The last time we were in Colorado I was training and acclimating to the altitude in preparation for my trip to Everest Basecamp. Fast forward to a little over a year, and we were back in the charming mountain town of Crested Butte, visiting a friend and enjoying some winter R & R.
Several feet of snow blanketed the fields and mountains, making it the perfect winter playground. Our first day there, we did a short 0.6-mile loop on snowshoes to Meridian Lake. We parked at the end of Washington Gulch Road and strapped on our shoes. From the parking area, a sign to our left marked the trailhead to Long Lake. It’s officially called Meridian Lake, and that’s what you’ll see it called on Google Maps.
Someone had already broken the trail so we followed their tracks across a field of snow and up the slope of a small hill. As we switchbacked through the trees I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. From the top of the ridge, we could see the lake, long and narrow, completely frozen and blanketed with several inches of snow. On the other side, we could see an area where two small avalanches had occurred.
We followed the tracks to the middle of the lake, which afforded views up and down its length and the mountains in the distance. It was so serene. After a break for a few photos, we looped back to the top of the ridge and retraced our way down the hill. Rather than going back exactly the same way, we turned right and snowshoed down to a small fence and around the field, back to the parking lot.
While it was a short distance, the combination of altitude and hiking with snowshoes made it a good cardio workout. It was just the right amount of exertion to help us acclimate to the thinner air and get us ready for more snowshoeing adventures later in the week.