Summer's swan song, the last hike of the season

OK. I admit it. I'm a slacker and a procrastinator. I've had these pictures sitting on my computer for a while now and it seems downright disrespectful to Lady Summer not to give her a fond farewell. So here is the tale of our last hike of the season.

Late in September, Kelly and I planned a hike at the recommendation of one of my friends. He is an avid hiker and mountain biker so I knew his recommendation would be good. He recommended that we hike into Indian Peaks Wilderness and head over to Pawnee pass via Brainard Lake.

Kelly and I do a lot during the summer but I only tend to blog of a few of our excursions. However nothing of what we had been doing compares to this last hike of the season. The week had been quite warm and then a storm blew through the mountains the night before our hike. We weren't expecting much so we went anyways. Pulling into the trail head  and the parking lot was full, Saturday's are busy.  So we drove back up the rode to find a place to park.  When we finally found a spot we were greeted with the following sight:

Our goal was the peak on the left. It was looked a bit colder than we expected but our spirits were high and we started off with gusto. Fortunately we had prepared and dressed for what we thought would be a very cold hike. We were right, sort of. It started off as a very cold morning but what were weren't expecting was all the snow on the trails. Early going was pretty easy as the incline was not steep at all.  After about 1.5 miles we were treated to the view above. Another breath taking scene that can only be offered by the uniqueness found in the Rocky Mountains.  This was a good place to take a quick break and take some pictures.  Up to this point the trails had been relatively dry despite the snow that had fallen the night before.  I think it had more to do with the traffic more than actual snow accumulation. The higher we go the deeper the snow.

On the left we can see Kelly at the beginning of the hike.  We did no actually start at the trail head but had to walk about half a mile before the "hike started"  We are dressed warm and full of energy at this point.  Notice the hat?  Kelly picked up her new beanie earlier in the week and it has quickly become her favorite new snow accessory.

Here I am on the right striking a pose for all that is good.  Not really, it is not easy to come up with a good pose when the scenery is much more interesting than the subject of the photo.  I think next time I'll stick to photography the scenery and be done with it.  At this point my feet were still dry because we hadn't hit to much snow on the trails but that was bound to change.  What is even worse is that Kelly's hiking boots are not waterproof.  So as time went on her feet started to get wet.  I was very impressed because she kept pushing despite the weather.

The last picture I have to share is of a mountain stream about 2/3rds of the way.  With all the new snow the streams were running full again.  Even the trails became small beds for run off of the snow melt.  We finally made it to about 11900' before we stopped for lunch. We could see people continuing up and over the false summit to Pawnee Pass.  We considered following them all for about 30 secs and then said no. We were both tired and wet and not ready to make it to the summit.  Maybe next year we can go a bit more prepared or even better when there is no snow on the ground.  Although that will be a bit harder because there are permanent glaciers in these mountains.  Give me a ski lift and a board and I'm happy.  There is no need to actually walk the distance.  We finally went back to the car for hike of 8 miles round trip.  The path in green above is the route we took.

No new update on the adoption front.  If you know someone who is pregnant and needs help let us know and I'm sure we can get them the help they need. Also don't forget to tell you're friends that we are adopting because you never know who needs the help.