Cimarrona Hike

Courtney and I hiked Cimarrona while the boys hiked Pagosa Peak.

Started off saying we'd go 3.5 miles to the arch and then see if we wanted to go further.

Ended up making it to the saddle where the trail divides. Go us! 

Such a beautiful hike -- we logged every. single. wildflower in the PictureThis app.

(Turns out lots of flowers are poisonous to touch and eat.)

This pic is when we finished -- 13 miles and over seven hours. 
Pretty impressed we have such big smiles. Our feet were killing.

We swapped the backpack every mile which worked really well because we switched before 

we were tired of carrying it. Packed lunches and snacks and 32 oz of water each. 

Plus a pack of electrolyte jelly bellys which were just the thing to give me a boost on the way down when I was feeling a little beat.

The wildflowers were spectacular!

Me, documenting spectacular wildflowers.

We followed these tracks along with horse tracks about the first mile.

I was convinced they were moose tracks. 

Guess what they actually are from? Cows.

Also some mule deer.

Feeling pretty good and ready for more at the arch.

This pose seems like I'm wondering who in the heck 

made this mess and how are we going to clean it up!

A lot of these little caterpillars on the trail.

And wild strawberries!

Lunch break with Williams in the background.

Can you spot the butterfly?

We made it!!

Which one is Cimarrona? 

The locals all agree its flat top. #1. Courtney and I call it Chichinitza.

The most prominent mountain in the area.

Unfortunately, the Shaeffers have all believed its #3 and it was pretty devastating for Dan to learn 

they were wrong. And a few simply refuse to believe.

Updating to remember how when we were almost home I almost crashed into the tree by the Taylors while craning my neck to get a good look at Cimarrona. Courtney saved the day by hollering to me to watch out. But then when we turned the corner to the ranch she grabbed the backpack from the middle seat and inadvertently sprayed us with bear spray. 

I blame both on us being so tired from being so amazing at hiking so far!