still fuckin with climb cuz climb pays: the ILX hiking thread

damn it missing a rainier skyline loop hike tomorrow because last min decision to go meant it was too late for me to reschedule my stuff for tomorrow. grrrrrrrrrr!

quincie, depends what your hiking parameters are, and your available transportation. im not a big hiker, i do more bike stuff, but:

deer creek canyon park- 15 minutes away by car, a couple of good loops, but vertical involved. the lower loop is about an hour with 500 feet of ascending. i used to do this with my little kid in a backpack carrier, so obv it's not too difficult. if you opt to go to the loops on the top of the mtn, you'll get probly 1000 feet additional of elevation. good venue, rather lots of ppl. in late july, you'll want to start early to avoid the heat.

elk meadow/bergen peak park- 30 minutes by car in evergreen. plenty of long open gentle nature-walky stuff in the meadow below the mtn, with a couple of different routes to the top of the mtn. this will take you from about 7500 ft up to 9500 ft or so with good views. some mtn bike traffic. whats nice is once done evergreen is nearby for food etc.
http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGR254-047

golden gate canyon state park- 45 minutes, this is a nice, more remote feeling area to hike around.

kenosha pass- 1 hour. i really like this area, its pretty remote, but offers good views of south park (yes, that south park) and the mosquito range, and has a several route options. on foot, it might be better to hike from jefferson lakes area, which is farther away, but the hikes from the highway are pretty good too. best thing about this in july is that you start at 10000 feet, so it is typically much cooler than down in town.

grays and torreys- 1 hour. wanna do a 14er, or two at once? this is the best nearby 14er imo, easy walkups as 14ers go, but you'll need to get a very early start because you want to summit before noon to avoid thunderstorms. total hike time will vary widely with fitness/ability.
http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=gray1&peak=Grays%20Peak
http://www.14ers.com/photos/peakmain.php?peak=Grays%20Peak

Oh thanks so much! v. v. helpful info. Neither Mr. Que nor I are super duper hard core hikers but I've done several Adirondacks high peaks so am not a total wuss (tho as swamp inhabitants we will not be used to the altitude). Cooler weather and fewer crowds are definitely a preference.

getting ready to do so much stupid hiking to complete my goals for the year

Hunt3r do you have Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park recommendations? Am thinking we should go big before we go home. Of course the altitude may kill us--we were feeling it even at Bryce.

sorry, but actually i dont. ive been here 19 years but have never hiked rmnp.

I'm seriously worried about the altitude. Like, that I won't be able to do hikes I would normally have no problem with. Am I overly concerned?

what is the elevation?

Highest is 14,259.

I'll becoming from my home below sea level :(

yikes! you should acclimate for a day or two before attempting anything that drastic but wow... i don't know. the highest i've done any hiking was 10,000 i think, and it was definitely a lot more challenging. but i think you'd be ok if you are in good shape and remember to pace yourself/rest occasionally.

Yeah Bryce was ~9000 and both of us were puffing harder than we expected. I think we could probably get a couple of days in taking it easy to acclimate. Mostly I think probably we should not choose ambitious hikes--"moderate" hikes will feel strenuous methinks.

Hiking at altitude = "dude is this what getting old feels like?"

maybe look for a ridge trail that would give you great views but not too much intense up/down?

afaik ppls adverse responses to high altitude are pretty unpredictable if youre talking about real problems like altitude sickness (headaches or pulmonary edema). the cure of going down is pretty reliable. as far as the increased difficulty of exertion, yeah, it just IS. you can try to acclimate for a day or two which may help avoid altitude sickness, but it wont help you make red blood cells in time for your hike. you'll get fatigued faster than youre used to.

theres a bazillion hikes well below 14000 ft, which is as high as you can go here, right?

when you say go big, do you mean a 14er, or just, hiking in rmnp? cause the 14er in rmnp is not really considered the easiest. the easiest one is quandary peak right next to breckenridge. the east ridge is a long gradual walkup.

