Practice Hike to Brainard Lake

We went up to Brainard Lake with very close to our final gear last weekend. The new stuff was clothing, a tent, a MSR Windburner stove, and new food. I was a little concerned about the size of our three-person tent. The extra space is nice for the long journey, but the footprint is big. It worked out pretty well, though. (Note from the future: even years later, we still use this tent and it's been awesome. We've had to re-waterproof it and stitch some seams, but this was worth every penny and ounce.)

We camped in a free campsite area north of the turn off for the lake that few people know about. There are no facilities, but you can’t beat the price. 

The only big news for the night was that it was probably 25 mph winds and gusting to 40 mph or more at times. We had gone with a free-standing tent in part for its ability to be able to withstand high winds a little more than one needing to be staked to stand. I think that the winds proved the point as all the stakes holding the fly on gave way. In great ground, maybe the stakes would have stayed. I think, though, that hoping for good ground in areas that frequently see high winds is asking for a lot. Some will say that you can angle tents to better fight the wind. We’ve read the blogs that talk about shifting winds and collapsing tents so we aren’t swayed. The robustness to us makes the extra half pound worth it to us.

Anyways, the next day we made our way into the park after a breakfast of pop tarts.  (Neither of us are breakfast people so food experimentation continues.)

We chose the Blue Lake trail, an 8-mile round trip or so from where we parked. It was one of those beautiful fall, Colorado days with brisk, but not cold, air and great color in the trees. A light dusting of snow on the Continental Divide added that “between seasons” touch.

Making our way up to the Divide, we began to encounter snow on the trail itself and we brought out our trekking poles. (The poles have repeatedly proven to be worth every penny.) The air also cooled and became windy.

At the top, the forest mostly dropped away and the trail became muddy with some cairn following on the rocks. And then the lake itself. 

We huddled against a few big rocks to shelter from the cold wind and made our lunch of tortillas, salami, and mustard. The view of the lake and Divide were good scenery and it felt like a worthwhile trek. A half hour later we wrapped up and headed back down the mountain, shedding layers as it warmed up and the wind died down.

The highlight on the way down was coming across two young bull moose. They were probably 70 meters away, which felt like a safe distance while being close enough to admire them. A couple of quick miles later brought us to the car.

We had originally planned to camp out that night for further trials of the gear. However, I thought the only real question was the food. So I suggested we drive home instead, but camp cook for dinner. Emily agreed. Our mutual feeling of preferring a nice bed may be a bad sign…

We did, though, stay true to cooking at home and even used the camp stove to make the noodles. We have learned that we should boil the noodles until it begins to boil over and then we kill the flame. There’s enough heat in the water to finish the cooking process so we can cut back on fuel use.

We also boil our spoons in the water while cooking. We are also going to add some of the boiling water to our bowls before we start cooking to help clean them since “cleaning” mostly means wiping them out with a handkerchief with some cold water.

I think, in general, that we are pretty much ready to go. We still need extra socks and the silk liners for our quilts. Hopefully, we can get those last few things and stop spending money on gear!