Chicago Basin - A Picture Story

"Is it even legal for parents to torture their children?? I DON'T THINK SO!"

The deliberate thirty paces between me and Acacia was clearly not enough as I could still hear her complain.

"I am not impressed!"

Hmm... When Cayenne chimes in you know you might be pushing it.

Luckily it wasn't long before Nick noticed pea-sized wild strawberries along the way, and the girls were soon distracted from the seven mile uphill backpack into Chicago Basin. I had tried to explain that the walk was totally worth it, but the instant gratification of the strawberries did a better job of placating them than the idea of a delayed one. It made the hike rather long but picking the flavour-packed berries helped the girls forget they were supposed to be grumbling about how hard their lives are.

"I smell chanterelles..." was Nick's opinion of the situation, and even with one eye he was the first to spot the apricot-like mushrooms on our hike into the beautiful basin. (Heureusement les gens ici ont peur des champignons et ils les laissent partout sur le chemin...Good for us!)

We cut out half the walking to this remote paradise by taking the steam train from Durango to Needleton, where we disembarked in the middle of nowhere, slipped on our backpacks and crossed a suspension bridge which led us to the well worn trail into the bowl of mountains.

Our plan was to climb three 14ers (mountains at least 14,000 ft / 4,300 m high) in the Basin: Sunlight, Windom and Eolus, but when we arrived, we got an extra treat:

Mountain goats everywhere.

Acacia took this photo.

I love this shot.

(You can see here how Nick's right hand has not yet fully healed. The thumb and index finger knuckles are still swollen and painful.)

The following morning we woke up with the goats and climbed two of their mountains, Sunlight & Windom.

Sunlight Peak behind Cayenne's head (photo taken later in the day looking back).

 Climbing the west ridge because, according to Nicolas, the normal route is too boring.

Near the top of Sunlight Peak...

... and at the very top!

On our way to Windom Peak staying as high as we can because, according to my Nicolas, the normal route is too boring.

A picnic on Windom

Cayenne checking out the Twin Lakes, and up behind them Mount Eolus and North Eolus , probably thinking how happy she was we weren't climbing them until the next morning.

Back at camp, the sky put on a beautiful show.

We had to get up before the sun because after hiking we needed to catch the train back.
Cayenne was, again, not impressed...

... but then you get to watch the sun rise and the moon set, and that's just beautiful.

Nick agreed to lead us up the normal route to the summit of Eolus, but it soon became clear that was because this is what the regular way looked like:

We made it, but I was nervous about the descent.

Is it just me, or is it normal to have your heart in your mouth sometimes??

We had house guests when we got back. The goats wait for the humans to urinate somewhere near camp and then fight over who's going to get to lick it up. It's hard to get salt in the wild, and they learned quickly this was a sure source!

We packed up, hiked out...

... caught our ride, and brought our oppressed, tortured children back home.


(To see the photos in better detail, click on the picture.)