August 2nd, 2014
Another weekend, another trip to the high country! We wanted to get in some longer miles so we picked Shavano and Tabeguache for Saturday. After work on Friday we drove up to the trailhead, finding a nice flat parking spot for our
Element camper, falling asleep under the stars.
We awoke to the sound of other hikers heading out, including a wonderful car alarm going off. Sigh. I guess parking at the trailhead wasn't conducive to sleeping in, so we got out of bed at 6am and hit the trail at 7. The trail started climbing right from the start!
As we were ascending, I noticed that the terrain was very technical- lots of big, loose rocks. The climb out of the forest brought gorgeous morning views.
After treeline we began ascending more technical, steep terrain. In one direction, the sky was perfectly clear:
However looking in the other direction, the clouds were forming right under our feet:
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| Clouds just continued forming all day |
It was a very cool day!
The final pitch to the top got only marginally steeper, since most of this hike was steeper than most anyways. The class 2 scrambling really wasn't bad on the way to the top of Shavano- I don't even think we lost the trail!
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| into the clouds, literally |
The summit of Shavano was very popular, so we took a few photos and continued on to Tabeguache.
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| Happy 14er pup! Number 21 for Cody! |
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| On top of the world |
The trail heading to Tabeguache was a little harder to follow at first, but after a little bit of scrambling we found a few cairns and were OK. However, there was a lot more tricky scrambling on this part of the trail.
The trail from summit to summit was 1 mile long, with 500 feet of loss and 300 feet of gain each way. The trail up to Tabeguache summit was also a slightly trickier scramble. Sometimes there was no trail, we just went up!
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| The ascent to Tabeguache |
There was hardly anyone else on Tabeguache- apparently the prospect of descending and climbing for another mile doesn't sound like fun to everyone :)
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| Cody's 22nd 14er! |
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| Such a cute nubbins |
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| A perfect Case family portrait |
The clouds were still forming/reforming at the top of Shavano on the way back up and over, so the descent was interesting.
Unfortunately, I (Alaina) slipped ever so slightly on one of the rocks at the top while climbing up, and my leg grazed against the side of another rock. Guess what, rocks aren't soft! I guess I should consider myself lucky that this is the first injury I've ever gotten from the mountains!
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| It's just a flesh wound! |
The scrape on my leg didn't really hurt a ton, but it made downhill running more painful. I also lost some confidence, which was desperately needed for the very technical terrain. I let Ryan run ahead of me with Cody and an incredibly talented 14 year old runner (who happens to run with Dakota Jones), while I hobbled my way down the mountain.
To relax after an amazing day in the mountains, we enjoyed lunch in the town of Salida, then made our way to Turquoise Lake and enjoyed a relaxing paddle with all 3 of us on the board!
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| Cody disapproves of selfies, with beer, on a paddle board :) |
And nothing ends a perfect day like hotdogs and mac 'n cheese cooked by the lake:
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| Cody carefully monitors the chef |
Oh wait- dinner by the lake is pretty amazing, but it's also amazing to camp completely alone at this site. Life is good!
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| The before sunset photo |
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| Ryan dances in celebration of a perfect camping spot for the Element Camper |
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| Wildflowers and mountains, all to ourselves |
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| Cause I'm happy! |
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| An hour later, the sunset photo |
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| These clouds are making the mountains turn red |
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