Fathers Day, First Day of Summer, and Snow

What better way to spend Fathers Day and the first day of Summer* then afoot on a hiking trail... a trail that was largely covered in snow, nonetheless.

I was up at the Brainard Lake area again today, but today was joined by Chloe, Peggy and Chamberlain on a hike to Lake Isabelle. From the trailhead, the hike (one-way) was about 1.5 miles, but because of snow still blocking some access roads, we had to park about 1/2 mile away. (We asked a park attendant why the roads were closed and were told that, for some reason, the roads aren't plowed or shoveled. It's their hope that the roads will be clear by July 4th.)

Because we were still below treeline, the large majority of the trail was susceptible to shade; as such, there was still plenty of snow covering it. These aren't official figures, but it's my guess that approximately 80% of the trail was snow-covered, and the longest single-stretch of hiking on earthen ground was probably about 40 yards. In certain areas, we were probably walking on snow that was 7-8 feet deep. Thankfully, the snow was hardpacked, so we could walk across it with few problems.

While it made for an interesting hike and some beautiful scenes, the snow did make the going a little slower than usual, and we had to turn back earlier than hoped so Peg could catch a flight to San Diego. Because it's so close to our home (30 minutes away), we suspect we'll be back there sometime this summer to to the hike in full.

(Pictures, top to bottom: Peggy and Chloe standing on one of the many piles of snow covering the trail; Chloe trekking past a snowy meadow.)

* Today's the first full day of summer here in CO. Technically speaking, the summer solstice took place at 11:45p last night.