When is 151 guests intimate?

Sunday, 7:00 am., Buckskin Gulch- -Saturday I visited with over 200 trail users in my 6-1/2-hours at the trail-head of LCD (Lincoln, Cameron, Democrat- -I’ve purposely omitted Bross). That number of guests has become the norm at Kite Lake on weekends.

It had snowed on Friday night. Yesterday 5 people turned back because of the hazardous conditions. This morning it was clear and all but the most tenacious of the previous days snow clung to the peak of Mt. Democrat as it came into view. What a perfect day to summit.

As I rounded the now familiar lower switchback, before the trail-head at Kite Lake, I was awe struck. I was doing my beginning car count of the overflow parking when I saw something I hadn’t seen since I began stewarding here. There were no vehicles parked there!!!

As I neared the Fee Zone I could see that there were open parking spaces, another first! Typically when I arrive at 7:00 am I have to unload my stuff and then find a place to park. Several times I’ve had to double-park. Then when the driver of the other vehicle shows up I trade places with them. I won’t be having to do that today.

Yesterday the atmosphere at the trail-head was almost frantic; work crews gearing up for the trail restoration project, dogs off leash, hikers looking at the snow covered peaks wondering if today was the right day, well prepared hard-core hikers pushing past those that were hesitant to get to the goods. Today the air was calm- -almost mellow.

Everyone that stopped by the information table today didn’t seem to be in a hurry like yesterday. Not everyone ascending stopped, but those that did stop seemed to have a little more time today than the folks yesterday. There didn’t seem to be one great wave of hikers all leaving at once. Folks leaving this morning seemed to space themselves out more evenly.

As I did my end of day car count the number of cars had increased from when I arrived this morning. That too was odd, typically when I leave there are fewer cars than when I arrive. When recording the number I had to remember there weren’t any vehicles this morning at the lower switchbacks.

When I got home I added up the number of hikers I had recorded. I knew there weren’t as many as yesterday. Yesterday I had used three log sheets and today I hadn’t even completed two. I figured that there were probably 75 to 100 folks that I had recorded today. When I did the math I got 151 guests!

Who knew that 151 trail users over 5-hours would feel like a mellow pace, allowing people to have a more intimate experience with nature. The difference between yesterday and today was less than 50 users over almost the same amount of time. Imagine how much better the experience would be with even fewer users.

Realistically the numbers aren’t going to decrease. But after yesterday 151 almost seemed intimate.

Jim “J.J.” Jimenez
Alma, CO
10,400’