Rocky Mountain National Park Project

I know the title makes it sound like some kind of charitable environmental movement. Not so much.

One of my life goals is to hike every trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been at this since about 2006, and since that time, I've documented every trail hiked on a map of RMNP.

It's a combination of day hikes, snowshoeing, overnights and multi-day backpacking.

I have no idea how many total miles I have done, but their website (if you believe their slanted, liberal media opinion) says that there are over 300 miles of trails in the park. I've hiked somewhere around 200 of those miles in the last 7 years.

This summer, I completed another 50 miles in 2 separate three-day backpacking weekends:

(arrows added in case you're an idiot)

1. From Cache le poudre trailhead up to mirror lake, 29 miles out and back (unless you're Australian, then it's return)

2. CO river trailhead to poudre pass, then to lake of the clouds, then loop back, about 20 miles.

Highlights from this summer:

Mirror lake, all the way out in BFE at the top of RMNP. 

the edge of Lake of the Clouds, Western edge of RMNP. During the night, some forest creature ate part of my trekking pole and the hip belt from lisa's pack. It's a harsh world out there.

the valley before Lake of the Clouds, where we camped in the shadows of 13ers. Suck on that, people with supposedly-awesome life experiences like the birth of your children. Suck on that.

A deer that hung out at our first campsite all day. Would occasionally look up and see us, then run away, only to return five minutes later. We named him Deer.