Backpacking in 2009

Well, where should I start? How about at the beginning...

In the beginning there were six Compass staff girls all planning a backpacking trip through the Colorado wilderness. The plan was to leave on Wednesday, July 8, and return four days later. These girls planned ahead, shopped for appropriate necessities (including food, fuel and iodine), and planned a basic route for the trip. The Compass boys had recently completed a backpacking expedition the week before, during which they ran out of fuel, ran out of iodine, and were forced to return a full twenty-four hours earlier than planned. The girls, being more intelligent and generally superior, did not want to repeat the mistakes of the boys, and so decided to equip themselves for success.

The morning of departure, the girls all woke up, gathered their things, packed their bags, and got in the cars to be dropped off. The drop off location was about forty-five minutes back on an old jeep trail to Hotel Draw. The adventure started off seamlessly, as the group started off hiking down the Colorado Trail. The first day started with a climb up to the saddle of Blackhawk Peak. In the spirit of adventure, the brave and fearless women walked up Blackhawk Peak to reach the summit by about 3:00 on the first day. Without even the use of a trail to aid them in their travel to the summit, the girls completely dominated the twelve-thousand-plus foot mountain. Having already exceeded their goals for the day, they hiked down the other side of the saddle to make their first camp in a grove of trees in a picturesque valley. Here they set up camp and enjoyed a delicious meal of macaroni and cheese, followed by an early bedtime at about 8:30.


The next morning, the hardcore women woke up and broke camp in order to depart at about 8:00. Doubtless, the men of Compass Wilderness were still asleep at this time, dreaming of pancakes and other equally manly things. The second day, of course, went just as well as the previous one. The girls had considered another summit, this one to the top of Hermosa Peak, but upon actual inspection of this peak, they realized that it would not be possible, as it would be a dangerous endeavor. Thus, the girls continued down the Colorado Trail to another mountain, named Flat Top Mountain (which the girls discovered to be deceitfully named, as the approach was better characterized by it's rolling structure). After dropping their packs at the base of the lowest sub peak of Flat Top, the girls began an attempt to summit the mountain. An hour and a half later, they had yet to reach the official summit, but decided that they better start back down so that they could continue on to the day's campsite. Before turning to head back to the base of the peaks, however, someone (me) decided that the peak should have more accurately named "Fat Lady's Rolls Mountain". The hardcore mountain women returned tiredly to their packs and continued upon their way. Exhausted, they arrived at that night's campsite in time to pitch the tarps and start on dinner preparations. They quickly discovered though, that the location of the campsite, near Celebration Lake, also meant staying at the home of the world's largest and hungriest mosquito population.


One billion mosquito bites and a couple of insanity checks later, the brave (and now mosquito-bite-covered) women began their third day of exploration by starting off down the Colorado Trail. Knowing that the trail would depart from the main trail on which they started, the girls kept their eyes open for any trail signs off to the side. In this endeavor, however, they discovered that they had utterly failed when they arrived at the dead-end of the jeep trail after three hours of descent. A few of the girls seemed to consider mutiny, desertion, or both, upon discovering that they would have to turn around to face three grueling hours of ascent back up the exact same jeep trail they had just come down. However, they all gathered their spirits back up to start the return journey. They discovered the missed trail marker a mere ten minutes from where the trail had started that morning, meaning that they had hiked about 12 miles total off-trail!!


Not having many options at this point, the girls chose to start off down the correct trail, despite the six hour delay. After a short break to avoid being caught in a lightening storm above tree line, the girls reached the top of the saddle (a point that they most likely would have reached by 10:00 that morning, were it not for the detour). From this point, the exhausted girls continued down the trail, making sure that they did not miss the turn-off to the trail that would provide them with the shortest route home. The wilderness athletes made it down the trail in record time, arriving at the crossing of the hiking trail and the jeep trail in plenty of time to eat a quick dinner. At this point, the women knew that they had a decision to make...either find a flat area to pitch their tarp for the final night of camping, or barrel on through the wilderness to return home a day early. Although some discussion preceded their decision, they knew what must be done. Their determined minds far outweighed the influence of their exhausted bodies, and thus they started the journey home. The evening stretched before them as they hiked toward their final route down Cascade Creek Trail (a welcome and yet depressing end to their journey due to its lack of novelty for the majority of the group). As evening approached and dusk fell upon the travelers, they recalled the unnerving possibility that, as a group, they could appear as a tasty appetizer to the bears that would likely also be frequenting the woods as the skies began to darken. And this is how the singing session began. For the remainder of the evening hike (which was a new experience for the majority of the group), the girls belted out song after song as the hiked down the Cascade Creek Trail toward the inviting arms of their home at Cascade Village. The musical numbers included everything from hymns and praise songs to old classics like "It's Raining Men" and "There's a Hole in My Bucket". Just as the Compass women finished the final verse of the "Hokie Pokie", they rounded the corner to see the glorious water towers that each individual recognized as marking the top of the final descent in the three days of hiking.

Thus, after a traumatizing twelve and half hour hiking day, the six mountaineering women arrived at the condo at 9:30 pm to great applause and boisterous cheering from the Compass men. (Well, maybe it was more like surprise and confusion from the boys) For the six brave women however, their exhausted and tired state led them to a state of complete euphoria upon stepping through the condo door, which led to a fit of giggling and laughter (as it often does with girls).


And this is how the tale of "The Great Backpacking Adventures of the Compass Mountain Women" ended. There are many details and fragments of the story that the world may never fully understand, but one thing is certain...in the summer of two-thousand and nine, the six women of Compass Wilderness dominated and tamed the Southern Colorado Wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the gear in their packs.