REI staff trip!
I had heard the rumors. Before I was one week on the job, I was informed of the infamous 2010 staff trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Most of the staff attended this trip and I (the new guy) was left to tend to the store. The stories when the staff returned filled me with jealousy. Therefore, I knew I would not miss the next one. Fast forward one year and if I am not to bold to say the 2011 trip was a rousing success.
In order to, as the Boy Scouts say, “be prepared” and to not look the fool in front of my knowledgeable coworkers, I decided to pack at midnight the night before we were scheduled to leave at 6am. Now this may seem a bit irresponsible to you but I am here typing this so I must have survived. After gathering the troops and carb loading at Burger King, we arrived at the Missouri lakes trailhead at 10am. Well not the actual trailhead as the road had washed out and was closed about half a mile before the trailhead. Not to be detoured we loaded up our packs and prepared for the four miles and 2000ft of elevation that lay ahead of us to what would become our camp.
We stopped to marvel at what would be the first of many waterfalls.
The hike into the lakes was uneventful. We stopped to eat lunch at the lower lake and rest a bit.
We trudged on to the highest lake and we were treated with our first view of Missouri pass and the following was muttered by some if not all of the group.
“look at all that snow”
“where is the trail?
“we have to go over that”
The only sensible thing to do was to send out a scout. A few members of the group dropped packs and ran up the pass. Word came down from the pass that there was no sensible spot to camp on the other side so the high lake became our camp.
Now there are many different accounts of what happened this first night. Some say a surprising amount of adult beverages appeared from different packs. Some say the cool and casual demeanor of the group was altered into that of a burning man concert. I (of course) cannot comment as I found a soup kitchen just down the trail and volunteered for the night.
Our second day saw the departure of the half of the group that did not have the foresight to request off four days. The weather was not looking good so we decided to remain in camp another night. However, just because my tent stayed put did not mean I had to and after all those snow fields on Missouri pass looked too good to pass up. The views from the top of the pass were worth the trip alone.
Walking back down the pass did not seem that appealing so we opted to glissade down instead.
While the rest of my lazy, slothful crew napped away the afternoon I hiked down to the largest lake and put to use the fly rod I packed up here. The fish were small and eager but I to was feeling lazy and did not size down my presentation so no fish were brought to shore.
As the weather turned from bad to worse, we quickly made dinner and retreated to our tents just as the rain clouds opened up. If the weather allowed we would head over the pass in the morning and complete the loop back to our trailhead.
I awoke at 6am to blue skies. My spirits were raised and I was looking forward to a little sunshine. Unfortunately, 6am was our weather window for the day and by 7am the black clouds had returned and any hope of hiking ridgelines above tree line was put to bed. We would not let the weather spoil all of our fun so we hiked to a nearby waterfall and tested the water temperature.
While the water temperature was cool, it was not cold enough to keep us from jumping into the lake below the waterfall.
(I will spare you these photos as we have all seen me in my underwear enough)
With our hopes of conquering the pass shattered by weather, we made good time back down the trail. I stopped to take a few pictures of some of the bridges along the trail.
Back at the car, we loaded up and headed to the Dillon Dam Brewery for the requisite post-hike burger and beer.
When one does not meet ones goals it is easy to get discouraged but sometimes in life, the journey is more important than the destination. On this trip, I would have to agree. We may have not achieved our end goal but we sure as hell enjoyed the ride.
