Backpacking to Ptarmigan Lake
When we planned our summer back in February and March, we penciled in a backpacking trip for the long Fourth of July weekend. One of the nice things about backpacking is that it’s much easier to pack for; the food has to mostly fit in the bear canister, and we can only bring what we can carry. Benjamin’s tiny little pack fits his sleeping bag, Coconut the monkey, a cup, some snacks, a pair of pajamas, and his water bladder. Phoebe can carry a bit more than that; she brings all of that plus her own clothes, raincoat, Thermarest, and reading material. Dave and I split up the rest, though he has by far the heaviest load, including all of his own gear, the bear canister, and the tent.
We decided to go out for only one night, because we wanted to do a few other things with the weekend, so we left early-ish on Saturday morning and arrived at the Ptarmigan Lake trailhead near Buena Vista in the early afternoon. It was a glorious, sunny day when we got out of the car. We had an amazing parking space—we miraculously arrived at the overfull trailhead just as someone else was leaving.
Another delightful surprise was that the hike was only 3 miles to the lake; Dave told us it was 6, but that was the round-trip distance. It was definitely uphill, but Dave and I didn’t think it was too steep. Phoebe was in agony and groaned almost the entire hike, which was unpleasant. Benjamin puts one foot in front of the other and keeps going, though he got fairly tired too.
After close to two miles of hiking, the weather changed. It started to rain lightly and then harder. We all put on our raincoats; I discovered that my little jacket, easy to pack, is better for wind than for rain. After a little while, it started to hail, which isn’t too unusual in the mountains in the summer. We got pretty chilly and took cover under a tree for a while. We pushed on, but then the rain got worse again, and after a while we were all cold.
Dave went ahead to set up the tent while the kids and I stayed under a tree for a while. Eventually, we were too cold to sit still, so we followed him at a meander. It was a joy to see the tent all set up and a fallen tree repurposed as a kitchen area. We climbed into the tent and into our sleeping bags to warm up.
As you can see in the photos above, after a while in the tent, the sky cleared up, and pretty soon it was a beautiful, sunny day again, warm enough to dry out our clothes and the wet inside of the tent. We were camped near a couple of lower lakes, and Dave went out to try his hand at fly fishing. Benjamin fell asleep in the tent, but he woke up in time to check out the scenery before dinner. The wildflowers were stunning on the whole hike—probably the best I’ve ever seen.
When the sky started to look ominous again, we decided to eat dinner and be ready for the tent in case it was going to rain. We’d packed four freeze-dried meals, one for each of us. They’re easy to prepare; just add boiling water, stir, and wait.
Sure enough, as we finished dinner, it started to sprinkle, and by the time Phoebe was teaching us to play Idiot, the rain intensified. We played a round of Zeus on the Loose, and then I read a few chapters of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events to the kids while Dave slept. The kids and I decided to all sleep together in a sort of heap on one side of the tent, which was reasonably uncomfortable. The Thermarests didn’t really fit, and we all ended up partially hanging off. Dave slept fine, though!
In the morning, Dave cooked our cup-a-soup (Phoebe) and oatmeal (everyone else), and we packed up our backpacks. We turned Benjamin’s into a daypack and hiked the rest of the way to Ptarmigan Lake. Unfortunately, we missed the trail and did a fair amount of bushwhacking. At one point, I couldn’t find Benjamin in the middle of a bush, so I called his name, and out popped his hand from the top!
We found a little patch of dirty snow. See if you can spot the snowballs the kids are throwing!
Wildflowers and the view.
Bushwhacking to find the trail. We eventually found it!
Heading back down the trail to pick up our backpacks and hike to the car.
We stopped at a terrific wood-fired pizza place in Buena Vista for lunch and made it home around 5. It felt like we’d been gone for ages—a very successful outing!