Once in a Lifetime~Once a Year: Wrong trail, right trail and mice!

Hello all!

After leaving Mesa Verde we headed north into the San Juan mountains for what turned out to be an incredibly interesting few days. We drove about 3 hours to the Mt. Sneffles Wilderness area where we readied ourselves for another backpacking trip.

The May issue of “Backpacker” featured a cover story titled, “America’s Best Campsites: 12 Epic Hikes to Huge Views with Zero Crowds.” Katie and I thought it would be cool to try and hit as many of these as we could this summer. Our hike in the Great Sand Dunes was the first of these backpacking trips and the second was to be a 3 1/2 mile hike in to an alpine lake situated at 11,500 feet.

We were all stoked to hit the trail as we signed the log at the trailhead and quickly set out on our way. We hiked for a about an hour remarking how easy the trail was for one that was supposed to climb 1600 feet in 3 miles. We had a shallow river crossing that forced removal of our boots and damn near froze out feet. We hiked for another good while when we finally realized that this trail was leading down and away from the peaks we were supposed to camp near. Only about three hours of daylight remained so we hiked back to the car rather than risk getting lost. Back at the trailhead we realized we took the wrong trail from the start. Total rookie move. We camped nearby and went back the next morning.

Certain this time we were on the right trail we had a fantastic hike up to Blue Lake. Ashlin did awesome on a pretty tough hike, especially considering we hiked 7 miles in the wrong direction the day before. Our campsite was unbelievable as Backpacker promised. We chilled out by the lake and hiked around the surrounding peaks. When we got back to the car after the hike down things got really interesting.

When we open the trunk to repack our stuff we discovered we had some guests. Mice. The little rodents started nesting while we were gone and managed to leave tons of "mousekaturds" all over our gear. I managed to grab two of them and we thought that was the end of the ordeal. We all went for a wonderful trail-ride near Ouray which Ashlin loved. She got to ride with no lead rope for the whole time. After riding we drove two hours to Colorado National monument to camp.

As we were cooking dinner Kate noticed a mouse under the car. We tried grabbing it but it would just run back into the car. We decided to bait the thing with peanut butter on bread. I sat in the car while Kate and Ash watched for the mouse. Once he came for the peanut butter, I drove away and parked the car on the other side of the camp ground. Our neighboring campers thought we were nuts. Maybe we are.

Stowaway-free we drove to Freemont lake in Wyoming after a stop at Dinosaur National monument. The drive was horribly boring but the lake campsite was a big payoff. We got up early and drove right through the Tetons and Yellowstone without stopping. We got to Livingston and have been hanging out with Eric and Roan. Hope everyone is doing great! Enjoy the pics!