Mount Zirkel!

For Evan's 30th birthday celebration he wanted to go on a backpacking trip.  June 1st we headed towards Steamboat Springs.  We stayed the night in a small town, Kremmling, Friday night.  We woke up early Saturday morning and drove to Steamboat Springs for breakfast. After a large breakfast we headed to the trailhead to climb Mt. Zirkel.  I always like to eat a large meal before a backpacking trip because on the mountain the food seems limited and is not the most appetizing. 

We started at the Slavonia Trailhead and headed west on the Gold Creek Trail.  The first 2 miles felt pretty good although it is always tough climbing with a heavy pack.   The first tough part of the hike was getting across a rapid river along a log.  I think the river had to be at least 20ft wide.  Evan attempted first and walked across the log without difficulty.  I tend to think I have much better balance than he does but I had vertigo as soon as I took one step forward.  I had to crawl across the log to make it.  Ozzy swam across the river without difficulty the first time we crossed the log and on the way back he decided to walk right behind me (see below). 

We saw 2 hikers after this and they warned us we were going to have to walk across the river in about a half mile.  I stayed positive and thought it can't be that bad.  As we approached the river you could hear the roar of the rivers and it was actually 3 rivers coming together.  It was amazing to see how much water was flowing down this mountain.  And to think this year we had a dry winter!  We had to cross the rivers and both of our boots were instantly soaked.  We had to now hike another 3 miles in wet/cold boots.  

After crossing the river we approached a lake with fantastic views.  Ozzy jumped right into the lake.  That was the first time Evan and I have ever seen him swim in a lake.  He loved it!

After leaving the lake we had a couple more miles until we would reach the mine ruins.  We planned on setting camp there and then heading up to the summit.  As we were getting higher up we came across snow along the trail.  We met the hikers that were ahead of us who created a nice path to follow.  They informed us that there was too  much snow after the mine ruins to reach the summit without snowshoes.  They also told us that we had a lot of fallen tress to climb over along the trail.  They were right. The hike became more challenging between climbing over trees with a heavy pack and maneuvering in the snow. 

Evan and I were both happy to make it to the mine ruins.  It took us a while to find dry land to set camp.

After we set camp and started our 'jetboil' for our food we noticed the sky was looking ominous.  We quickly put all of our things in or under the tent and brought our dinner inside our tent.  We thought it was probably a good thing we could not make it through the snow to the summit.  The sky changed quickly and there was a pretty bad hail storm and thunderstorm.  Staying in a "bowl" surrounded by mountains at 10,500 feet creates an intense noise from a thunderstorm.  Both of us were pretty nervous during the storm and just hoped it was short and we would be safe.  The storm only lasted about 45 minutes.  We ate our dinner and relaxed (as much as I could in such an isolated area) and read that evening. All of us actually slept great that night.  

We woke up the next morning around 5:30am, made some coffee, took our tent down, ate breakfast bars, and headed back down the trail.  We made breakfast quick because both of our boots were still wet from the day before.  We wanted to start moving as quickly as possible.  We made it down without difficulty. I think Ozzy was sad to go.  He was a great backpacking dog! 

We made it back to our car safely and all and all had a safe and fun trip!