|
Blog Home
------- back to 2008 entries -------
This weekend (August 22-24), we decided
to take Alex on his first ever backpacking trip. What's
more, we chose a location which includes a hike to a
fourteener (14er). A 14er is a mountain taller than
14,000ft. In this case, we chose Handies peak (14,053ft
or 4290m) in San Juan mountains of Colorado.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
We left home Friday afternoon, and were
very happy that Laura could join us on this trip.
Laura spotted this rainbow, so we stopped to look at it.
Luckily, there was a campground right there, so we
stopped for the night.
After the storm cleared, the night sky filled with
millions of bright stars and Milky Way.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday morning we drove to the American
Basin trailhead and packed all the gear (except the
spoons) into our backpacks. The gear included the tent,
3 sleeping bags, 3 sleeping pads, stove and cooking pot,
water purifier, food and snacks, lots of clothes, my
camera, and other smaller things. Since our gear is very
light, our packs did not weigh too much. Alex also
carried a backpack with some snacks in it.
We arrived at Sloan lake in the early afternoon. This is
one of the highest lakes in the United States (12,900ft
or 3930m).
Laura and Grace decided to take a nap,...
while Alex and I hiked around the lake.
You can see Handies peak in the center of the photo.
Laura and Grace are napping on a rock in the upper left
part of the lake.
Since it started sprinkling, we set up our tent. This is
the view towards American basin.
And this is looking towards the lake. We purified our
water from the outlet stream.
Here is Laura at the lake outlet. It is so cold up here
that there is still snow left over from winter.
In the afternoon, we hiked around the basin above the
lake.
It started raining, but the Sun peeked from under the
clouds, providing a nice view into the neighboring
basin.
After it started pouring, we ran back to the tents (the
one on the left is Laura's) and made dinner.
The previous photo was taken from the saddle pictured in
the center above.
We went to bed early, since it was rainy and cold, plus
we were tired.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
We woke up early Sunday morning. It was
freezing outside, so we ate breakfast and waited for the
Sun to hit our tents.
We packed snacks and water, then set out for the peak.
Our tents are two dots on a meadow on the right side of
the lake.
Here it is! Alex is arriving at the top of Handies peak.
His first 14er at the age of 4.
Family portrait at the top (photo by Laura).
Another group photo (taken by another hiker).
Instead of showing a bunch of pictures
from the top, I am including three panoramas, which
combine for a 360 degree view.
This is a 180 degree panorama from straight north (Wetterhorn
peak, far left) to straight south (Sloan lake, far
right). Grizzly gulch is in the left half.
This is the view of the north 180 degrees, from west (Sneffels,
far left) to east (Redcloud and Sunshine peaks).
And here is the southwest view. Needle mountains are in
the far left (south), and Sneffels in on the right
(west).
Right in the center (on the horizon) is the Ice Lakes
basin, with Pilot peak and Golden Horn.
You can see Sloan lake and American basin below it.
|
