Leslie and David's Wanderings: 24 May 2019 We love Microtracks!

The snow finally stopped about 10Pm last night. Around 4Am, the wind crashed against the Wanderer and for the next seven hours the wind shook the Wanderer, the new awnings over the slide outs flapped, vibrated, and caused the whole rig to shudder like it was trying to take off. The winds were out of the south at 20-30MPH with gusts in the 40-50MPH range. So much for sleeping! But by noon the wind had dropped off and the temperatures climbed into the 50s. So we went back to RMNP and drove up to the Bear Lake parking lot. There was a line of cars waiting for parking spots. After about 15 minutes, we were able to get a parking spot and grabbed our hiking staffs and our new MicroTracks. At the start of the trail to Bear Lake we stopped and put our Microtracks on. The difference was incredible! At first we timidly stepped onto the hard packed snow, expecting to slip and slide like everyone around us. But the Microtracks dug in and we were walking on packed snow like it was not even there! By the time we were halfway around we were completely sold! It was amazing the number of people slipping, sliding, and falling on the trails that were wearing completely inappropriate street shoes and sneakers. The trail was pretty much snow packed most of the way around the lake. The views of the snow-covered peaks were magnificent. It was clear that there had been significant snowfall at the higher elevations. Bear Lake was still frozen over.

We had so much fun hiking around Bear Lake with our Microtracks, we decided to keep going and headed up to Nymph Lake. Again, the trail was mostly snow packed and slippery but we cruised along with complete confidence. The views from Nymph Lake up into the high peaks was magnificent. We were definitely feeling the altitude (9600ft). We felt good enough to keep going and we hiked up to Dream Lake. This was the high country that David really wanted Leslie to see. He had hiked this trail previously (but without the snow) by himself in the early 2000s. Leslie was definitely feeling the altitude now (10,000ft), so we decided to head back down. Again the Microtracks were incredible as we tramped down slopes that had everyone else falling, sliding or sitting down and scooting on their butts. All in all, a fantastic end to our time at this park.

We had called to check on the status of Trail Ridge Road and found out it was still closed due to the heavy snow and high winds and would not likely open for a week. So we drove back into town, picked up some supplies (our next location is going to be pretty remote), topped up the fuel tank and then stopped at Smokin Dave’s for one more excellent BBQ dinner.

Tomorrow we head for Utah and Dinosaur National Monument.