I’d been reading about the Alpine Loop in Colorado for a few years and Tim and I decided to go see it.
We spent about a week out there roaming between Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. We ran the high passes and camped in the high, lonely places. We had a couple of really cold nights up over 10,000’ up at Alta Lakes, but we burrowed down into our sleeping systems and slept with our wool socks and beanies on.
We spent a few days getting acclimated to the altitude and took a shot at climbing Mount Handies. We got to the top just as an storm started moving in on us. We had to drop altitude pretty fast (humans make great lighting rods up above tree line) and spent a thousand feet coming down fast getting pelted with ice pellets and hoping the clouds were moving fat in the opposite direction.
All in all a great day. We were pretty worn down at the end of the day from a week camping out (except for one night in Silverton at the Grand Imperial Hotel) and rolled into Lake City looking for hot food, a shower, and a warm bed pretty much in that order.
We found it. We checked into the Matterhorn and got a recommendation on a restaurant and it was excellent. When we walked in, the proprietor of the motel had already called the owner of the restaurant (Bruno’s) and told them we were coming, and we were met at the door. We got fed until we could hold no more, thanked them for great service, paid the bill and completed the other two afore mentioned tasks.
Another wildly successful adventure.
We spent about a week out there roaming between Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. We ran the high passes and camped in the high, lonely places. We had a couple of really cold nights up over 10,000’ up at Alta Lakes, but we burrowed down into our sleeping systems and slept with our wool socks and beanies on.
We spent a few days getting acclimated to the altitude and took a shot at climbing Mount Handies. We got to the top just as an storm started moving in on us. We had to drop altitude pretty fast (humans make great lighting rods up above tree line) and spent a thousand feet coming down fast getting pelted with ice pellets and hoping the clouds were moving fat in the opposite direction.
All in all a great day. We were pretty worn down at the end of the day from a week camping out (except for one night in Silverton at the Grand Imperial Hotel) and rolled into Lake City looking for hot food, a shower, and a warm bed pretty much in that order.
We found it. We checked into the Matterhorn and got a recommendation on a restaurant and it was excellent. When we walked in, the proprietor of the motel had already called the owner of the restaurant (Bruno’s) and told them we were coming, and we were met at the door. We got fed until we could hold no more, thanked them for great service, paid the bill and completed the other two afore mentioned tasks.
Another wildly successful adventure.
