It seems reasonable to do a nice big hike to celebrate my sweetie’s birthday, and perfectly apt to do a loop that brings us by a lake named after, (and possibly shaped like?) a heart.
Planning Phase
1) Step 1: Decide which hike, of the local multitudes, to try. We were originally going to hike Wheeler Peak via Bull of the Woods but were notified that this area was closed for Taos Pueblo tribal ceremonial purposes.
2) Step 2: Guesstimate how long the hike will take. Here’s where a real important nuance takes place: there’s more to milage than just the distance walked. Calculate elevation gain.
3) Step 3: Pack for the hike. Anytime you’re gonna be in the mountains. Consider that weather changes occur without warning. Be prepared for that eventuality. Mostly with a few layers and a raincoat. Which brings us to…..
4) Step 4: Look at the weather forecast. Know it won’t be perfect and the unexpected can be expected, but at least try to get an idea of what mother earth is brewing! (This step, similar to the above mentioned 3 steps, was another one we neglected to take)
5) Step 5: (another one we didn’t do…) Come Up with Estimated Departure and Finish times. Well, we intended on leaving early early for this possibly quite long hike, but dear lord was sleeping in worth it or what!!! We hit the trail just short of noon.
Rough Going
Saying that this was an unfamiliar trail would be a bit misleading. We have actually hiked up towards Heart Lake twice. One of the times we made it the 6 miles up, took a frigid skinny dip, and skittered back down. The other bid got stopped about 4 miles up by consistently deeper and deeper snowpack.
This trail winds 2 miles up through dense pine forest and comes to a fork, where going right brings you to the lake another 4 miles later, and going left brings you… well…. I’m not sure… but I think going left might somehow wrap back around to the lake again?
Like many of the folks who end up “Nekkid and A’feared” out in the wilderness, we totally neglected to download GPS maps or bring along any paper maps.
We were going on what we supposed would be about a 12-mile hike. We knew the trail up to Heart Lake would bring us up about 1000′ of arduous elevation gain, so by taking the “long way around, we might even need to gain a little extra elevation.
We really underestimated it.
I mean grossly underestimated it.
At one point a duo of backpackers stopped to tell us that if we went on “The Ridge” we should be sure to watch the weather because we’d be high up and exposed for a Long Time.
Another hiker, also descending, remarked that “The Ridge” was very difficult to navigate and pocked with scenic vistas sporting tempting false lakes.
“The Ridge“
As you’ve seen now from the multiple plot-spoiler photos, there indeed was “A Ridge”. A solid 3 miles at > 12,000′ of Ridge.
Phil and I kept our eyes on the clouds, scrambled across ankle-splitting scree, and adored the tiny Pikas that populate the sparse biome above treeline.
We even made a nature documentary when we found a novel and very fragrant plant. <— click there.
We laughed about how “The Ridge” had grown to mythic proportions. And really, if the weather had been worse, we really could have been stuck up in a scary place.
But the weather wasn’t worse, so we just had a really f@ck!ng good time. <—(another silly video)
After we descended off of “The Ridge” , we were back in the safety of the forest. Not too much later, by the time our appetites for lunch really revved up (and it was about 4pm), we were at Heart Lake.
Phil refilled…. or should i say Re-Philled our water bladders using fresh filtered lake water (Ahhhhhh…. refrescante!) And I poured a revitalizing b-vitamin mix into a sparkling water.
Just as it started to cool off again we got our packs ready to go, it started with a few raindrops. After 20 seconds it was full blown hail, morphing into sleet, then finally a steady, heavy rain.
Our legs were tired by the end of the hike and we each put in our best guesses of miles hiked and altitude gained (and descended). I was pretty close with my guess of 3k gained.
All on all, our mightily extended Heart Lake Loop Hike was a blast. We had so many good laughs, and there’s nothing like good old-fashioned, post-hike Jello-legs.
Backcountry Cowgirl 