The Maroon Bells Four Pass Loop

Jeff: What the hell are we doing here, Joe? We gotta get out of this town!
Joe: Oh yeah, and go where? Where are we gonna go?
Jeff: I'll tell you where. Someplace warm. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen.

-- Dumb and Dumber

==== Monday, August 24th, 2009 ====

The drive to Aspen via Glenwood Springs was not all that eventful until we made the turn-off to Aspen. We were surprised was nice the scenery was; no wonder all the rich folk flock to Aspen. The other companion we had on the trip was the off and on drizzle, hopefully that wouldn't last into the trip. As we approached the Silver Bell campsite, the weather looked even more threatening, right into the heart of the mountains and Aspen. It was still a beautiful site.

As we pulled up to the campsite, we saw Deborah and Susanne in Deborah's car, and John in his car, both staying dry since the rain had started to become more than a drizzle. After the meet and greet, we backed our cars up to one another with the hatches open, swung over a rain fly, and had ourselves a nice little "cave" camping setup out of the rain.

Eventually the rain cleared out that night and we still had enough time to start our first fire! I brought 2 piles of wood, but no kindling. After going caveman style on the wood to try and fracture off some kindling, John came to the rescue with his firestarter and we had ourselves a blazer into the night. We set up a large tent for Joe while the rest of us decided, not sure why now, to sleep in our cars. What a "wonderful" night that was, except for Deborah who had resorted to Tylenol PMs and was able to pass out comfortably.

The sky was clear and the milky way came out, hopefully a sign of good weather to come. Around midnight John had enough of "car" camping, and set up his tent and was able to get to sleep. Susanne and I were the lucky ones who didn't get any sleep. It did start to rain again around 3:00 am, but it cleared up as we all started to stir the next morning.

==== Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 ====

We all awoke around 6:00 am. We had breakfast under clearing skies, slowy cleared out of the campsite, and headed off to the trailhead. Wow! Awesome! Those Maroon Bells looked great! And it was sunny! A few pictures were in order before we officially started. Check out Susanne's pack... it must be at least 40 lbs, and she can't be more than 100 lbs!

We were lucky and had partly sunny, or cloudy, skies the first 5 or so miles to our first campsite in West Maroon Valley, but before our first pass, West Maroon Pass. Seriously though, it felt like 8 miles. Not sure how we were going to handle the higher mileage days ahead of us. We set up camp near tree line, probably about 1.5 miles from the pass.

I went scouting for some nice bathing areas the next morning; boy was I already starting to stink. Hopefully it wouldn't be raining the next morning, or too cold. However, by the time started setting up our tents the off and on rain started to pick up. Fortunetly it held off long enough for me to go take care of business, if you know what I mean.

By the time I returned I was famished; dinner was on! That Pasta Primavera pro-pack was mighty tasty. Perhaps it was my special spice mix I added to it. Certainly a keeper. Deborah and I returned to our tents to get out of the intermitent rain while Joe, John, and Susanne went to hang bear bags. 45 minutes later, they still hadn't returned. What the heck was going on I wondered. Joe finally came over and asked me to come help. I asked what was wrong, but Joe insisted that it was impossible to explain and I had to see it in person. Oh boy...

After donning the rain gear and heading up the hill some, I see John who begins to explain to me why his walking stick is tied to one end of the rope and stuck in a tree 15' up. I asked why not a rock? He then tells me to check out the other end of the rope... It is indeed tied to a rock, but stuck in a different tree 20' up. Yup, that's what hapened.

Apparently John's tried and true method of using his walking stick to hoist his bear bag failed this time as the caribiner actually latched around a branch! Then Joe tried to dislodge it by using a rock on the other end of the rope as an anchor, only it somehow got stuck in a different tree. No matter how hard we tugged and pulled, the rope and stick weren't going anywhere. We finally tied a third rope to the dangling loop of the first rope and tied it out to a 3rd tree, LOL, higher up the slope so that the bear bag was high enough off the ground. One hour later the bear bag business was done. We would have to wait until morning to see if Deborah has any food left; she was unaware of all this as she went to bed early in her tent, safe the rain and darkness. Time for bed.

==== Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 ====

It was a cold night, maybe down to around 35 degrees. After a late wakeup, John managed to get both his stick and rope out of the trees. Best of all, Deborah's food for the trip was intact. However, we didn't really get on the trail until around 10:00 am, which was a bit late seeing that we had 2 passes in front of us. No bath for me either, no time.

Up, up, up to West Maroon Pass and 12,500'. It was our first pass and a killer. I don't think we all made it up until around 11:30 am. At the top there was some very, very light snow (or one of the other many Eskimo terms for what was coming down) from a passing cloud. Other than that there was mostly sun. We spent about 30 minutes up top resting our legs and eating some well deserved lunch. It was beautiful up there!

West Maroon Pass became known as Whole Foods Pass to me. Joe, now nicknamed Yogi, is ever the eater. He had been eyeing all the dayhikers' foods, especially those with sandwichs. LOL. He made the mistake of telling Deborah this. Deborah then spoke up and told them Joe wanted to eat their food! To our surprise, and Joe's mostly, they offered up the rest of one of their sandwichs! And 2 small zuchinnis! Joe bascially bolted over there to take them up on the offer. It didn't end there. Eventually they offered John another entire turkey and hummus sandwich. We all shared a bite of that one! Mmmmmm.

We finally headed down the other side of the pass and into Purity Basin. I wasn't sure anymore we were going to make it over Frigid Air Pass and down into Fravert Basin that day because of the time and the building clouds started to gather over the next pass. At our halfway point between passes, we all decided to alter our plan and bushwhack it up a different hill to a line of trees and set camp. Turned out to be a good decision since we were all tired. Plus, we found a great campsite with a great view of West Maroon Pass. It came complete with fire-ring and plenty of wood. :)

Since we set camp around 1:00 pm, we had plenty of needed relaxation time. I went down to the stream and took a much needed bath, birthday suit and all. Refreshing! I think Susanne liked the idea so much that she went down after me and did the same. The sky was starting to clear so it wasn't too bad to dry off, and it looked like it might even be clear that night. And of course, the it was clearing up nicely into the late afternoon and into the night. After a very tasty dinner of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, I took out the 1st surprise dessert of the trip... Hostess Cup Cakes to the joy of all!

We ended up having the campfire of all campfires. "Big" must be Joe's middle name... he kept dragging entire trees into the fire to get it as big as possible. Needless to say, he stayed up all night watching it to make sure it didn't set fire to the entire Maroon Bells while the rest of us had already gone to sleep. I swear that night someone, Joe, was snoring really loud. He denies it.

The night was super clear and there were many stars to be seen.

==== Thursday, August 27th, 2009 ====

Boy, this morning was cold. We told ourselves we needed an earlier start so we all woke at around 6:00 am to about 35 degrees again. Thankfully it was a "no condensation" night. We had breakfast, broke camp, bushwhacked back to the main trail, and headed towards Frigid Air Pass at 12,480'. Though clear, I think we understood how the pass got its name as we got higher and higher. The wind was brutal, probably taking the wind chill down to at most 40 degrees. The Mont Bell wind blocker jacket I had came in handy and worked great to block out any effects of the wind. I was really surprised. Once we got to the top the views were amazing.

Going down the other side of the pass into Fravert Basin, it was obvious it has been a wet year. The wild flowers were still amazing and everything was green, in late August. We haven't seen anyone all day yet, and it wasn't until we finally set camp that we saw someone else. We had heard reports that there was bear activity before King Falls, so we decided to move on past the falls and set up camp right after we crossed the river.

What a great spot next to the river, although officially I don't think we were allowed to camp that close, still though it was great! The sun was strong so we decided it was bath time again and it was nice to get clean once more. As we set up camp, Joe inadvertanly drove a tent stake into an evil ant colony that then sprung up like he hit oil or something. He had to move his tent elsewhere, LOL.

