Crabtree trailhead to gem lake….. failed
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first trip of the season. FINALLY.
I had a very ambitious plan, to be the first to make it to gem lake despite doubtful look on the lady ranger's face. she seemed very concern because i wanted to go so far this early in the season and because it was a solo trip, also because of the cherry creek crossing.
made it out to crabtree and this guy was just as excited as i was to get out on the trail.
made it out to bear lake. it was very quiet and not very crowded, unlike camp lake were the mosquito situation and crowd were a problem
how to make camp: step #1: choose a site with awesome view, step #2: make fire, step #3: unpack.
notice the Columbia mobex pack and the bareboxer on the rock, its amazing how many things i can fit in there along with a bear canister and SLR camera. aside for the laufbursche bags this is the only other pack whose design has apealed to me, i know there are lighter and bigger options out there but since i work in the design business im always willing to sacrifice weight for aesthetics.decided to try out one of backpacking light's ultra light tips
cant say that this worked for me, within 30 seconds of puting my head on it the bags deflated. maybe i got the wrong brand of bags lol.
this was my set up for the night, i made that sack 10 mins before leaving my home, i had been contemplating the move from tent to bivy for a while so i made this quick prototype to test what would be some of the issues that i would have with this type of set up.
me by the fire.
this turned out to be the major problem of the night, condensation eventually hindered the performance of my quilt, i was not cold but could have been warmer since i'm a cold sleeper, i like to sleep very warm. as u can see in the pic the condensation eventually turned to frost and ice hindering the performance on my down quilt.
made this rig to dry my quilt and get on the trail as fast.
poe elite packed, got this about 3 months ago and was dying to use it perfect compliment to my quilt.
The trail up to bear lake was pretty damp, with some areas wet and muddy but i was fairly easy to walk on. On my way to piute lake the trail was mixed with some areas of snow were there was more shadows to keep the snow from melting. For the most part the trail was hot, arid, and exposed. Hence why i choose to put away my camera and just push my way to the lake asap. It was hot, and creek crossings were dangerous, i think i was the only one to cross the creek at the end of piute meadows that day since i did not see anyone on the trail on my way to and from puite lake. I actually did not cross the creek, i walked across the meadows were the creek is divided into 2 small streams before it bottle necks were it meets the trail making it dangerous. I saw 4 different people cross on horse back and the water would touch the horses stomach, once i got to puite lake i had 1/2 hour lunch before deciding to head home as fast as i could because of the mosquito problem.
It seemed like one of those NGC programs were depending on the temp, the larva all hatch at the same time. it was unbearable and it was all over the mountain, i could not understand it since the day before at bear lake i had no problems. I realized that cheery creek would be worst than the creek at puite medows so by process of elimination i decided not head further than puite lake. I did about 20 miles on sat counting all off trail exploration i did that day. Being the first trip of the year i was beat at the end of the day and those last 2 miles were really hard on my back (i have been caring a back problem from when someone slide tackled me in a soccer game 2 month ago).i leave u with a pic of a camp fire gone out of control.
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