mt. marcy

We didn't end up on any missing persons report so I take that to mean the trip was a success. My last hurrah was amazing...

The Saturday before we left, I went up to Dallas for Revekah's brother's wedding. The wedding was beautiful, but had some really hysterical parts. During the ceremony, both the fathers were asked to give a message. The bride's father said now that they're married "it's time to be yourself" (we're all thinking, gee- I hope they've been themselves during the courtship) and "you're going to be disappointed". At the reception, Revekah's father got a hold of the mic and attempted to introduce everyone in his family. He introduced Rev has his beautiful daughter, who owned a business and a house, that he wasn't sure if she was single or not. That night Rev's father took his entire family to a Korean restaurant for dinner. In a crowd of 25 Kims, I was the only white person and was jealous and feeling under cultured. The names of the dishes don't translate well. We ate blood sausage, seafood pancakes and bean curd soup. Jacob would be so jealous!We had our last pleasant night of sleep on Dr. Kim's tempurpedic mattress. :) Before Ruth, Rev's sister, took us to the airport Sunday morning, Revekah started having makeup withdrawal and had to add mascara to her pack. In the airport we bought People magazine since we would be deprived of Perez Hilton for a week. Once we arrived in Denver we went to the van company that would be taking us to Frisco, CO. Rocky, who was working the front desk, was less than helpful and he ended up being the least friendly person we met in Colorado. But in the end, we made it on the van and to Frisco. On the bus, we met a former park ranger who scared the poop out of us with bear stories. From that point forward, we asked everyone we met about bear encounters. Once we arrived in Frisco we walked to Wal-Mart to buy fuel for our stove, but they were out. After deciding against a sales associate's advise to "just use unleaded gas", we were pointed in the direction of a mountain shop in downtown Frisco and started walking. We were amazed at how little attention two girls with gigantic backpacks attract. If we had been in Waco, we would have caused at least three car accidents walking down the highway. Once we got to the mountain shop we had to try on a few outfits to make sure the convertible pants and polypropylene shirts we had were the best looking available. The shop guys filled our gas tanks and were most intrigued by our backpacking plans. A sweet older lady was also intrigued and concerned about the size of our backpacks and how we would get to our starting point, Copper Mountain. She offered to take us to there and we accepted! She was the shop owner's mother and was happy to befriend us. She even took us to Starbucks so we could fill our water bladders with triple filtered water. By 4 pm, she'd dropped us off and we hit the trail.

Once we were on the trail we hiked a mile or so and set up camp. We were still in the ski resort of Copper Mountain and could hear the hum of the highway. That night we prepared our worst meal of the trip- egg noodles, prepackaged albercore steaks and powdered spaghetti sauce. It tasted like glue. Since we were scared silly of bears, Revekah climbed a ski lift ladder to hang our food and toiletries away from bears. Once we were safely in our tent it started to rain and it did not let up for 24 hours.

Monday was rather slow since we were still acclimating to the elevation and we were climbing the entire day. When the rain got heavy we hid under trees. At one point we could see a lovely cabin that was part of the 10th Mountain Division hut-to-hut ski system. We wanted to scurry down to the cabin, but our guidebook said it was closed during the summer months. We met two parties of hikers this day. One guy was wearing Chacos and wool socks. He seemed upbeat, but must have been miserable traveling in rain and through snow in sandals. Another was an older man from Pittsburgh who's partner had to stop around mile 15, so he was going to have to do the remaining 485 miles solo.

That afternoon the sun finally came out of hiding and we set up camp early to allow our stuff to dry for the night. Colorado had a late June snow, so finding a campsite meant having to cross many snow fields. We set up camp between a snow field and a stream. We had little protection from the wind that night and had to spoon each other to stay warm. While we were setting up camp I decided that since we were above tree-line that bears would not venture up towards us. There were, however, lots of marmots around who would eat all of our food, so we decided to keep our packs in the tent with us. By 12 am, I had decided the bears could smell the fantastic split pea soup we'd enjoyed for dinner and were venturing above tree-line to attack and steal our food. Needless to say, I was frightened and spent the entire night preparing my plan of action for when the bears came. Thankfully no bears came and the next morning we slept in. While packing up a hiker walked by and I told him about my bear fear. He assured me bears don't go this high.

Tuesday was a hard day for the psyche. We crossed more snow bridges and exposed rocky patches. We also started going downhill and we knew that going downhill meant that when we turned around, we'd be hiking uphill. But we had great weather and hiked 12 miles. Our goal had been to make it to a meadow that was surrounded by beaver dams. This ended up being a bad goal, because the meadow was too marshy to retrieve water, but an intense breeding ground for mosquitoes. Even comfort food like mac and cheese that night couldn't console one teary-eyed camper in the tent.

Wednesday morning we got up early and skedaddled without breakfasting. We had made it to the end of the section of the trail we were hiking on Tuesday so from this point we were just going in reverse. We decided to hike to a ghost town named Camp Hale where we would refuel our bodies and have time to pack our bags neatly without the annoyance of bugs. Wednesday was spent climbing every step we'd descended the day before. But our spirits were high and we did great. We made it to a beautiful campsite above tree-line and this time we found protection from the wind behind bushes and I slept much better knowing bears weren't going to eat us.

Thursday morning we made pancakes and smothered them in honey. This breakfast of champions gave us almost enough energy to finish the remainder of the trail. With about 10 miles to go we met a funny, oblivious day hiker who was wearing a backpack made for a third grader (with clear plastic pockets) who asked us "which way to get out". He was disappointed to learn that if he didn't turn around now he would have to go another 15 miles to the next exit. Later when Revekah figured out we had only five miles remaining in our hike, she put it into fifth gear and was nearly running to the finish line. However, with the end was in sight, the trail started veering in the opposite direction and she had a small meltdown (and she may or may not have dropped the f-bomb). We eventually made it to the bus stop and back to Frisco.

That night we ate a delectable meal, showered and slept at a hotel that reminded us of the one in No Country for Old Men. The next morning, a friend who lives in Vail picked us up and took us back to Vail. We have three friends in Vail and they are all river rafting guides during the summer. Thursday was a training day for them and we were lucky enough to tag along. A new part of the river had been opened for the season and they were training their rookie guides on it. We did a section of river with multiple class four rapids five times. Revekah fell out once but was a great sport about it. Our rafting friends love their life and can't believe that they get to be on the river everyday...but their living quarters are interesting. The married couple lives in an uber chic DWR airstream trailer with just enough room for two. Our single friend lives in the bed of his Toyota Tacoma. So that's where we slept, with Ryan in the middle, snoring.

Ryan had to work until late afternoon Saturday, so we were free to roam since we had the keys to his truck. We went into Vail armed with a generic ziplock full of money that had not been opened for six days. We shopped, ate, and pampered ourselves at the spa with full body massages. *If you are in Vail Village and walk into a boutique that sells Prada Sport and DSquared, do not let the unfriendly salesperson talk you into the white cycling shorts.

Our flight back to Texas left early Sunday morning, so we took the shuttle to a hotel near the Denver airport Saturday night.

All in all, we had a great time with many firsts and laughs. We are already planning next year's trip.