Once more, the weather was amazing that evening and it was clear as a bell. Joe was very pyro-happy as we got to make a campfire again. Dinner was darn good again, Chili Mac with Beef. That spice of mine is great! I even came out with the second surprise desert, a blueberry danish that I shared with everyone.

We went to bed hearing the sound of the river, it was nice.

==== Friday, August 28th, 2009 ====

Another cold morning, this time at least down to 32 degrees. The condensation had turned to ice on our tents and my Nalgene had ice crystals all through the water in it. It was another early rise as well since we had a tough climb to Trail Rider Pass... 5:45 am. However, I think due to the cold morning, we didn't get out of camp and onto the trail until 8:45 am instead of 8:00 am. Because of our previous late start that made us skip Frigid Air Pass until the next day, we had to alter our plans to get back on track. We decided to skip going up to Little Gem Lake and head straight on over Trail Rider Pass to Snowmass Lake.

The cutoff trail we took we very steep. Again, up and up out of the valley. Higher and higher we went until Hagerman Peak started to come into view. It looked awesome as we came out of the valley into higher country. Having reached the halfway point before everyone else, Joe and I were resting near the sign that points to Trail Rider Pass when all of a sudden this huge, brown thing comes darting up the trail scaring us both to hell! Turns out it was this huge brown lab, leading the way for 4 locals who were doing the entire loop in one day, all 26 miles or so of it. They said they started at around 4:00 am, pretty f'in crazy if you ask me.

After that difficult climb out of the valley was over, we came over a hump and saw the actual difficult part that made the first part look like it was easy; the climb up to Trail Rider Pass. After some major huffing and puffing, Joe, John, and I finally made it up. I would say this was the most difficult pass, but also with a superb view! We had over an hour to relax up there while we waited for Susanne and Deborah, who had stopped for a light recharge meal, to make it up to the top as well.

It was clear at the top of the pass, but at one point it became so windy we had to take cover behind whatever large rocks there were. After that subsided, we could see our next, and possibly final, destination... Snowmass Lake. Down we went to the lake. Even though staying by the lake meant we couldn't build a fire, we still decided to stay there just because it was so nice. Unfortuneately, Deborah's knee wasn't look as nice... it was all poofy and probably filled with some fluid.

On a lighter note, my Lasagna with Meat Sauce was very nice.

==== Saturday, August 29th, 2009 ====

When dawn broke at Snowmass Lake, Deborah's knee was not looking much better. At that point we decided that John, who had already been pretty much backpacking for a month, would go out that day since Deborah had her car, and Susanne, Joe, and I would continue on to Willow Lake for our last night.

As we left Snowmass Lake, we came across the notorious beaver dam. Pretty cool site since I have never seen one in person. They did a good job. Then the real fun began, uphill towards Buckskin Pass. This pass wasn't as bad as I thought, especially with the long, less steep switchbacks you are faced with just before the top. What a great view from this pass as well.

Slowly but surely Deborah made her way up, I think happy that she would be seeing the trail head once more. As we descended back down into the valley before the trail back up to Willow Pass, we all came to a decision to just skip Willow Lake and go out together. We were all pretty beat up and couldn't wait to use a real toilet again. I also think the prospect of a shower at the Aspen Recreation Center was huge!

So finally back at the parking lot, we see our wonderful cars again, say our goodbyes, take a final parting picture, and head our own ways. John back to Texas I think, and Susanne back to Vancouver.

==== Sum It All Up ====

Overall it was one of the best trips in my life. The scenery was awesome, the people great, and the weather cooperated. If I had to rate the passes from easier to hardest, I would go Frigid Air Pass, Buckskin Pass, West Maroon Pass, and then Trail Rider Pass.

I would actually do this trip again, but this time try to make it to Little Gem Lake and Willow Lake, as well as put in more mileage per day so I can actually get to these lakes without spending 6 days out in the wilderness. Ouch, my knees just protested!