Finally created a mountaineering blog! I've been climbing since 2005, and have wanted to blog about all the adventures I've had over the last few years, and finally have created a blog to keep track of them. We don't have a working camera right now, and I misplaced my GPS, so I don't have anything other than my post. For future trips, I'll include images and GPS data.
Since it was in the 90s in town, we decided to seek relief in the hills (no A/C at home), and thought a walk around Lily Lake would be fun. Although we attempted Lily Mountain in the past, we have never walked around the lake, so we thought we'd try that today. When we got to the trailhead, which is across the street (CO Hwy 7) from the Twin Sisters trailhead, we realized there was a ridge we could climb that went high above the lake and would only add about a quarter mile to our distance.
Lily Ridge switchbacks and gains altitude quickly. Some of the steps were too high for Ethan, so I had to pick him up over those. The smell of pine was strong, and I was glad we took the ridge route since the pine smell was nearly gone next to the lake. There were plenty of rocks along the trail for Nicole and Alex to boulder on.
It was 93 in Loveland at 5000 ft elevation, but not much cooler with 86 degrees at the 8930 ft elevation of Lily Lake. We didn't think we needed water, but that was a mistake. I began to be concerned for Ethan since he was flushed and was saying "I'm firsty." When the ridge route connected with the route around the lake, we returned to the trailhead along the north shore rather than the longer way around the south shore. Alex had fun wading in the lake for a moment when we returned to the trailhead, which meant Nicole and Ethan had to follow suit!
The views were wonderful. We could still see quite a bit of snow on The Loft connecting Mt Meeker and Longs. Lily Mountain mocked us from above (we missed the turn the last time we tried to summit Lily Mountain), and we reminisced about our summit of Estes Cone a couple of years earlier, which is also nearby. I was telling Nicole how I carried Ethan on my back in a baby carrier when he was not quite 1 when we climbed Estes Cone as a family. Every time I would stop for a breather, Ethan would reach around and bop me in the head to get me walking again. I felt like a pack horse, but it was still funny that he was doing that.
Perhaps because of the heat, when we returned to Loveland, Ethan crashed on the couch, I crashed for a little bit on the couch in the basement, and Jamie napped in bed for about two hours! It was nice to get out of the city for a time.
