Mount Bancroft

As you can see, I am still trying to catch up on documenting all of our summer hikes and such. Toward the end of August, we hiked up Mount Bancroft with Jim, Luli, and Opal. After a bumpy ride to the trailhead--oh, wait, there was no actual trailhead. This was a trail-less hike. So we basically walked straight up the side of the mountain. As we got started, Dean's description of this hike changed subtly from "It won't be hard!" to"It won't be that hard!"

As we climbed to the first ridge, we passed all these different parts of an old car: the engine, doors, wires and other assorted weather-beaten plastic and metal pieces. I thought that would make an interesting poem somehow.

After awhile, Dean, Amelia, Luli and Opal left Jim and I behind. Therefore, because the sleeping Amelia was being held hostage from me, Mount Bancroft's summit is the only Rocky Mountain summit I have actually reached so far. Jim could attest that I did it after a fair amount of complaining. But when I got to the top it was definitely worth it. There is a reason people go all the way to the top of tall mountains: it's beautiful up there!

Here are some pictures of my ascent, our rest at the summit, and Amelia sleeping in her backpack.






A note to other parents who might backpack with a baby: Amelia slept for much of her trip up the mountain and the entire descent, probably close to 3 hours, and we found out at the bottom that that was probably too long for her to be still in her backpack. She was cold, and it seemed like her hands and feet were asleep.

The trip down, without a trail with switchbacks, was challenging. But we made it! It was a fun hike with family, certainly one I will remember for awhile.