From the winter gate at Brainard Lake we picked up the Snowshoe Trail (most other trails were set aside for those on skis) and kept out of the wind as we hiked through the trees.

I hiked with one eye on the patterns around me, trying to spot an interesting photo op.

The other eye I kept on the trail markers making sure we followed the “grape stomper” signs.

The CMC Cabin wasn’t occupied today, so we couldn’t stop in to warm up by the fire and sip hot chocolate.

At least the sun was out and sitting outside wasn’t a burden. A few begging jays visited our lunch looking for a handout.

After lunch I continued to hunt for photos as we began the return hike.

Complete Photo Album

Sunday we got a bit earlier start and didn’t have to walk as far as the South Park area to find a climb open. Instead we climbed at the New Funtier section of the park.

I got a couple photos of the climber next to us before we walked back to the bridge.

There we ran into a couple we had talked to in the morning and ended up doing some cool-down laps on their rope setup near the bridge.

The hot springs and Ouary Brewery were taken advantage of before we got up the next morning for the drive back (lengthened by some new snow on Monarch Pass).

Continuing pass the trail junctions for Forest and Crater Lakes, I headed further up the main valley than I’d ever been before. While my shoulders protested the heavy pack, my ego was stroked by all the day trippers who seemed impressed that I was going to spend the night.

Around 11,000 feet the trees started to thin and I figured I should pick a semi-sheltered spot now before continuing higher and risking a windier camp. The perfectly flat and sheltered bench appeared and I stomped out a tent platform and setup camp. Hours of watching snow fall while drinking hot beverages kept me entertained until dusk.

Once it was truly dark I left my headlamp in the tent and spent some time trying to capture the next image, all the while wishing for another light source and an off-camera flash.

Just before falling asleep I noticed the nearly full moon shining into the tent and went outside to investigate the clearing skies. The following shot was a 10 second exposure illuminated only by the moon.

With the clear sky came an overnight low of 14F so I stayed in camp through breakfast until it had begun to warm back up to 20F. Then I quickly packed away my night’s home and headed back down the trail through the 5 or so new inches of needed snow.

New Year’s included watching the fireworks from Maggie Pond in Breckenridge, Colorado.

And we started the year off right with a hike (not really enough snow this year to break out the snowshoes) complete with a husky pup.

Complete photo gallery.

After a few Thanksgiving meals I needed to work off some of the calories consumed. Hiking with the Bloomington Hikers served that purpose nicely.

As usual, I led a hike of the eastern portion of the old Blue Diamond Trail around the Deam Wilderness.

Seeing old friends again is another benefit of hiking with the group.

The surprisingly warm day brought out some wildlife none of us expected to see this time of year.

The extra hiking I’ve been doing this fall seems to have helped and I felt much better after this hike than the same one last year. That bodes well for the upcoming marathon I’ll be sweeping.

Complete photo gallery from the hike.

The number of sandhill cranes was limited this mid-morning by the visitors center so we took a hike out to the Rio Grande for a few more sightings.

A perfect recommendation sent us to Sophia’s for lunch followed by a visit to Los Poblanos Fields for more birding and horsing around.

Our hosts for the weekend (Sarah and Dan) cooked up a great dinner and generally psyched us up to attend their wedding next summer.

I hadn’t done any Tai Chi since a college course, but Tara and I joined the Saturday morning “Tai Chi with the Cranes” session back at the visitors center.

Heading a bit further west we visited the Petroglyph National Monument for a short hike around Rinconada Canyon.

Returning to Sarah and Dan’s place we got a guided tour of Bear Canyon.

Sunday started a little slower, but before noon we got another guided tour of the Academy grounds by Sarah.

Our destination was “Girl Power Peak” with a great view of the socked-in Sandias Crest.

Heading back to the airport we had just enough time for a stop at the Chama River Brewery for dinner before catching our flight.

Complete photo album

The trail was well packed and so the snowshoes stayed on our packs, and we even met the originator of the tracks ahead of us as a frozen looking fellow descended without wind-proof gear muttering about the cold. Just below treeline we suited up. I was out classed today by Pete’s snazzy red suspenders.

Yes the wind did blow, but we stayed up right and made it to the saddle between the west Twin Sister (unranked) and the East (ranked) sis.

Food and hot tea seemed more appetizing out of the wind, so we huddled in the lee of a radio shed before venturing towards the East Sis.

A bit of rock hoping and some full-on-mitten-scrambling brought us to the summit.

Conditions seemed to be on our side, the wind wasn’t really that bad, and we figured we had time. So from the summit of East Sis Peak, we picked out a vague route up Twin Sis Mountain and sorta stuck with it.

The snowshoes continued to do a lot of good on our backs.

If nothing else, they probably kept us from blowing away.

A bit of loose talus, snow-covered of course, provided the perfect highway for our slog.

The second summit gained, we decided to take another lee-side break below the top.

Following our tracks, we carefully picked our way down the rocks and thin snow cover to the saddle between the sisters.

From the saddle we avoided another climb up East Twin Sis, by taking a more direct route to the radio tower and shed.

From here it was a short hike back down to tree line where all those extra layers could be shed.

Miles (it’s true, miles!) of hiking snow covered trails that we couldn’t remember from the morning, but must have hiked up, brought us back to a truck which was much better than walking all the way home.

Complete photo gallery

This post edited while enjoying Bristol’s B6000 Dubbel.

Thankfully, the wunderkind of orienteering was in a different division (he and Jenn nailed 1st place in the team division), as I was the one who tried to blow by the scouts and ended up missing the 2nd (2nd!) checkpoint, found myself lost at #3, then doubled back and stayed on target for the rest of the race finishing in a respectable (I think) 7th place for my first orienteering event. Full results.

Post event activities included consuming “meat-on-a-stick”, ramming each other with pedal-carts, flinging gourds, riding tractors and generally making fools of ourselves.

Enjoy the video:

A few of us might even be psyched for some future orienteering events.

That’s pretty much how Tara and I found ourselves camping at Lake Pueblo State Park for two nights.

Saturday morning we drove another 90+ minutes to La Junta, Colorado (I felt closer to Kansas than Colorado here), then headed south past a nude photo shoot (no kidding) on the way to Picketwire Canyon. I was interested in visiting Picketwire for the “largest dinosaur tracksite in North America”, but we quickly found other attractions on the 10.6 mile round trip hike.

Mid-afternoon wasn’t really the best time to visit the dinosaur tracks for good light, but with the canyon “closed” from dusk to dawn, there weren’t too many good options for obtaining photos during the magic hour. Instead we had to do a little historical reenactment.

After terrorizing other visitors to the tracks with our theropod calls, we reversed our earlier hike back to the trailhead.

Another long-ish drive back to our campsite and we were ready for some comfort food and to sleep off the hike. I was up for sunrise however.

Complete photo album