Hut Trip to Ken's Cabin

Our Hut Trip this year was awesome. Last year it was just Landon, Dad and I and we went to the 10th Mountain Hut. This year, Nell came along and we were able to go to a 3 person cabin, so we got the whole thing to ourselves!! (last year we shared the cabin with 3 other groups - one with young kids, and one, a group of teenagers - not much sleep on either end!)

We drove to the trail head just 30 minutes away from my parents' cabin. It was awesome, the convenience of this place. The hut is usually accessed by the opposite side of the mountain (the Breckenridge side), so we had the 5 mile trail COMPLETELY to ourselves all the way in and all the way out. That was awesome.

the family. Nell's first backpacking trip and her first hut trip!

There was a fairly long (1-2 miles?) of flat trail that meandered through the woods. It was pretty beautiful. On our way out, Landon and I saw lots and lots of animal prints on this trail. It's pretty neat to use a trail that the forest creatures have been using.

crossing the creek

stopping half way for lunch and blister control

Landon got this picture of Dad making his way to the cabin after a mile of gradual up hill. The building in the distance belongs to the forest service.

A picture of Ken's cabin the next morning before our hike out. Pretty cute, huh?

This is just a one room cabin with a sink (no plumbing), an iron stove and 2 beds, and a table. It was very cozy. Landon and Dad woke up periodically throughout the night to stoke the stove. We were pretty warm in there! This cabin was built in 1860-something (i think) by the 10th mountain division of the military. I couldn't believe that we were staying in a cabin that existed before Colorado even received its statehood. Pretty awesome. And not too drafty!

These are pictures Landon took of the water-making process. We go outside with our avalanche shovel (and me with my down booties) and shovel snow into the snow-only trash can until it is at the top.

then shovel the snow into the buckets that are resting on top of the blazing stove. Snow melts into water, then we use the water for cooking (we cook AWESOME meals on hut trips because they have burners and pans in the cabins. We had eggs benedict for breakfast, and chicken marsala with sauteed vegetables and wine for dinner), dishes, and we filter it into our bottles for drinking and pack it for our hike out.

Then we skied out. Landon and I took the same trail back because it was partly downhill and he was in a telemark outfit and i was using my Alpine Touring gear. Dad and Nell were on cross country skies so they took the dirt road back down, which was 3 miles longer, snow packed,  and closed to traffic during the winter. Hills are much trickier on cross country skies. Landon and I, however, had a blast on the downhill!