Bear Peak Hike 2018 - The Struggle
The Germany trip last spring awakened the travel bug in us. When we got back, we promised ourselves not only to take more trips around the States, but also to get out more on the weekends. In June, we needed to run an errand in Boulder near the Bear Canyon Trailhead, so we decided to take a short day hike.
Google Maps informed us that Bear Peak was only 2.7 miles via Bear Canyon, Mesa and Fern Canyon Trails and should take less than an hour and a half each way. We did notice that it also said that the elevation gain was 2795 feet, but we had not been hiking in quite a while so that did not quite register with us how steep that was. We put some apples, granola bars, GORP (Good Old-fashioned Raisins and Peanuts) and our water bottles in a small day pack and headed out.
It wasn't until we turned onto Fern Canyon Trail when we started to realize what we had gotten ourselves into. A hiker that passed us tried to give us some encouragement by telling us that if you can make it to Bear Peak, you can hike a fourteener (peaks that are above 14,000 feet in elevation) and that people use this trail to train for fourteeners. What? We were just looking for a short hike! Although we were going slow, we still felt good, so we kept going. The last mile to the peak was over a boulder field, not quite requiring scrambling, but close to it. However, it was a short scramble over large boulders to get to the very peak. Left Buddy made it to the top, but Right Buddy managed to get herself into a tight spot that she couldn't figure out how to continue from and decided she was close enough to the peak (ten yards, perhaps?) and headed back down to a small level spot for lunch, which looked like the much better option at the time.
Backroad Buddies were enjoying being out in nature. Lunch was accompanied with fantastic panoramic views. An orange butterfly (a Rockslide Checkerspot?) and a colorful Blue Fungus Beetle joined Right Buddy who gladly interrupted her lunch to take their pictures. On the way back down, there was a tree in the middle of the trail with a squirrel on it licking the bark. Our guess is the squirrel was attracted to the salt that must have accumulated on the tree from the passing hikers grabbing the trunk with their sweaty hands to steady themselves as they negotiated the steep and rocky trail. There were sounds of baby birds coming from another tree in the middle of the trail. Right Buddy looked up to see a white-breasted nuthatch poke its head out of a hole in the tree and crawl down the tree trunk to take a better look at her. It was the start of summer, so there were plenty of wild flowers along the trail to provide an excuse for Right Buddy to take a break from the steep descent and take pictures.
Although we felt pretty good on the way up to Bear Peak, coming back down was a different story. We were concerned about twisting an ankle or falling in the boulder field, so we took it slow. However, that meant that it was harder on our leg muscles. By the time we got through the boulder field, our legs were pretty well spent and we had a couple more miles to go to get back to the trailhead. Even though we were trying to go slow, Right Buddy did slip and fall once. She was lucky and only scraped up the palms of her hands and bruised her ego. Even though the trail gradually became less steep, it didn't feel that way to our legs. Right Buddy was fighting leg cramps and running out of water was not helping. It was a struggle to make it back to our car at the trailhead. So, what we thought would be a leisurely three hour hike turned into a strenuous six hour hike. We felt embarrassed because we have been living in Colorado long enough to know better.
Instead of shying away from hiking, we decided to act on the lessons (re)learned from the experience: to research the hike better ahead of time, take the ten essentials with us, take more water, and take trekking poles on steep hikes. We quickly got our gear in order and started planning the next hike.
(RB)