The Loop

Yesterday Ben, Tim, Joe, Nate, and myself, took a trip up to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some hiking. We were not sure which hike we wanted to do so we decided to start at Bear Lake Trail Head and see how far we got. As it turns out dudes in their early 20's do not shy away from challenges...thus 11.4 miles later we got back to Bear Lake Trail Head after completing the loop. That might not sound like a lot in miles, but when two of the guys came from low elevation and the others are not in high elevation shape..its still a pretty tiring stint. I have hiked all of the terrain before, but never did the whole loop in one day (usually I like to go down after going up for so long instead of going up at the end of the hike as well). We ran out of water about 7 miles in, but no one passed out or got sick, so that is a plus. Yet, still frustrating, because I am usually very careful about that sort of thing. Here are some pictures of the trip and a video of Tim being the man. Enjoy.


-We figured since Joe is only 20 we had better give him a helmet, lest he hurt himself.


-Nate's 25 in a couple weeks...no helmet required.




-Lake Helene


-Joe doing some snow ledge hiking.


-Ben and Tim


-My favorite part of the hike (past Lake Helene but before Odessa Lake)...Nate is in there somewhere.


-Ben by Odessa Lake.


-The fellas.


-Fern Falls.




-Tim Walstra is the man. I definitely tried a front flip...tried being the key word...luckily we only got a video of this one.

FYI Ben started a blog. bendirksen.blogspot.com