We camped at Camp Hale, the training location for the 10th Mountain Division. It was cram packed with historical significance and information about this amazing part of American History. Surrounding us, the whole valley was filled with the remnants of structures and training grounds where these men learned to ski, rock climb and survive at high elevation in rough terrain. Pretty amazing stuff.
On our recreational end of it, there were so many trails for us to explore and peaks for us to summit. The visibility was limited the first few days due to smoke from fires burning in ID, MT or CA (we never did get an affirmative confirmation as to which fire it was from), but the views were still awe inspiring.
Our visit coincided with quite a few national races going on in the area. There was a race of 100 miles in 30 hours where the runners exerted a heroic effort to complete it. The race that we became "involved" with was the 2012 TransRockies Run of 120 miles, 6 days and 20,000 feet of elevation gain. Day three happened to be on the very trail we were RZRing on. We respectfully slowed and went around the runners on the trail and waved and cheered them on. A few laughed with us as they "thumbed" for a ride or told us we needed to get out and run instead of ride! About 3/4 of the way through however, we can upon a guy collapsed on the trail and two other guys flagging us down. They didn't explain what was wrong but asked if we could give their fellow runner a ride down the hill. Of course we were happy to help so I climbed in the back and crouched between Jadeyn's car seat and Jessica and held the guy's water and gear. He literally sprawled in the front seat with one foot completely hanging out the front window! It took about 10 min on the bumpy train for him to really get his emotions under control enough to put his hand on Kevin's shoulder and say, "I don't know who you people are, but thank you. My name is Spence." We ended up taking him all the way to the finish line (about 5+ miles) to where they were announcing each runner's name. The medical crew came over and helped him out and hobbled with him across the finish line. It turns out he tore his quadriceps. Ouch!
So the humorous part came when we had to go back up the same trail to find the branch we were supposed to have taken. Now we are passing runners who are giving us huge thumbs ups and telling us thank you and beaming at us!! It was kinda nice to do a good deed unexpectedly!The mountains surrounding this area are huge and imposing and the views, even on a smokey day, were breathtaking. As you stared out at the horizon, you would suddenly realize that you could barely make out a massive outline of a mountain even higher than the huge one you could see in the foreground. We were constantly sawing, "Wow, look at that mountain...wait, holy smokes! look at the massive one behind it!"
We attempted to find a trail on Saturday evening and somehow ended up in the wrong area, but...we were met with some pretty cool surprises. We ended up following some old abandoned railroad tracks and found track and rail car ruins all along it. Finally, we reached a long tunnel cut through the mountain and investigated. It was pretty sweet to be able to walk through and examine old train car light switches and rusted car ties, etc. And, it was pretty fun to photograph. 
We had fun on the RZR piling all 6 of us in a 4 seater and occasionally taking turns. I took advantage of the taking turns part one afternoon to stay back at camp and finish my book! I was reading the last four paragraphs when the RZR came pulling in! Great timing!
We were so glad to have been able to finally make it to Camp Hale. Last year something came up that took over our weekend planned for it, and this year the same almost happened again. We finally made it and got to enjoy the beauty!
No comments:
Post a Comment