This past weekend we went on a new adventure. Jason and I were invited to join four other couples for an overnight excursion to a backcountry hut. Believe it or not, even in late April there is still enough snow at the higher elevations for snow shoeing. The weather could not have been more perfect – sunshine, blue skies and highs in the upper 50’s.
It’s only a 6.6 mile trek from the trailhead to the hut, but it feels like an eternity when lugging a heavy pack full of food and supplies uphill through the snow. The entire time I felt like Cheryl Strayed in her memoir Wild. Except that I snow shoed 13.2 miles in one weekend amongst friends while Cheryl hiked more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail (from the Mojave Desert in California, through Oregon, all the way to Washington) over the course of 3 months…..completely alone at the age of 26.
But, otherwise, pretty much the same thing.
Sidenote: If you haven’t read Wild yet, I highly recommend it. I loved it so much that I read the entire book cover-to-cover within a day of picking it up. At first glance, Wild appears to be a book about hiking, but it’s actually so much more. You can watch the book trailer or listen to Oprah’s interview with Cheryl Strayed to learn more about her journey. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of hearing Cheryl speak in Aspen at Winter Words. I was thrilled to learn that Reese Witherspoon has signed on to bring her adventure to life on the big screen!
Ok, back to my weekend….
There are dozens of backcountry huts in the mountains between Aspen, Vail and Leadville that were built by a group of cross-country ski enthusiasts. The cool thing is that anyone who is willing to make the trek can stay at these huts (although reservations are required in advance and often hard to come by). On this trip, our group stayed at the Harry Gates Hut which is nestled at the foothills of Sawatch Mountain at an elevation of 9,700 feet. Completed in 1986, it is the largest of the huts in the system and has gorgeous views of Avalanche Ridge to the east. We had a great time lounging on the deck, playing games, drinking wine and making new friends. Hopefully this was just the first of many hut trips to come!
