Exploring New Terrain

By: Tessie

After six years of living in Evergreen and hiking the nearby trails over and over, we started expanding our territory last summer in an effort to find longer options to prepare for our trek between Aspen and Crested Butte.

It was a blast, and appropriate for us as Wild Western Wanderers, to keep exploring new terrain. We continued the trend last weekend. We drove an hour, part of it on a narrow dirt road, to reach a trailhead on the opposite side of the Buffalo Creek recreation area from where our parents had done a difficult mountain bike ride years ago. The area is much more popular with mountain bikers than hikers due to the length of the trails. While out, we saw only one trail runner, but several mountain bikers.

We made a seven+ mile loop out of Gashouse and Baldy trails. There were many cool boulders to climb on, and the weather was perfect. We love exploring new areas, and it was a bonus that it wasn’t busy.

After the hike, we stopped at Zoka’s Restaurant in Pine and relaxed on the deck while Mom and Dad ate lunch. We don’t currently have any plans for a big hike this summer, but we will be going on a fun road trip to South Dakota and North Dakota next month. I’m grateful to have been adopted into the Wild Western Wanderer family! What’s one of your favorite places to explore?