Emerald Lake - a return to beauty

 The hike to Emerald Lake was one of Paul and Ross's first backpacking hikes when they were scouts.  We have returned there several times with different hiking parties - Paul and I and Bean and Supe, Paul and I, Supe, Beacher, Jay, and Weston (a friend of Supe's).  Paul has also gone there with a few scout troops.  Ross called up and wanted us to come and hike Oil Mountain (Blackhead Peak) with him.  We had seen the trailhead a few years earlier while visiting there.  We thought that sounded fun and thought it would also be fun for us and Ross to hike to Emerald Lake.  Ross had never been back since his scout experience.  The trip was planned and we went over on Monday, July 31st.  We took a break at the Glen Canyon Dam and hiked a little trail to the Hanging Gardens.  We also stopped in and explored the Hole In The Rock visitor's center in Bluff.  It was pretty cool and we found Paul's relative's name on the sign.  They were part of the first party to settle there. We drove on to Cortez, CO and spent our first night there.  It was a beautiful drive there and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We ate dinner (breakfast) at Denny's that night.  

The next morning we got on our way and drove to Ouray, CO via Rico and Delores and loved seeing the beautiful mountains and river canyons along the way.  We went swimming at Ouray!  It's tradition, and we love enjoying that wonderful hot water in the scenic surroundings.  After that we drove down through Silverton stopping for a little afternoon snack.  Then we drove to Durango and met Ross and Lerlyn at The Bar D Chuckwagon dinner/show and had a good time and great food there.  We went on to their house for the night.  

Wednesday morning we got off as early as possible to go up and do the hike to Blackhead Peak.  It was quite a drive to get there with some road work and logging going on along the way.  Both hold ups were actually interesting and it was a nice drive.  Paul and Ross enjoyed a lot of reminiscing along the way.  I enjoyed some napping!  We got kind of a late start on the hike and had no directions that would download, but we found the trail and it was beautiful.  We saw some fresh bear scat as we were getting started. It got pretty steep in some places and Ross was struggling.  We finished the part of the trail that was pretty good and then Paul checked out the next section and decided that with the shoes Ross had on his general shape, and our late start, it would probably be better to call that far enough.  We enjoyed it and it was so pretty, that it was just fine that we called it good. We headed back down to Ross's house and ate at a little Mexican place along the way.

Thursday morning we got ready and got on our way to the Emerald Lake (Pine River) trailhead.  Ross had borrowed a pack and it was too small for him, his boots were not his most comfortable and some of his gear was pretty heavy.  Paul and I carried all of the food, stove, water purifier (common gear) and our own tent and other stuff, and Ross just carried his own, which was good, because his pack was so uncomfortable for him.  We kept a good pace of about 2 miles per hour for the first part of the hike.  After the bridge it got steeper and we slowed down some and took more rests.  It ended up taking us  almost 8 hours hours to do the 11.61 miles and 2,479 ft. elevation gain to Little Emerald Lake.  That was a lot longer that we had hoped it would be.   The lake was beautiful...the whole hike was!  Such gorgeous scenery everywhere.  Our backpacking food was great for dinner.  We walked the little way up to see Big Emerald Lake after dinner and it was beautiful too.  We had a pretty good night's sleep and got on the way.  We saw bear sign on the way up and down which was a little concerning, but never did see the bear.  Our hike down was slower than we hoped - 6:19:41 hours, but still shorter than coming up.  Usually the downhill is a bit faster than we went, but Ross was really struggling with his gear, probably more than on the way up.  Thankfully, both up and down we had some good tree and cloud cover so the shade was on our side. I was really glad when we finally got to the lake and probably more glad when we got back to the car.  I enjoyed it, but it seemed like more work than it needed to be, and it would have been nice to have stayed longer after going so far I think. But the beauty of the place (we had the lake camp to ourselves) made it worth it.  And all of the other fun stuff we did and the beauty we saw along the way made the whole trip worth it!  I was actually surprised I did as well as I did, but I was surprised how tired I was too.  I felt sorry for Paul having to carry so much and then having to have some of Ross's stuff as well.  His poor foot was feeling very bad by the time we got down.  So, I'm not sure if anymore backpacking forays are in our future.  We'll see. Maybe something shorter would work especially if we get some lighter gear.  I need new boot laces.  They were too long and the bows of the left lace, I found out, kept getting caught on the lace grommet of my right boot.  It caused me to trip and fall down because my pack drug me right down.  I  did that about 4 times and face planted pretty good on one of them.  

Saturday morning we got on our way and it was good to be home to our own bed that night!  We listened to a really good book on the trip - The Adventurer's Son.