One last backpacking trip for 2016. This time we went back to one of our favorite places: Copper Lake.
Copper Lake is located near Crested Butte in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness, so it's a bit of a haul to get there. We left Fort Collins in the morning, made a couple quick stops along the way, and started hiking around 3. It's about a 5.2 mile hike, and only the last 1-1.5 miles gets steep. It also has a lot of good shade and some river crossings, so it's quite a nice hike. An added bonus was the wildflowers this time. I don't remember there being so many other times we've been up here, but they were really in bloom.
Through the years, I have a bunch of pictures of this lake and White Rock Mountain behind it (one even ended up in this book). It just looks so amazing in the morning and evening light. From our favorite campsite there, we get to step out of the tent to an amazing view.
On our second day, we decided to hike up to the nearby Triangle Pass. It was a little longer than we thought (3 miles each way), but with spectacular views. Unfortunately, it's also really rocky and Banksy ended up cutting a pad on his paw. I had a dog boot back at camp but not with us, so Christine fashioned a makeshift bootie out of some duct tape, gauze, and athletic tape. She's amazing.
We made it back to camp and Banksy was super tired. He was happy to spend the rest of the afternoon laying around camp. A bit of a bummer because I'm sure he would have loved swimming in the lake, but we'll save that for next time.
With an actual dog boot available, our hike out the next day was totally fine. Christine and I ended up carrying Banksy's pack and other stuff so he didn't have to deal with that. Instead, he enjoyed trotting down the trail. Even with a hurt paw, he was quite happy. We took him the the vet at home, and his paw is great thanks to Christine cleaning out the cut and keeping some Neosporin on it. She should probably have a WooFR certification. (That joke is probably funny to about 3 people.)
It's time to clean up and put away our gear for the season, and we're already looking forward to next year's trips.
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