Adventures in Hut Tripping

On March 17, Luke and I embarked on a Hut Trip Adventure to the Polar Star Inn.  (For those of you familiar with the 10th Mountain Division huts-it's one of those.  For those of you not familiar with them-basically, we were in the mountains south of Eagle, Colorado.)
We joined a group of 5 others. (Dan, Alan, Garrett, Don, and Emily).
It was an adventure getting to the trailhead through the thick slush on the road.  Luckily it didn't get that bad until we were almost to the trailhead.  (Good job to Luke for his mad driving skills, and credit must also be given to the new tires we bought recently for the Accord.)
This was my first backpacking trip.  Ever.  (Well if you don't count all the times I wore a backpack while also riding a horse...)  It was interesting getting used to wearing a pack.  It's still not adjusted quite right, but we will get there.  Don't worry.
It was over 6 miles to get to the hut.  It took just under 6 hours for us to make it there.  It was a lot of uphill (2000 vertical)!  Exhausting, but beautiful.
Here are some pictures.  Enjoy.

And we're off... 

YAY!  Downhill!

Uphill...again...

Albino squirrel (it not an ermine...even though that's what we were told it was...)

Parking area

Really good backpacking food

The black line on top is the road.  The lower black line is the trail.  We took the trail up, and the road back.

Dan Wilson and the cookie.  There are no words.

Me and Luke :)

We went on a hike.  We were near New York Mountain.

Don and Emily went to the top of New York...  Go them!

Luke taking off his skins, getting ready to ski down.

Off he goes.

He is yelling "woo-hoo" but the picture doesn't show that part

Polar Star Inn

I really like this picture!

Sunset March 18th, 2011

Heading down the mountain

Luke snowshoed back with me :)

The road was much easier to travel on!

And the very best part of the trip was that I burned 5204 calories.  Now that's a workout!