By big I kinda just mean being surrounded by a bunch of really tall mountains--not that I necessarily have to climb one all the way to the tippy-top. I'm a view (and food)-driven hiker, so a smaller and or shorter hike with a great view is perfectly fine by me. However I do like to avoid crowds and that has sometimes meant choosing a longer but less-travelled route.

what the fuck am I doing with my life

― how rad bandit (gbx), Sunday, October 25, 2009 2:42 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ahahaha, otm

Def take it eeeeasy for a while.

Yeah I mean usually I make fun of mountains with roads leading to summit (see: Whiteface in Adirondacks, Cadillac in Acadia NP) but in this case it might be kind of handy for the swamp dwellers.

i want a car i want to go hike RIGHT NOW

Yeah but you'll still feel shitty at the top. IMO I'd stay away from the heights until just normal activity feels ok

I drove up to 11k outside Santa fe after being there for only a day and just walking across the parking lot was like damn

went skiin at Taos four days later tho and it was ok

yeah my colca ridge hike was somehting i'd normally consider a walk but it definitely winded us! and that was after a few days in arequipa and then a night at higher elevation.

lol i walked up whiteface by myself, didn't see anyone all the way up and when you get to the top there's like *a crowd*. it is pretty funny.

well, i mean you can drive trail ridge road in rmnp up to 12k, so that will be nice too. you will not lack for options...

xpost

funniest automobile "summit" imo: clingman's dome, srsly.

guys i went hiking on wednesday and nothing went as planned and i ended up camping in the freezing backwoods at 6,000ft+ and was probably the highest up sleeping person in East Tennessee afaict! my face is really red today. vvvvv close encounter with a young bear who did not give an F about us, also all water was frozen and could not be drunk. hung out on this which made everything worth it:

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_VMkLA7HBHmA/R56FWRRU0II/AAAAAAAACyE/DazPUpT5ppg/CIMG1432.JPG

that's charlie's bunion. kickass hike if you ever make it out here, but do it in apr-oct!

(nb that's where i've been and why ayovember has not been up to snuff the past 2 days, haw)

that picture is A++++

Sounds scary. I am glad you're OK and yeah, that pic is beautiful.

Holy shit that looks awesome but ugh cold and dehydrated not so good.

awesome, em!

i'm doing little si tomorrow morning. only a short hike, but at least i am going somewhere!

beautiful. in tn i hiked ramsay cascades in gsmnp on a midweek 95deg/95%humid day with my pops and some family. very few people that day, fantastic falls at the top.

ive never been to ramsay cascades, amazingly.

did you plan to camp there, or was it an emergency thing because it got too dark to finish the hike?

no, we planned to camp further up actually (on Mount LeConte!), but it got too dark to go up the really rocky parts. we had no idea how cold it would be.

the weirdly memorable thing about our hike to ramsay cascades was that it was maybe a coupla days after all of the rhododendrons had dropped their blossoms. it seemed like the we walked half the way on this runner of flowers.

any hiking in the rain tips?
i suppose i'll take a dry shirt or something in a plastic bag inside my pack?
is this going to be a terrible disaster? i don't think rain is avoidable at all tomorrow, but i have lots of layers...

take lots of clean socks in a ziploc! you will love yourself. and wear a poncho over your pack

ended up not going at all bc of thunderstorms :(
rain i can deal with but lightning is ehhhhh.
i'm a wimp.

no you are smart

thanks, mr. que.
feeling kinda frustrated at not getting any mountains.
i went back to bed at 6:15 and when i got up again the weather was really nice (here) so i don't know, maybe i freaked out for nothing :(

haha i was trying to post "no, you are just smart" to this thread 100x and it wouldnt let me

we sound so retarded here, blame hypothermia, but here is the bear i met

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nogDb2z1YGg

lol @ me saying its just like a dog

haha awesome. what is he eating anyways?

omg!

justine was watching that video this morning, and i thought it was from the "oh shit a bear" thread - eg: two people with a digital camera get mauled by bear, etc. knowing that it was roxy and friend doing the filming, i'm glad that's not the case.

i think he might be foraging for bugs

video captures the wtf-ness of wildlife encounters really well, so great

were you really that close or was the camera zoomed in?