Four

From Blane's place, we headed to Colorado Springs and stayed a night in Ricky and Emmy's spare bedroom (thanks, Ricky and Emmy). Early the next morning, we rose to do a couple tiny errands and pack the car, meaning we were ready around noon.

We headed to pick up Steve, Jordan and Jessica (humans) as well as Murphy and Cloud (golden retrievers) and drove out to Goose Creek to start a 5 day backpacking trip. The idea was to hike 20 miles, taking it slow and doing a couple side trips. Steve was kind enough to let us use his house as a staging area.

Day 1 started rather late because of the aforementioned errands and needing to repack all of our gear and food from road tripping mode. We probably hiked a tough 3 miles and settled in for a night by a small stream.

Day 2 we got a late start and hung around camp in the morning, so we didn't hit the trail until noon. After 4 hours of hiking uphill in the hot sun, there were a couple of differing opinions on how far to go. I was frustrated at being slow (from going from sea level to 10,000 feet of elevation- literally) and tired. We came to a creek crossing on a bendy log that looked too sketchy for me (even after the other 4 people in the party had crossed... and for the dogs, multiple times). We turned back to camp at a spot we had crossed in the last few hundred feet which was a beautiful shady clearing right by a shallow gravelly stream and with views to mountains in all directions.

Day 3 we took as a rest day. Everyone took a nap except Gabe. We did some canyon exploring and went downstream on the creek a bit for a wade (I tried to prove my Canadian heritage by swimming in snow melt... but chickened out. Fortunately, Jessica from Edmonton saved the reputation of the Canadians).

Day 4 we decided to hike back the way we came because of rumors of snow in the higher elevation had we finished the loop, and a decided lack of enthusiasm for more uphill climbing. We hiked most of the rest of the way out, about 8 miles, to our nicest campsite yet. I conquered a different stream crossing and we camped across the stream from the trail. We were done around 2:00 and hung around in the shade for the afternoon.

Day 5 we got up early, hiked out the last couple of miles, and were chowing down on Chipotle in town by 1:00 pm. We're spending the next few days in Colorado Springs staying at Gabe's sister's place while she's already in Chicago before we join them (thanks, Mel and Caleb). I've never been to anywhere east of the Midwest so I'm looking forward to some quality time with Gabe's family and seeing the culture in Chicago for ten days!