weekend hiking trip

[mickj]

I went on a hiking trip over the weekend to Thunder Lake, CO. The hike the first day was around 7 miles (2,000 ft elevation gain.) The next day, rather than rest at camp with the majority of the group, a few of us decided to hike another 5-6 miles round trip (another 2,000 ft elevation gain) to the Lake of Many Winds and then on to the mountain pass above the lake (also part of the continental divide.) Finally, on the third day of our trip we hiked the 7 miles back down to our car. One of the many exciting parts of the trip was seeing a mother black bear and her cub about 30 feet away from us on the trail back to the car. It was a good chance to remember some of the muscles in my body that I don't use too often


a20120630_113230 (1) by dontcontact9449992a, on Flickr

40.23950°N / 105.6632°W
about 12,400 ft elevation at the top of the pass

[LOL!]

Cool. What are temps like at those elevations?

[Backpacker]

NICE! I love to backpack, my burning desire is to retire young enough to do some serious hiking.

Have hiked across the entire UP of michigan, in 50 - 100 miles sections. hoping to do more long distance hiking upon retirement.

[mickj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL! Cool. What are temps like at those elevations?

We camped at around 10,200 ft. I believe the day time temps were in the 70s and the night time temps were in the 40s. Up at the continental divide it would be around 6 degrees cooler than where we camped.

[tmm99]

Mickj,

Do you live at a high altitude? I live a few feet above sea level, and hiking where you are at would probably kill me!

[mickj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 Mickj, Do you live at a high altitude? I live a few feet above sea level, and hiking where you are at would probably kill me!

I do live at about 5,000 ft, so that definitely helps.