Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Rosalie and Epaulet Hike

Managed to get out for an afternoon hike in the Mount Evans wilderness area, great hike up the Tanglewood Trail to a saddle below Rosalie, then up Rosalie and over to Epaulet, reversed the route on the way back. The upper part of this route from Rosalie to Epaulet was magical, not another soul around, wandering in the high tundra, free from any cares and worries, haven't felt like that in quite sometime. One of the cool things about this trip was hiking the route late in the afternoon, normally, it's up early to avoid the storms but it was a slow morning and the forecast and weather looked good all day, that was unique to be descending off a high peak in summer at 6pm. I was recovering from a bad cold, and it was super hard to breathe on the uphill so I took it slow, but ran the last 4 miles from the saddle back to the TH in 50 minutes. On the run down I tripped and was heading for a rock and somehow miraculously managed to get my feet under me and not crash, pretty scary. The overall trip was 15 miles and 6000 vertical feet and it took me 6 hours and 40 minutes to completed.