Adventures with Oscar: Bear Peak

One of my objectives in life is to take Oscar on awesome adventures. There are many types of adventures, but this post will focus on one: hiking. And on one particular hike: Bear Peak. I chose to do the hike as a loop...because loops are better than out and backs and because I was petrified at the thought of hiking up Fern Canyon with Oscar in a backpack. See the elevation diagram to see why I was petrified. For those in the know, I started at NCAR, hiked the Mesa Trail to Bear Canyon, up Bear Canyon Trail to Bear Peak West Ridge and up that to Bear Peak. From Bear Peak I hiked down Fern Canyon to the Mesa Trail and back to NCAR.

So, first a quick glimpse into the madness of this hike. I would call the hike difficult, but with a baby backpack it qualifies as insane-o! The hike is approximately 8.5 miles according to other people's GPS units, supposedly 2990 feet of elevation gain, and about 6.5 hours of time. Check out the map and elevation diagram to get a sense of it.

I was lucky enough to have a good and patient friend to hike with - Ellie. Ellie lives in Fairbanks, but came down to Boulder for work. After hiking with me and Oscar and Andria on Saturday, she agreed to double down on Sunday and go big! This made me very lucky as my still injured hand makes it really difficult to take Oscar-in-backpack on and off my back. Here is a picture of Ellie at Bear Peak keeping Oscar occupied as the blood came rushing back into my head after putting him down.

The ravine behind and to the left of Oscar is Bear Canyon - the trail we hiked up!

So we started the hike up Bear Canyon and the colors were fantastic. Fall is coming, but it hasn't hit as hard in Boulder as it had hit in the microclimate of Bear Canyon. These couple of pics just give you a glimpse of the beauty. The ferns were changing, the aspens, and the ground cover. It was red and yellow and green and beautiful!

Ellie and I made some good time (with Oscar fast asleep) for the first 1.5 - 2 hours. But after awhile you gotta give a baby a break. He woke up and was clearly happy for some time - pointing at things, announcing himself, and pronouncing words of wisdom on the way up. He played with leaves changing colors, pine needles, flowers, rocks, pine cones, sticks, and just about everything awesome we could find to hand to him on the way up.

Finally, we stopped for a much needed snack - Oscar was ravenous from all that sleeping and announcing! After a good snack of cheese, apple, black olives, and pear, Oscar was ready to ruckus around a bit. But knowing how much more hiking was ahead of us, Ellie and I got Oscar back in his pack pretty soon and continued the hike. Oscar was playing a really good sport and got back in his pack willingly, so we set off again.

As we continued up the Bear Peak West Ridge trail, my legs started complaining - but not as loudly as my shoulders. I swear Oscar grew an additional 10 pounds on the way up to Bear Peak (on top of his already impressive 24 pound frame). Luckily he has since lost that punishing extra 10 pounds and returned to normal Oscar size. Near the peak, the trail turned into an extra long stair case - not kidding. It was like doing a weighted squat workout up the side of Bear Peak. But Oscar was loving it and so was I. We hiked through a burn area and started getting really good views. It became easier to see creatures like chipmunks and birds and Oscar was entranced.

This is not solid ground (Bear Peak)

Near the top we started to finally see a few extra people and, more importantly, their dogs. The dogs kept Oscar very excited between bouts of Ellie and I describing the natural world and all there is in it - trees and rock formations and birds and pine cones and very awesome sticks for whacking dad in the head. It was in a word - awesome!

By the time we made it to the top, I really needed a break. Unfortunately the top of the hike is not the top of the peak. To get to the top of the peak we needed to scramble across some funky rocks (me holding Oscar in my arms instead of in a pack). It took some effort, but we made it to the top at 8,461 feet. Vogels must stand atop tall rocks. This is known. And this was Oscar's second peak to bag. We did Green Mountain about a month earlier (the peak immediately behind me and Oscar in the picture at right).

I was lucky to have Ellie around on the way back down to the trail as Oscar was getting sleepy/fussy and was trying to twist out of my arms. Ellie jumped down and retrieved a bottle of water which Oscar happily drank from and calmed down, enabling me to finish the descent off the peak back to (somewhat) solid ground. These are the moments when you learn true patience - your child trying to squirm out of your arms atop a mountain peak as you calmly talk to them to calm them down. Rational thought isn't quite up Oscar's alley yet, so a lecture explaining to him the consequences of squirming out of my arms didn't really make any sense.

This is solid ground (City of Boulder below)

So we got back to the pack, ate lunch, and began the descent down Fern Canyon. Fern Canyon is a beautiful trail, but my god is it steep. With a pack of baby on my back I had to take about twice as many steps as normal just to make sure I didn't lose my footing and re-break my left hand...or my Oscar.

It was my second squat workout of the day, but this one lasted much longer. The trail seemed to go on and on forever. Of course, as soon as we started walking Oscar fell asleep - with his head falling out of the left side of the pack. This did wonders for my spinal alignment and my shoulders. But Oscar was in a peaceful place. Ellie and I got to catch up on various things and she got to re-experience some Boulder hiking after her years away in Alaska.

By the time we got back to the parking lot I was toast. Oscar was joyful - waving hello to everybody and making raspberries. Ellie seemed like she could do another lap. We made it home just after Andria got home from an epic mountain bike ride, which is not the order any of us expected things to work out. Luckily for me I had a beer waiting for me in the fridge to celebrate.

Later we let Oscar ruckus about and get out all that energy he did not use sitting in a pack for some 5+ hours during our hike. I asked him that evening if he wanted to eat a tomato - a new afternoon addiction of Oscar's. He heard what I said and ran up the driveway to our garden to get his afternoon treat. As we were putting him to bed I knew he had an awesome day. As Andria picked him up to carry him to his bedroom he lunged out of her arms towards me. This is not normal behavior as everybody knows mom is more comforting and more cuddly than dad. I am confident it was because we had such an incredible day together. I hope to do it again this weekend, but this time with Andria and as a family...and maybe with fewer squat workouts!

Oscar trying to summit Bear Peak solo