#letteredtrails

Ever see those signs at camping sites that say “Do not feed bears”? I’ve always wondered who those signs were for. Would anyone actually think feeding a bear is a good idea? I thought I’d do one of these from the bear’s perspective instead.

Lock Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park

One of the first real hiking trips that my husband and I went on was to Rocky Mountain National Park. At that point, I didn’t know what you expect out of visiting a National Park so I wasn’t very prepared research and gear-wise. Since I didn’t have any hikes planned, we relied on recommendations and last minute google searching. One of the hikes we ended up going on was the Lock Lake Trail. We did this hike in August and still saw snow on the way, which was pretty unexpected.

This trail is mostly a walk through the woods, without too many views along the way. It’s definitely less trafficked that some of the popular short trails, which made it relaxing and quiet. It’s not a difficult hike at all and if it wasn’t for the constant hum and attack of mosquitoes along the way and especially by the lake, it would be even better. It may have been the time of year we were there but the most memorable thing about this hike for me, aside from the beautiful view of the lake and mountains at the end, was that it was filled with very pesky mosquitoes. Thankfully, it was chilly at the top and we had our hoodies on but that didn’t stop them from biting us through our pants. At any one point that I would look down at my hoodie, I had at least 10 mosquitoes sitting on it. Not fun.

Difficulty: 2 out of 4 (Moderate) It’s not a walk in the park but it’s not hard Pros: Beautiful lake at the end Cons: Too many mosquitoes, the trail may feel a bit monotonous

Velma Lakes, Lake Tahoe

When I was a bit younger, my brother once took me to California and Nevada as a birthday present. We stayed in Lake Tahoe for a day during this trip and went on a hike to the Velma Lakes. It was one of the most beautiful hikes I’ve ever been on and every single view throughout the hike looked like a postcard. The hike goes through Eagle Lake, which is only about a mile from the trailhead, and goes up some1000+ feet until the first Velma Lake. There are three all together, lower, middle, and upper Velma Lakes. We started a bit late in the day and were only able to reach one of the Velma’s and got half way to the second one. I was also pretty out of shape at the time and was huffing and puffing and stopping way too much. To be fair, though, this trail is very steep and will give you a really good leg workout. We really wanted to make it to the second Velma Lake but it was getting late in the day and if we hadn’t turned back, we might’ve gotten stuck there in the dark, which would not have been great. So this hike remains on both mine and my brother’s lists until we both manage to see all of the Velma’s.

Difficulty: 2 out of 4 (moderate) Pros: Incredible postcard-worthy views everywhere you look, really quiet and serene Cons: None really

Last April, during our week-long Utah National Parks trip, we stayed over in Escalante for a night and wanted to hike the Peek-a-Boo and Spooky slot canyons. So off we went in our rental car through miles of gravel roads and a small stretch of dirt road. Shh don’t tell the rental company.

The road leading to the parking lot of the trails, called the Hole-in-the-Rock Road, is the longest 26 miles of your life if you’re in a rental car. It took us a little over 40 minutes to get through it because I was terrified of every loud bump and heard so many rocks hit the car that I thought our car would have turned into a dented mess by the time we were done with it. My nerves were already on edge before we even got to the infamous .5 miles of dirt road, at the Dry Fork turnoff, that we had to traverse in order to reach the parking lot. After a deep breath, we figured we got this far, what’s another .5 miles to the parking lot? Oh boy were we in for a surprise.

About .1 miles in, another car decided that it was a good idea to start driving in the opposite direction through the one-car wide road. I wasn’t about to drive backwards through pot-hole city so I had to drive a bit to the side to let them through. Unfortunately, the side is also up a steep mound and getting off of it proved to be a serious challenge. Suffice it to say, I’ve never been more terrified in my entire life as I felt the car tilt so much (while simultaneously noticing a sign inside the car indicating that it had a high tip over chance), that I really thought it was going to flip over. It’s been a year since this incident and I still get a pit in my stomach thinking about it.

Anyway, after you get through the .5 miles, you can either park your car and walk a mile to the slot canyon or keep driving through an even worse dirt road to another parking lot. We walked, of course, but nervously watched so many cars attempt this drive, even in sedans, which I DEFINITELY wouldn’t recommend. A guy drove through it with a camper van that we really thought was going to end up on its side.

