO GLAD we did it! Honestly, outside of the people I know on this forum, I don't think I know a single soul who has ever done something quite this crazy (hiking, in garb, overnight, with trail rations, collecting water from streams, etc. etc), so I figure that gives me a fair deal of bragging rights!. And for that matter, taking into consideration the altitude and the sheer difficulty of the hike itself (much more difficult than we realized, from the material we had read ahead of time), I would be very surprised if most of the rangers on these forums would come out of it entirely unscathed. Seriously, the sheer altitude and up-hill scrambling nature of this trail were tough even on us, and we live here!
In short, I'm proud of myself, darnit!
So here's a breakdown of the trip, including some pictures!
First we made the long drive from Denver to Pagosa Springs (which is about 5 1/2 hours away). That was a bit of an adventure in and of itself, to be honest. Once we got to Pagosa springs, we followed a long, winding dirt road up to the trail-head, which overlooked some truly breathtaking vistas along the way - a forecast of things to come. At long last, we reached the trail-head, and we were ready to begin our trek! Bryan wore his garb on the car ride down (a sort of Scottish-inspired take on the ranger look, incorporating a full, 9-yard woolen great-kilt), while I opted to change out of my mundane clothes in the parking lot. Alas, this caused me to mislay my pipe, which I therefore did not have with me on the trek, but in the end I'm pretty sure that and my tobacco pouch are the only things I really left behind.
The parking lot at the trailhead had several cars there already, and we ran into a few people right at the start. I'm sure they all thought we were mental cases, but overall they were surprisingly friendly and nice about the whole thing, and talked to us about what we were doing with a good deal of interest. We told them we were planning to head to the lake (spoiler alert: we never did make it to the lake), but none of them had any advice or insight for us regarding the trek to come, because, like us, none of them had actually been there before - so we were truly going into parts unknown.
A couple of folks at the parking lot were kind enough to help us take a couple of pictures before starting out, so here are some of those, as well as a few shots of the beginning of our trek:
After this, we set out on the trail, which actually went downwards for quite some time (a fact we somehow completely forgot on our way back, to our extreme annoyance) into a beautiful valley, with several large clearings offering gorgeous vistas of the surrounding peaks. The trail guide says that around dawn the sun hits the dew in the fields and turns the whole area into an ethereal mist-filled fantasy landscape, but alas, we only saw this area during the mid to late afternoon. Along the way we crossed a small stream, and wound in and out of intermittently pine and deciduous forest. The most exciting moment in this section of the trek came when a wild quail BURST out of a shrub to the left of the path as we crossed. We just about soiled our breeches, haha. Alas, we did not catch a photo of the bird, as it all happened much too fast, and we were nursing heart-attacks for a few minutes afterwards. A little part of me did consider taking a shot of it in the nearby tree in which it settled, but in the end I knew I'd only risk losing an arrow and possibly get in trouble for poaching, so I thought better of it.
The trailhead!
Our first stream crossing!
Bryan, showing off a little leg! Yow! Haha.
"It ain't exactly the Mississippi! Look! I'm on one side! I'm on the other!"
Much of the trail was waterlogged in this way, because of all the recent rain, and it sometimes felt more like a stream than an actual trail.
One of the things I was most surprised about was the abundance of Spanish moss! I had no idea we even HAD Spanish Moss in Colorado! I had never seen it before this trek, but it was EVERYWHERE!
One thing you may notice is all the beetle-kill pine. There were countless dead pine trees due to beetle infestation - a common sight in CO - but there was still plenty of lush green foliage around as well, thankfully.
An orc approaches!
Wait... no... just a quail.
Bryan was always on the lookout for interesting fungi. He has a little basic knowledge of mushrooms - enough to know a few varieties at least that won't kill you when you eat them - and so he collected a few along the way to try for dinner. This is one of them. Later, he fried them up with some cheese and summer sausage, and I can honestly say he DID NOT DIE. A fact with which I was pleasantly surprised, haha. I, however, declined to try any out of sheer paranoia.
