Day 4

Loveland to rocky mt national park co
Gas $$$ spent $21.00
Mileage 1808.0 to 1843.0
Woke around 7am in my hotel bed n figured I would go see what the hot breakfast was about. Went out had a piece of sausage n some coffee. Used the hotels computer for a bit since my laptop hates me. Which is why I am writing and posting this blog n pics from my phone.
Showered n gathered our stuff and were out the door by 9 upon driving out of the parking lot I got my first glimpse of the rocky mountains. All I can say is they are huge n beautiful.
Made a pit stop at a JAX outdoor store which is so cool they have everything so much better than campmor and rei. Spent about $80 on hiking food, new buff head bands, and my nat geo adventure edition map I've been looking for. Oh and a rocky mt national park map. Im so excited. Time to fuel up and head to the mountains.
Upon leaving Loveland we drove thru some of the biggest mountains I've ever seen winding along the big Thompson river in a valley. Brian kept screaming woah as the mountains got bigger and we climbed in elevation. We passed by some of the most unique cabins I have ever seen an was amazed by the 14000 ft peaks still covered in snow.
We kept following the signs to the park and went thru a cute town filled with lots of little shops. There was no parking so we kept going. Out of no where there was the sign for Rocky Mountain National Park. We paid our $20 entrance fee n asked where the best camp site was. The guy sent us to glacier basin campground in the park. We followed a river and a road full of switch backs and arrived at our camp ground. There were 4 tent sites left. Score. Now Brian has been complaining since we left NJ that he wanted to sleep on the CDT in the park. So I paid another $20 for our camping site and asked how far the CDT was from where we were he pointed to my right and said your looking at it. Brian looked like a kid on Xmas who just got the greatest toy ever. We hurried to our campsite n set up our hammocks n tents.
Some exploring and hiking is in order and the big cameras are so coming out today.
We looked at a map and found a 4mile hike with a loop around a lake n a "senic view" to bierstadt lake.
So excited i get to try out my new ULA pack . We packed our packs n locked up the car n started walking in the direction of the trail around 1:30pm. There were many little unmarked trails Brian kept thinking it was the one we were heading to n tried dragging me to get lost. But I insisted we keep going n found the trail we were looking for.
What a beautiful hike If i may say. The trail took us up in elevation and started to make my head hurt but we took it slow. We passed scenic overlooks even got caught in an afternoon shower then finally made it to the lake. Words can't describe the beauty. We were at 9400 ft elevation. This was by far the highest i have ever climbed. I will post pics when I get reception. As we were walking back from the lake Brian said he didn't want to carry the camera anymore I insisted on him needing in case something cool may come out of the woods n 2 seconds later a male n female deer came out of the woods 2 feet from Brian. He started taking pics like crazy. The male had mini fuzzy antlers. They were so cute.
Soon we heard more people coming n the deer ran away. Brian bent down to tie his shoe n 2 strange grey birds swooped down n perched it's self on a branch above Brian then it flew away before I could get the camera. By then the people came walking up looking for the lake n we gave them directions.
Soon after it was time to head back to camp. The decent was rocky and fun I hiked down using my poles it felt like I was skiing in sneakers.
Made it to the bottom and treated my self to a cigarette.
When we got back to camp we decided we didn't want hiker food for dinner so I got in the car n went back to town to get groceries. I found a cute lil market. Everything was over priced so I made a meal by penny pinching.
2 small round eye steaks $2 n change, a bag of carrots, fresh garlic, a can of potatoes don't know how we are gonna open them but we will figure it out. 2 corn on the cob, and some pb&j.
Headed back to the campsite and on my way back noticed all the cars stopped with people hanging out the windows with cameras. I looked over and there was a buck with a huge rack. I snapped a few pics n kept on my way.
Made it back to camp and Brian started a fire while I got the food seasoned and wrapped in foil. Now it's time to figure out how to open a can with no can opener....... I wandered over the guy at the campsite next to us and asked if he had a can opener . Lucky us he was able to lend me something to get it open.
If I may say this was the best camping dinner by far we have ever made. Minus the fact that we couldn't find our forks or even a spoon. So We ate steaks with stakes.

As we ate a sun shower rolled thru and brought us a beautiful rainbow
After dinner the children at the campsite next to us were collecting rocks and making borders to their campsite Brian couldn't resist but to help carry the heavier ricks back to their site from ours.
Shortly after we made friends with our awesome neighbor. His name was Joshua n he was an end of the summer camping trip with his two sons. Brian and I were both telling him how cool it is that he is taking his kids to national parks and getting them interested in hiking and climbing at a young age.
Josh is from the area so of course we got to talking about Colorado and how brian really wants to live here and shared stories of hiking and all kinds of other interesting things. He shared stories of mountain lions and Brian shared stories of bears. As the mini amphitheater across the way had a movie playing about wild predators. Every now and again a loud bear or mountain lion sound would echo through the campground and scare us. Thank god Josh knew the movie was about these animals or else I would have swore it was real. It was worth a million laughs to see the expression on my face after the animal noises echoed. It was a good time. We stayed up till around 10:30pm And exchanged email info to keep in touch. Now time for bed
I crawled into my comphy tent n Brian into his hammock.
Brian wants to get a back country permit tomorrow to sleep directly on the CDT but I'm thinking we may just do a morning hike on the CDT then head west to arches. We shall see what happens when we wake.
I really enjoyed everything about today.

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