A Labor (Day) of Hiking

Ah a long weekend compliments of the Labor Day holiday.  Karen was visiting from Albuquerque, NM for 4.5 days and we took advantage of the many happenings going on in Denver - dinner with friends, a tattoo convention, a hike to Chapin-Chiquita-Ypsilon with great friends Patrick and Shannon Vall.

The plan was to meet in Estes Park at 7 AM Sunday and head up to Fall River Road - the original dirt road in RMNP to the top of the continental divide.  I had never been on this road before and it was quite beautiful early in the AM - not so much later in the day when the hordes of traffic slowly worked it's way up higher.  Regardless, we were on trail by 8:30 AM for a nice day of Class 1 hiking to 3 summits.  As it turned out, Patrick was fighting a bit of the bug and stop at the top of Chapin.  After some food/water, Karen and I continued to Chiquita (banana) and summited our second peak for the day.  We met a RMNP ranger/Search & Rescue ranger on top who politely asked us how far we were planning to go.  We said due to questionable weather in the area this was it - he concurred and wish us well.  We had a nice lunch on summit (photo) and then worked our way back down the mountain in periodic rain and 1 thunder-boom.  Patrick and Shannon were resting at the car...from there back to Estes Park through the elk jams.

Afterwards, Karen and I grabbed pizza and brew at Oskar Blues and enjoyed hanging on the porch until time to travel home.  All in all a great weekend!  Next weekend - Challenger/Kit Carson!!!  Climb On!