Today was the day I’d been anticipating the most as I planned this adventure since to me it makes the actual beginning of the fun. We began at the Bear Lake Trailhead and hiked to Nymph, Dream, and Emerald Lakes then back down to Glacier Gorge. Everything went surprisingly smoothly with the elevation and elevation gain causing only minor whining.
It was freeing to be on trails that involved traversing mud and snow, beautiful scenery and even a bit of scrambling. What a change from our training hikes in Illinois! I think my biggest mistake of the day was forgetting to pack the fruit and Little Debbies.
One thing I hadn’t thought to expect was the quantity and intensity of the waterfalls throughout the hike. There were still a few hours portions of the trail packed in several feet of snow, providing pool length of water to the streams below.
A few other highlights:
Ordering a pizza at a restaurant in Estes Park and then discovering they’d be happy to deliver it to the bar on the next block.
Subsequently discovering said bar served $2.50 points of beer.
Ellie discovering the largest any mound we’d ever seen.
“There’s so many rocks in my pants it feels like a meteor belt”
Tomorrow we’re going to tackle the Twin Sisters Peaks. Wish us luck.
