sort-of-annual weminuche hike

For many years now we've been (usually) going on a backpack trip in our nearby wilderness area, the Weminuche, with a group of friends that varies from year to year around the same core. This year we planned a trip to Sunlight Basin, which Britt and I last hiked to in 2004 with our friends Rolfe and Kristen as part of an epic backpack on what is now called the "Kodiak High Route" (stupid name, Kodiak, in Colorado??). Many things had changed since then: a snowslide destroyed the third bridge on Vallecito Creek (the "Swinging Bridge") a few years later, and the Forest Service being allocated less money for trail maintenance meant that the old pack trail up Sunlight Creek - already starting to decline when we hiked it in 2004 - was completely abandoned and mostly replaced by use-trails following the most direct way (rather than the easiest way), with many fallen trees to climb over or go around.

It was a multi-generational group, with my husband Britt the oldest at 68, Shan's son Anish at 23, and the rest of us scattered in between. We set out on Sunday morning and after half an hour or so, crossed the wilderness boundary:



( Lots of photos and blah blah about our six days in the wilderness! )

The album of photos at Flickr, few captions, no blah blah

ETA: Shan made a video of this trip, and it's on YouTube! It's a combination of video he took and photos we all shared.