Emerald Lake

3 April, Friday- C.J. thought her knee felt better today but not good enough to snowshoe. So I went off by myself again while she worked on scrapbooking, Spanish lessons and yoga. The weather was supposed to be stormy starting this afternoon so I got a sort-of early start to Bear Lake trailhead. It was snowing very lightly when I left the condo and snowing pretty hard at Bear Lake, but without the gusty winds and low temperatures of our last hike there. I talked with a couple who were going to ski to Bierstadt Lake and considered going that way myself but then a whole crowd of snowshoers headed that way. I took the left fork and went towards Nymph Lake again. After a hundred yards on the packed trail I removed my snowshoes and didn't put them back on until I was beyond Dream and climbing toward Emerald. I passed a couple just after walking across the frozen lake and found there were still tracks ahead of me but snowshoes were definitely useful. The snow continued falling the whole hike and when I reached Emerald Lake, it was shrouded by the snowfall. Up ahead skiers were just visible on the slopes of the cirque above the lake; the last two snowshoers had stopped for lunch at the lake edge. This was the first time this winter that I had seen any marauding birds gather hoping for handouts. There were several mountain chickadees which were pretty aggressive and a large Clarks Nutcracker. I headed down after a short time and took the alternate route around Nymph Lake. Part way to the trailhead I removed my snowshoes again. The trail still had some fresh snow on it but was firm enough that I saw a couple of people coming up wearing sneakers(!).



Back in EP, the sun was shining and after lunch we took a soak in the outdoor hot tub. C.J.'s knee is definitely doing better and we've booked a three-night stay at the WorldMark Red River resort in northern New Mexico. The x-c ski area there is closed for the season but we should be able to find some things to do to amuse us. It's not far from Taos, and even Santa Fe should be a reasonable day trip, I think. So we've gotten mostly packed up and some of it is in the car (our wings, for example, which we probably are not going to get to use this trip). C.J. picked out a video (a freebie based on our TravleshareElite status, whoo-hoo) for tonight. Life is good.