Mt. Evans Wilderness Hike

May 25th and 26th
A Denverite bunch of about 15 made a 2.5-mile journey on the Rosalie trail through the Mt. Evans Wilderness for a great night of camping. Two major occurences in American history took place on this trip: The advent of Tree Golf, and the idea of a re-make of The Goonies. By the way, Sloth was portrayed by the fantastic John Matuszak of the Oakland Raiders.



We stayed in a great spot along a creek flowing from late May runoff coming from melting snow on the slopes above. Kevin, Chris, Mitch, Eddie, and Hugh made some fantastic burritos (they had two types of beans, black and pinto, which kicked ass), we played some "Shoulders" around the campfire, drank approximately one nalgene bottle worth of booze a piece, and fell asleep in a sub-20-degree night. Here are some photos from the trip:


The bunch after our 2.5-mile day hike through the snow to almost-nearly-to the base of Mt. Evans. Some finished off the hike with a frolic through the meadow:





Chris, Kevin, and Eddie filtering water for the group.


A Butterfly on the way back to the trailhead.


Me getting a shot of Eddie taking a shot of the scenery. Here's the camera I recommended Eddie:
http://flickr.com/cameras/canon/eos_40d/
If you like mine:
http://flickr.com/cameras/nikon/d40/



The group after a day of hiking.


I know I already told you Mom and Riley, but Cooper loves his new bowl set.

My New Pack, The North Face's Terra 60

Awesome pack, as far as I know (my first large pack).
I was carrying around 50 pounds with an awkwardly hanging tent attached to the two main clips, a bit uncomfortable for the first 20 minutes, but was able to adjust and put more weight on my hips with four straps and went the rest of our 2.5 mile hike to the camp site in luxury.
I would definitely recommend this pack for $140 bucks. The only thing it's missing, after seeing a couple others, is an access to the main compartment from the middle. Other than that, it's got over 3500 cu. inches, water resistant material, three outside stretch material compartments, two water bottle nets, water bladder capability, a very adjustable internal frame with the North Face cooling system that hugs your back and provides airflow to relieve back sweat. You know what I'm talking about. I thoroughly enjoyed my first weekend with it.