Sheppy Quest 2004

In 2003, my Mother-In-Law suggested to my wife that Tracy and Tyler go to visit "Grammy" and "Papa Lou" in Henderson, NV without me. Despite the disappointment I would not be able to go, I decided to go on the first Annual "Sheppy Quest". Originally, I called it a "Vision Quest", but I am just not as tough as Native Americans who would go off into the woods with nothing. My "Sheppy Quest" is a wimp's version. I do go off by myself, but I back-pack in a tent and food and clothes. I attempt to commune with nature, and the goal is to have some life-altering thought or vision, but so far it has just been a way to "get away" and relax.

In 2004, again while my family went off to Vegas, I went back-packing alone. This time, my Sheppy Quest took me to the same place "Bear Track Lakes" in the Mt. Evans wilderness. I did go by a much different path. This time, I went up the Bear Track Lakes trail #433. Here is a link to a map of the area. http://www.mountevans.com/ME-Things-HikingWilderness.HTML

My trail-head is west of Evergreen in the Mount Evans State Wildlife Area. Trail #43 starts at the Camp Rock Campground and heads west along the creek. It turned out that it was late enough in the year that the forest road was closed about 5 miles before the trail head. So, my Friday afternoon hike was much longer than I expected. I got to the Camp Rock Campground and hiked only about a quarter mile before I found a very nice camp site along the creek. It was a perfect back-country site... about 100 feet from the trail, and 100 feet from the creek. It was hidden amount the trees. Very tranquil and beautiful. The photo to the right is the sunset a little way from my site.
	The next day, I started out hiking across a wildfire burn area. In 1998, about 485 acres burned in the Bear tracks Fire. I climbed uphill another wildfire burned area. This is the Resthouse Meadow Fire that burned 1,076 acres in 1964. It is sad to see, but at the same time, it is sort of interesting to see the recovery process and all the bright wild-flowers growing among the charred remains of the burned trees.
Eventually, I climbed up about 1000 feet to the "top" of a "hill". It leveled off for a little bit (a very little bit). Here is a photo of me up there. You can see the yellow aspen in the autumn mountains.
	Here is a distant look of where I am going. It is nice being up in the wilderness where I know I will see almost no one.
Here is my destination. It is the lower of the Bear Track Lakes. Very pretty. The photo does not do it justice. Mt. Evans is up to the left off the edge of the photo. You can not see the peak from here, but I was able to know where it was thanks to a compass and map.
	Another photo of the lake. This slightly to the left of the photo above.
Here I am to prove that I made the hike.
	It was still early in the day, so I decide to hike up to the Roosevelt lakes (1000 to 1500 ft up from where I was). Here is a look back from where I came.
Here is one of the Roosevelt Lakes. It looks sort of like a big puddle here ... and is not really what one would call a huge lake. It is quite a sight up here above the tree-line.
	Here is a timer photo of me on the way back down. The sky is very blue.
Another shot of the mountain next to the lake. This is the same one that is behind the first shot of the lake.
	Here is "sunset". The clouds came in that night (as did an extremely strong wind. Luckily, I was camping down in the trees so the wind did not hit me much. It was very interesting listening to the wind running through the upper forest.
So, I did not have any life-altering visions. I did not even see my totem (unless I saw it and did not recognize it). I did get to relax in the beauty of nature (although the hike was a little more strenuous than most people would associate with "relaxing". Actually, some people are impressed that I do this, but mostly people think I am just weird for wanting to go off by myself.... and almost no one (even those who are impressed and a little jealous) would ever want to do this themselves. Of course, just thinking about the trip makes me want to do it again. Ironically enough (or maybe not really that ironic), the person who got me to start (my Mother-in-Law) is the one person who seems most horrified that I head out into the mountains all by myself. Whenever it comes up, she nags me about it. So, I try not to talk about it much around her unless I am looking to get her worked up :-) I am planning to do another Sheppy Quest in 2005. When you are reading this, if you see an entry for "Sheppy Quest 2005", you know that I did do it again. If not... it is either too early in the season, or I never made it..