My recommendations for the drive to the Peek-a-Boo Slot Canyon: - Have a high-clearance vehicle. Preferably not a rental car because if something happens, insurance won’t cover you - Drive through the 26 miles of Hole-in-the-Rock road at normal speed. On the way there, I cautiously drove too slow and I think it makes it sound and feel worse than if you drive a bit faster. I think on the way back I drove about 30-35 miles per hour and it wasn’t nearly as terrifying. It’s possible that I went through so much stress that day that this road was the least of my problems by the end. - Be very careful on the .5 mile of dirt road leading to the lot and try to stay centered while avoiding the gigantic pot holes - Just walk the 1 mile to the canyons and don’t attempt the rest of the dirt road drive unless you have a 4WD - Take many deep breaths

More on the actual slot canyon hikes in the next post!

It’s all uphill from here…

Last summer, my husband and I went to Hawaii for our honeymoon. While there, and while on a mission to visit all of the U.S. National Parks, we ended up in Haleakalā National Park in Maui. Haleakala is a gigantic dormant volcano and is known for its incredible sunrises viewed from the summit. Unfortunately, we could not make ourselves wake up at 2am and drive for 2 hours in the dark of an unknown place, so we settled on going to the park during the day, which was still incredible. The view is fantastic and you really feel like you’re on Mars the entire time.

After lots of research, we decided to do the Sliding Sands Trail, which starts off at the summit (10,000ft elevation) and just goes down from there, dropping some 2,800 ft in the first 4 miles. Sounds great until you need to turn around and go back!

So unlike with most hikes, where you climb up, reach a beautiful view at the end, eat your lunch, laugh at some chipmunks, and then have a leisurely stroll downhill, with Sliding Sands, you start with the beautiful view, hike down the crater, pick a random point on the trail to turn around (unless you have plenty of time and can hike 11 long miles that day), and then kind of regret your decision to go as far as you did because now you have to climb the whole way back up a very steep and sandy crater. But seriously, it’s pretty unreal while you’re there. I was expecting little alien men to jump out from behind the rocks the whole time. Even the plants there, the Haleakala-native silverswords, look like they’re from another planet.

My advice for this hike if you ever want to do it: 1. At 10,000 ft, there’s no such thing as too much water. Both my husband and I got massive headaches even though we really thought we were drinking enough water.  2. Bring Tylenol (or similar) with you because if that headache strikes, oh boy does it strike. Of course, I also forgot to refill my first aid kit with Tylenol that morning. Thankfully for us, hikers are the nicest people. We were desperate enough to ask passersby for something to help our awful headaches and people were eager to come to the rescue. 3. Wear lots of sunscreen because you’re up high and out in the open the entire time. I think on that whole trail, I saw just one tiny tree and one shady area under a huge rock.  4. Wear proper shoes - they don’t call it Sliding Sands for nothing 5. Bring layers - we did this hike in August but it was FREEZING up there!

This is my general sentiment every time we go hiking, so there is no specific hike that relates to this piece. It’s this and “what are we eating after this?” Food is always on my mind because I get hungry so fast when hiking out in nature.

One of the longest hikes we’ve done so far was Old Rag Mountain trail in Shenandoah National Park, which I will talk more about in another post but I think of this hike for this piece because it was the only time I didn’t have food with me, other than some trail mix, on a long 9 mile hike.

Of course, I didn’t mean to come unprepared, I bought a sandwich that morning and put it in my backpack along with an apple and my trail mix. Somehow, though, I ended up taking the sandwich out of the bag for a second to take my jacket out of the bag and after I packed everything back in, I didn’t notice the sandwich bag and ended up leaving it in the trunk of my car. I only realized this, though, when I was starving at the top of the mountain and went to get my food out of my pack. Thankfully, I had my trail mix and an apple to hold me over and a sweet husband who shared his sandwich with me. You live and you learn I guess because I’m definitely always going to double check my supplies before heading off on a long hike again.

Haven’t posted in a while :( but hopefully will get back on track. 

I’ve decided to redo my last post and make it a bit more graphic. Hope to take future pieces more in this direction, too. Hope you like!

Torrey Pines, San Diego

Torrey Pines is a very easy 3+ mile trail in beautiful San Diego. It has a few not so steep inclines, beautiful views of the clear bright blue waters of the Pacific, and some pretty scenery. The reason this trail inspired this particular piece was not because it was difficult but because, unfortunately for me, I caught some sort of a virus on the plane and was becoming sicker by the minute as we went on this hike. To add to this, we also ran out of water midway though and got a little lost, and I really thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it out of there. Lesson learned, always bring lots of water on hikes.

Difficulty: 1 out of 4 (easy) Pros: Beautiful views of the ocean, nice and relaxing hike Cons: It may be hard to find parking and it may not be THAT close where the trail starts. They have a parking lot for the park but it’s not big and I think it’s paid. We parked a ways away by the water, there are plenty of spots along the beach.