After scouring the maps for nearby loop hikes, I found a fun opportunity to hike 30 miles and explore some terrain close to home. We hiked up Avalanche Creek to Avalanche Lake and camped for a night, which was a beautiful and challenging 11 miles for our first day.
The second day, we hiked up and over a pass that provided immensely stunning views of the surrounding mountains. We watched a huge herd of elk climb a nearby pass and drop down the other side. We took our time walking through fields of wildflowers before dropping down the pass into Capitol Lake. After lunch, we made it out the Capitol Ditch Trail and up to Hell Roaring; we ended up stopping at Hardscrabble Lake for the night. We had the lake all to ourselves, and Loki was fascinated by jumping fish all evening long.
The final day we hiked to Williams Lake then up to the Divide, which gave us a unique view of Mount Sopris. We lost the trail just over the pass, went the wrong way down and were forced to complete several grueling miles bushwacking before reconnecting with the trail at a lower point. Hell Roaring Trail is steep! We were glad to be hiking down this trail and not up.
It was a great trip, and rounded out 100 miles of backpacking for the summer of 2016.
