8-13-15

 Me: This morning (8/13) Bob & I met Rich, Jenn & John at the Durango train station. We left on the 1880's steam train at 9am for a 2.5 hour train ride.

The day was pretty & the ride was fun!

The scenic train route follows along the Animas River & ends it's destination in Silverton. The Animas River made headlines last week after turning yellow from a toxic spill. 300 million gallons of toxic waste was accidentally released during an EPA inspection. :-(

About 11:30am (& an hour from Silverton) the train stopped to let us & 15 other backpackers off in the Weminuche Wilderness. The train also picked up about 30 backpackers who were coming out from their adventures in the wilderness.  

Thanks for the ride guys!

And there we were…all alone with no cell coverage and heavy packs loaded with gear & food for 4 days. We crossed the suspension bridge & began our 7 mile hike into the trees.

It was a pretty trail bordering Needle Creek. The weather was warm & we worked up a sweat as we gained 3000 feet in elevation.

6 miles later we arrived in the Chicago Basin. It was beautiful! Green grass, open space, pine trees and  tall mountains all around.

Our welcome committee; Mountain Goats!

We were giddy to see them. They were so close!

This pretty much made our day & if we didn't see another mountain goat the rest of the trip, I was content. :-)

We continued a bit further up the trail looking for a campsite for 3 tents. We were ready to take our packs off!

We found a GREAT place!

 Home for the next few days!

This is the view from our front porch to the northeast.

This is the view to the west. Breathtaking!

We all purified some water & eagerly cooked up some freeze-dried meals for supper.

Tomorrow we'll be up early to tackle two 14'ers!! Wahoo!!