John Wesley Powell has long been a hero of mine— the first man to ascend the mighty Longs Peak at 14,259 feet, and the first to raft the mighty Colorado River's entirety, including the Grand Canyon. I read Powell's diary after my second trip through the Grand Canyon and was even more impressed by his words of wisdom, conservation and awe at our natural world.
Today I led my first official hiking club trip, complete with 13 other hikers (most of them new to the club), to Chasm Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. The lake sits in a narrow basin carved out by Mills Glacier, and is the perfect foreground to the famous diamond-shaped face of Longs Peak.
This trip was sort of a last-minute decision of mine and one other officer's, we decided Monday night to lead a day-hike on Sunday, and I have long had Chasm Lake on my mind. It's a classic RMNP hike, I couldn't believe I hadn't done it yet. However, a few things weren't quite right at the start of our trip. My co-leader came down with strep the night before, and assigned a training officer to join me. Which was totally cool! But that meant I would officially be leading this trip by myself— my first ever attempt at outdoor leadership.
And it all went according to plan! We had a great group of students— they were a mix of freshman, newbies to the club, and a few who had done club trips before. We left at 6:15 am, witnessed the sunrise highlight the dusting of snow on the mountains, and made it to the lake in great time. This was by far the chattiest group of hikers I had ever been with, we stopped at least a dozen times on the way up, but still managed to hike over four miles in a little over two hours.
Longs Peak quickly came into view, we crossed several streams and made it over the little scramble and came up to the lake in amazement. We passed several hikers on the way who said they turned back from their attempt at climbing Longs due to the extreme and icy winds. We didn't believe them at first, and definitely passed a little judgement, but the clouds raced past over the summit, when we quickly understood their decision to bail.
I of course walked up to the lake's edge and began looking for signs of life— fish, tadpoles, bugs, but the waves on the surface from the winds obstructed my vision, causing me to leave in disappointment from not seeing any fish. But the enormity of Longs Peak truly was spectacular. Powell was totally right, one day I'll climb it and understand its full intensity.
My first trip as a hiking club officer also made me realize just how great of an organization the CU Hiking Club is. I was leading a group of relatively inexperienced hikers, many of whom are not from Colorado, to one of the famous views in my home state. It was humbling. I loved watching their jaws drop once they saw the peaks, the basin, the lake, even though the headwind was causing their eyes to water and their bones to freeze. I loved encouraging them to push their way up the mountain, and that a slow-pace is totally okay, and that inexperience is no problem. I'm definitely one of the least experienced officers in the club anyways.
Powell understood the effect that the outdoors can have on people, maybe that's why he wrote so extensively about his experiences in the wild west. That's partly why I write in this blog. Not only does it compliment my work as a photographer and as a storyteller, but I hope that it also encourages those to appreciate the world for what it truly is and what is has to offer. And maybe one day my writing will have an impact on someone, the same way Powell's writing had an impact on me.