It is always difficult to plan an Outdoor Eyes Adventure hike one month in advance. The winter is totally different from the warmer spring/summer/fall days. Every winter day is a challenge and some days are much more challenging than other days. Ten days before the hike, I start following the weather reports and the possibility that Saturday’s hike will be affected by the weather.
 
The weather was forecast for a 40+ degree day, but I always know that whatever is forecast in Estes Park, doesn’t necessarily mean that the forecast will be accurate 3 miles down the road driving into RMNP or even what the weather might be on top of the mountains.
 
Snow had fallen for the past week in RMNP and I knew that the snowshoeing conditions would be absolutely perfect. At 4:00am, the wind was blowing at 40 mph at my house and that was not a very encouraging sign for today.
 
There were a total of 14 people signed up to participate in today’s hike…. Up To The Loch. It is easy to get disoriented hiking during the winter as your knowledge of any summer trail has no bearing during the winter months. What seems so familiar in the summer becomes very confusing in the winter.
 
As I started making preparations 1 month in advance, I decided to start from the Bear Lake parking lot. If it was a warm, sunny day, the Glacier Gorge parking lot would be filled early in the morning. Many of the people are extremely dedicated to the Outdoor Eyes Adventures and they drive from Denver, Westminster, Loveland, Fort Collins and other distant locations, so I wanted to make sure there was enough parking available. Starting from Bear Lake added an additional mile to the hike and the last half mile back to the Bear Lake parking lot is not a fun uphill ending.
 
As I entered the Bear Lake parking lot, I passed 2 of my friends heading out in the wrong direction. They had driven from the Denver area and they turned around to talk with me. “The wind is howling too hard for my wife.” We are heading back to Denver. The wind was howling about 40 mph and I thought to myself, this is not a great start for today. I said, “Goodbye” and started to prepare myself for today…. gators, fleece, Gortex® jacket, backpack, poles and snowshoes. Sometimes it seems like it takes longer to get prepared than the time it takes for the hike!
 
There weren’t a lot of cars in the parking lot and I wondered if this was going to be the day that I hoped it would be. Some of our group members started arriving and before long, there were all 12 of us ready to go.
 
Once we entered the woods, it turned into a spectacular hike. The first half mile was in knee deep snow and we were one of the first people on the trail from Bear Lake to Glacier Gorge. Crossing the wooden bridge that we couldn’t see (bridge is about 5 feet tall), we headed up the winter trail (we couldn't find the fire trail) and ended up at the Mills/Loch junction. We were one of the first people hiking on the winter trail. We tried to start hiking up Glacier Gorge from the Mills intersection. The snow was very deep and with all the precaution that we took, Marty still fell into a sinkhole that totally swallowed him up to just below his arms. We pulled him out of the sinkhole (by that time he heard the water under his feet) and then we decided to try hiking up the Loch summer trail.
 
The main trail to the Loch had not been attempted by anyone, so we had to break trail. Due to the falling and drifting snow, the normally flat, easy Loch trail turned into a 4 foot deep, 45 degree slope of snow. Carefully breaking trail in over knee high snow was a slow and tiring process…. and also potentially very dangerous due to the angle of the snowfields. One slip and you were down the slope and into Glacier Gorge. After about a half an hour, we were able to slide down on our bottoms to arrive at the frozen Glacier Gorge. We were going to complete the hike by hiking up Glacier Gorge. That is when it became even harder, blazing the trail up the frozen river, weaving our way back and forth. There were vertical climbs which seemed like 45 degrees. Ben was here one moment and gone the next... swallowed up to his head in a sink hole. We had to pull him out, too. We continued on.
 
When we finally arrived at the Loch, there were 50+ mph winds with almost a total whiteout. We could only stay for a few minutes as we started hiking back down Glacier Gorge. Some of the scenes of our group hiking in single file reminded me of the Everest movie. It was a day that I will never forget.
 
As Debbie said, “Everyone I've told about it just can't put their head around how exciting this was!! I have to admit, there were times I wanted to turn around and go back to the car, but I hung in there and did it! I’m so happy I didn't give up because this was something I will never forget. This was the most awesome and challenging snowshoe I've ever done!”
 
We ended up at Poppy's for a well deserved and delicious lunch (as Rob always prepares).