Weekend in the Rockies

Last week Jon was in Denver for work, so I decided to fly out for the weekend to spend some quality time with him in beautiful Colorado. I flew into Denver where we rented a car to take up to Estes Park for a nice little getaway. Estes Park is absolutely breathtaking. It's such a cozy town with spectacular views. I'm also a dork and love seeing the Stanley Hotel where some scenes from my favorite movie, Dumb and Dumber, were shot. 

"There ya go, There ya go, There ya go"

We woke up Saturday morning with a Rocky Mountain hike on the agenda. I quickly googled some winter trails in the area and we were off! After a 15 minute drive into Rocky Mountain National Park, we bundled up and headed out to Cub Lake Trail. 

A local website said the trail was about 2.1 miles and it would run into another trail that was another 3.2 miles. The first part of the hike wasn't that hard. We actually warmed up rather quickly and started shedding layers. 

 A man and his stick

A recent wildfire wiped out 300 acres of the park

Eventually, we worked our way up the mountain and the altitude hit! It became harder to breathe, the wind was rough, and our layers went right back on. We ran into another couple who was running the opposite way on the trail (I'm all for running as you know, but not on snowy hills), and they told us that once we got up to Cub Lake the trail disappeared due to snow.

 Cub Lake at the top of our hike

Ice skating, anyone?

Seeing as how both Jon and I are pretty stubborn, we decided we'd make our own trail and that a lack of people's footprints wasn't going to stop us from completing our 5+ mile loop. Bad idea. We ended up having to mush through what seemed to be 12 inches of snow (I was in tennis shoes and jeans mind you), battle the intense wind, avoid wild animals, and try not to slip down the hills covered with patches of ice. Since we were making our own trail, we weren't even quite sure we were on the right path. At one point, we were both a little worried and debated going back the 3 miles we'd already completed. We decided against that and plunged through. Thankfully, we were not forced to build fire or shelter and we did not get lost in the Rocky Mountains. Once we saws trail signs and proof of life (AKA people), I felt a sense of relief and we finished the remaining 2 mile downhill trek back to our car. All I wanted after that adventure was a glass of wine and a hot tub...which is exactly what I got :) But not before spotting some elk eating dinner nonchalantly by the side of the road. 

"Excuse me...EXCUSE ME!"

Hiking 5 miles took a lot more out of me compared to walking 5 miles. The trail ended up taking us about 3 hours (with breaks and freak-outs), but it was a GREAT workout and a nice replacement exercise for not being able to run while we were there.

02/04/2013: Miles run - 85 of 1000. Miles remaining - 915 of 1000 
(Note: not counting the 5 mile hike in my numbers)