Summiting Mt. Crested Butte

Today, Charlotte and I had breakfast with the kids as they had decided to skip Adventure Camp today.  But afterwards, we packed up and got dressed for today's hike.  Carole was taking the kids to paint pottery and Johnnie was taking us up the mountain. We dropped our car off at the base of the mountain and took the ski lift from the base to about the top of the mountain. Having never skied, this was a little nerve racking for me.  I mean, I love roller coasters and I love adventures, but you still can feel your stomach flip when you look down and realize how far above the ground you are with nothing holding you in but a slim piece of metal! 

After the initial trepidation, I relaxed and enjoyed the views.  Johnnie rode up to the top with us and gave us a little history of the resort and pointed out landmarks of interest.  At the top, he pointed out the overlook and the trail we should take.  Then, he rode back down the mountain and later went to pick up  his daughter Jody who would be joining us in our awesome adventures for the rest of the week. 

Columbine - Colorado's state flower

Charlotte and I headed up the mountain and having gained about 2000 feet in elevation from the house to the mountain, quickly discovered that this might be a challenging hike.  We took our time and stopped to enjoy the plentiful views of the beautiful mountains.  I was taking it all in.  As I mentioned, I am not a skier, so I was very interested in all the different types of lifts and ski slope signs and just observing the mountain as it might be with snow on it and people attempting to get down it via skis.  It truly scares me. Skiing is not a sport for me!

It's a mile and a half to the top!

We got to a part of the mountain where the trail goes from being a dirt path to more of a boulder field.  Down near the lift some signs had been posted of different wildlife we might see on the mountain.  At this transition from dirt to rock we saw our first Pika.  A little mouse-like creature with really big ears that makes a sound like someone screeching the word "fee."  So cute.  We continued up the mountain and came to trail junction and a great place to sit and have a snack. 

A not-so aggressive chipmunk.

The chipmunks just jumped into our laps even though we weren't feeding them!

Obviously, the alpine chipmunks have figured out that this is a great place for humans to snack as well and are quite brazen in their attempts to yogi food away from the hikers.  Practicing Leave No Trace principles, I do not feed the creatures, but this did not stop them from climbing into my lap and trying to get my trail mix!  It was quite cute. 

We had to hike down before we could climb up, but when we started it up, it was a serious rock scramble.  We were seriously hand over foot, grabbing onto the rocks trying to keep our balance as some of the rocks were a bit wobbly.  It was also quite congested with other hikers at this time in the day and we had to share the trail with hikers of all experience levels.  Going slow was not a problem for Charlotte.  She took her time.  I made it to the top first and sent encouraging words her way.  When she arrived, I congratulated her.  You see, Charlotte has a fear of heights!  What an achievement! 

We enjoyed our lunch at the summit and then began our descent.  We noticed that the trail was quite empty of hikers, in fact it seemed as though we had the mountain to ourselves.  We wondered if we smelled that bad! It was actually quite nice and made scrambling over the rocks less treacherous.  It also provided us with the opportunity to witness wildlife we might have missed had there been swarms of folks around.  We were able to see two marmots up close, as well as that elusive but noisy Pika. 

Marmot

Pika

We also saw about 6 crows descend on the area and we made up cartoon like stories about the interactions between the marmots, pikas and crows.  It was quite a National Geographic moment.  

As we headed back down the summit trail to the "Yellow Brick Road," the road-like trail that would take us to the base, we realized why we had the mountain to ourselves now.  The ski lift runs until 2 pm and all the other hikers we had passed earlier in the day were racing to finish their summit hike in time to take that lift back to the base.  Our decision to hike to the base was worth it given the solitude and wildlife experiences we were exposed to.

The hike down was an easy but long hike.  It was a little tiresome as four plus miles at the same grade downhill does eventually wear on the knees and feet.  But again, we had great conversations and great views. Along one of the switchbacks we saw a beautiful doe running across the adjacent meadow. She stopped and smiled at us.  Further down the trail, we witnessed a hawk soaring above us greeting us with that iconic scream.  It was amazing to watch it glide on the thermals.

We finally got close enough to see our parked car and I decided to check in with Carole and Johnnie.  I called them and when Carole answered I asked her when we would be making it to Emerald City as we had been traveling the Yellow Brick Road forever.  

Yellow Brick Road

It took her a few minutes to get my Wizard of Oz humor - she was trying to actually picture an Emerald City here in Crested Butte, but when she did she laughed heartedly. 

Not much further and we were finished hiking for the day and headed back toward the house. When we arrived, Jody was there with the rest of the family.  We greeted them with our hiking tales and then proceeded to the hot tub for our post hike soak.  

Carole again provided an excellent meal of grilled ribs, corn on the cobb and salad.  This was the first night that the children ate with us (before they had been eating separately before us).  It was a treat to have everyone sharing a meal together. 

We had just a brief post dinner discussion about tomorrow's hike, before all of us headed off for bed.  What a great day!