So after a while of trekking (not long - maybe two or three hours, max - do you remember, Bryan?) we were almost at the first waterfall. Fourmile Trail is well known for its waterfalls. As it turns out, there are something like five or six along the trail, and almost all of them are SPECTACULAR - but I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, we caught sight of the first fall in the distance, and decided to hike towards it and look for a campsite, since by this time the sun had already started to sink, and we didn't want to be setting up camp in the dark. Along the way, off in a clearing just downwards and to the right of the trail, we noticed an area that had obviously been utilized as a campsite in the past, and recently (fellow rangers, perhaps?), so we decided that if we could not find a better spot in the next twenty minutes or so, we would turn around and use this one.
The very first waterfall of the trek! Okay, so this isn't the one I was talking about above. This one was TIIIIIINY. Just wait. JUST WAIT.
Bryan, using my Sawyer mini filter for the first time on the trip. THAT LITTLE SUCKER SAVED OUR A$$ES! Seriously, that thing was fantastic! I cannot stress this enough: if you are going on a long-ish trek (long enough that you can't reasonably pack in all the water you need), I cannot recommend enough that you invest in one of these! Such an amazing little filter! PLUS! It's super inexpensive, TINY, and weighs ALMOST NOTHING. Total lifesaver! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to the members of this forum who recommended I get one!
Me, filling the water-pouch for the Sawyer Mini Filter.
Our first view of the campsite as we passed. A very nice little set-up, and I'm grateful to whoever first set it up, because it proved to be the perfect stopping point for us on the first leg of our trip.
So in the end, we did decide to double back and use that first campsite we saw - and boy were we glad we did, because it turned out to be a PERFECT location, and also, the sunlight really started to die off right about the time we were done setting up camp. We actually ran into two ladies who were overnighting it back at the parking lot, and as we approached the first waterfall that evening, we ran into them again. They said they were looking for a campsite up that direction, and asked if we had seen the other. I told them we had indeed seen the other and were now planning to double back and camp there that night, and I told them that if they didn't find another site up their direction that they were welcome to come camp with us. I was afraid they might be weirded out a little by the suggestion (mainly given our odd appearance, and the fact that they were two women, and we two men... you get the gist), but they were actually very thankful. However, we did not see them again that evening, so I assume they found a good spot. As for us, once again, I'm quite happy with our choice of campsite.
Me, in my "Ranger Burrito," as Bryan dubbed it, haha.
After setting up camp, we started in on making a fire, which proved exceptionally difficult, mostly due to the damp conditions. The irony is, it's BECAUSE of the damp conditions that we were even ALLOWED to make a fire (fire bans are common in Colorado during the summer because of how dry it is around here usually), but that also meant that we could hardly light one if our lives depended on it. I had practiced with my flint and steel previous to the trip, and I had been successful in lighting some basic hemp-fiber tinder, which I had brought along on the trip, but when we were out there it just WOULD NOT light. So after that I switched to a ferro rod, and THAT wouldn't light. Finally, we resorted to using the emergency matches Bryan had brought along, just in case, and in all honesty, we even had a hard time with THOSE. In the end though, we got a nice little fire going, and hunkered down for the evening. We had some food, recapped our day's events, and then settled in for the night. At which time we bloody well nearly froze to death.
Seriously, it was FINE up until about maybe 2 or 3 AM, and then WHAM! The temperature plummeted, and neither Bryan nor myself could handle it. I know one needs to insulate a lot more with a hammock than with a groundcloth, because of increased airflow, but even Bryan, who was sleeping on the ground next to me, could hardly stand it. We were expecting it to be uncomfortably cool, but this was above and beyond that, by far. By the morning, my toes and fingers would hardly move, even though I had been awake and moving around already for at least an hour before the sun rose. Goes to show, temperature changes in the mountains can be SCARY severe.
Me, trying unsuccessfully to use my flint and steel.
Aaaaaaand trying unsuccessfully to use my ferro rod.
And finally, a 100% fake picture of me PRETENDING I totally just lit that fire you see with my flint and steel, haha.
SO THAT'S THE END OF PART-ONE, FOLKS! I hope you have enjoyed so far! Stay tuned for Part 2, very very soon! (hopefully)