Last year a group of 8 of us went on a hut trip through the 10th mountain system. A couple of us had done it in years past and never run into anything too tough. Last year was beyond tough though. It was by far the hardest thing I think I've ever done. I remember saying that I thought it was easier having Carter and almost a year after our hike I still feel that way. I think we hiked for about 7 hours, had to break trail the whole way, had a lot of elevation drops and gains and had snow in a lot of areas up to our hips. I think we all thought at one point or another that we were going to have to dig snow caves and spend the night outside. Finally we found our hut and were pretty much bums that night from being so exhausted. The next day we decided to go a different route out and hiked out in about 1 1/2 hours (wishing we'd hiked that way in!). But despite all of that we wanted to take a trip again this year. The 10th mountain huts seem to get more and more popular and by October most of them had already filled up. I started searching around and found Vagabond Ranch up past Frasier. It said it was a 3.6 mile hike with a 400' elevation gain - I was sold. An easy trip seemed like a nice alternative for this year. Since it wasn't too far we were able to invite a lot more people. 18 of us ended up making the trip up with probably about half the people never having backpacked/snow shoed/cross country skied. Everyone made it in - after a few minor struggles at the beginning :) and I think enjoyed themselves. May be a one time sort of thing for some though!
Sean was really pumped up to get going :)
I was excited Leanne was there with me. Dane ended up having training for PFA (Poudre Fire Authority) that day so he couldn't make it :(
Courtney and Tracey enjoyed the nice "walk" along the groomed trail
Missy and Mike
The weather was pretty nice for the hike up. It started to snow and get kinda windy and cold for about our last half mile though. Since Dane was gone and Sean was making a fire, Jamison got the task of using his boy body heat to warm up all 3 of us.
Playing a little game called 3 man
Sarah's birthday was the day before so I made some cookies and we decorated one for her
Later that night a dance party somehow broke out
Sean had some fancy moves
View from our deck in the morning
Headed out
Our "hut" this year - super nice cabin with running water, toilets and a ton of beds - huge upgrade from last year!
Dane was there with me in spirit!
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