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Trip to Mount Evans July 13
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July 13, Sunday: Well, we got up to an early breakfast of Dutch oven bread and ham. No time to wash dishes, for our meal was fixed up ready to hike to Mt. Evans.
Lou, Olga, Junior Annabelle, Charles and I rode in Lou's car and Papa, Nora, and Fred rode in coupe. We got started about 9:00. We passed Kittredge, Evergreen, and Troutdale in the Pines, a most wonderful place. We wound around up in the Troutdale scenic ride, and then out on the main road. Lou's car had a shorted wire and his horn just honked and honked all the way up the hill, and until he got out and fixed it. We passed Squaw Pass where Lou and Olga came up to Chief Mt (which we passed later) via a wagon road. After reaching the top they saw a sign that said "No automobiles allowed on this road."
It is very high -- above timberline. We stopped and got us drinks and filled the radiators at springs and small rivulets. We could see Idaho Springs from the road. It looked like a miniature town but it was quite a good-sized city. We now came in sight of the snow-capped mountains. There were dozens of them! And only last year Pike's Peak had such a tiny bit of snow on it!
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About 12:30 we arrived at Echo Lake where we ate our dinner right on the bank. Nora took our picture with the snowy background. My, what a dinner. We surely enjoyed it; pork and beans, salmon, pickles, sweet and sour, cheese, bread, crackers, etc. Then we went on. The road was not so good, it was narrow and rocky. In some places it was difficult for two cars to pass, and they couldn't pass in other places. At the first snow bank we stopped and ate snow, threw snowballs, and had a real snow fight. Olga and baby stayed in the sedan and didn't fight. Several cars came up behind us, so we moved on. Before reaching the top we stopped once more to wait on Papa and view the wonderful scenery around. A great big Marmon drove up and wanted to go on, but was afraid to go past Lou's car. Lou assured him there was plenty |
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Lunch at Echo Lake
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of room but - wow! - what a bawling-out he gave Lou! Said there was no sense being a road hog, etc., etc., and told him to move on. We asked Lou why he didn't arrest him for talking to him that way, but Lou only laughed and said that there was no use to talk to "old fogies" like him, so as we were ready to move on anyway we would go now. We drove on up to the end of the road, and oh, what precipices there were! Up here, looking up hundreds of feet and looking way, way down, many, many feet farther, on a narrow newly constructed road, in a closed sedan, Lou turned the car around; first backing then forward - looking as if we were going off into eternity -- then backward again! Oh!!! the shudders and thrills and shivers that |
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Circa 1924 Marmon Automobile
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went up and down our spines and legs when he was turning around. But at last he turned around (He laughed and said he could turn his car around on a dime.) Then papa came and turned around but I couldn't look. I was afraid he might go an inch too far.
Well, all safe and sound we struck out for the top of Mt. Evans equipped with sweater and Kodak. The road was not near the top and the men were still working and blasting, trying to get the road completed before next year. We huffed and puffed and finally reached the top, Fred first, then I, Lou, Charles, Annabelle and Nora came, and lastly Papa. They forgot and left part of their breath back at camp and so had to go a little slower. After recovering our breath we had a real, honest-to-goodness snow fight and face-washing time. Leaving the snow we went on up to the summit where nothing was but rocks, rocks, rocks. We perched ourselves up on some and Lou snapped our pictures "at the top of the world." |
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As we went back we gathered moss, flowers, etc., and reaching the snow we took two pictures, and now for the downward climb. Lou started first but they were throwing snowballs and as Lou started to dart from one he slipped and down the snow bank he went, rolling and sliding over and over, holding the Kodak up in the air as he went and stringing moss from top to bottom of the snow bank, which was about 30 feet high. Annabelle then went down, sliding as they do on slides, and went so swiftly and got the seat of her pants so wet and uncomfortable looking that I thought I would just walk down as far as I could and roll or slide the rest of the way, as circumstances would permit. |
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But I only got good and started when I went sliding down on my feet and Boy! What fun it was! I felt almost like climbing up and coming down again but I looked up and here came Nora lickety-split, the way Ann came down and Lou was afraid she would hit the rocks and hurt herself, so he stepped out in front of her and --- Wow! --- when she hit him she nearly knocked him down the mountainside! There were no trees to stop him either, for we were way above timberline and only rocks, moss and springs of water were below us! Poor Lou! But he soon recovered and we gathered up our scattered moss and started down the mountain again. We filled a cream can with snow and soon we were homeward bound. |
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In the snowbank on Mt. Evans. We're preparing to have a snow ball fight!
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Papa tightened the brakes on the coupe and no bad luck happened until we passed the Johnson Brothers ranch.
Papa and Lou looked at the gas (in the coupe) and satisfied, we went on. A few miles after passing the ranch, going up a hill, Lou's car stopped -- out of gas! They (Papa and Lou) went back in the coupe to the ranch, got gas, came back and put it in the car, and took the can back to the ranch. It was about 8:30 when we got back to the campground, and gathered up our clothes. Annabelle and I got something to eat and left camp with Lou and Olga for Denver about 9:45. Arrived at their place, sleepy and tired at 10:45. We slept in an east room and we surely did pile on the covers (just like we did at camp) and Olga came in and laughed at us, said we wouldn't need so many, etc. After talking and laughing a long while we went to sleep, near or past midnight. |
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