Friday 8-30-24 Hiking Turquoise Lake and Rift Trails, Motorcycle Ride & More

 

Hiking with friends

 

We woke up to 34 degrees. When Larry got up he turned on the heater to get the chill out of the Minnie. He pulled the curtain that divides the kitchen from the living area closed so the heater didn't have try to heat the kitchen area. I got up about an hour later it was still nippy but comfortable. I made pancakes for breakfast. While making breakfast I kept the curtain and the stove top kept me warm enough.

After breakfast we went on a 4.25 mile hike. We picked up the Turquoise Lake Trail at the overflow camping. We hiked the Lake Trail for a mile and picked up Rift Loop Trail (2 miles). The lake trail to us along Turquoise Lake shores through the forest to rift trailhead. We took rift trail up a hill and through the forest. As we hiked rift trail we hiked in the trees and out in the open. The terrain was a little rocky, we hiked over rocks and roots in the trail. The trails were very well used and maintained. As we hiked we saw a few bicyclists. As hiked the lake trail back to the Minnie people were starting to get going, it was about 10:00 am. We saw people hiking the trails, people on stand-up paddle boards, people fishing on the banks or on their boats, dogs swimming in Turquoise Lake and masters throwing sticks for them to retrieve and people just enjoying the lake. The lake was very flat. We said good morning to everyone we passed and they greeted us back. Everyone was thrilled to be here and had big smiles on their faces. The hike was moderate/easy and beautiful. We didn't see any wildlife but we had a super hike.

 

Scenery we saw as we hiked Rift Trail

 

Enjoying Turquoise Lake

 

After our hike we unloaded the motorcycle and went to Leadville Visitor Center. It's a small visitor center, the lady who greeted us was very friendly and helpful. It told the history of Leadville and they had menus of the local restaurants on display on a table. We looked at them and they were responsible priced but we decided we would eat at the Minnie. Then we went back to the Minnie to have lunch.

We loaded the motorcycle back on it's carrier, strapped it down and covered it. Later on we finished strapping the cover on because we're leaving in the morning. We decided to leave a couple of days early. We want to drive and camp along the Beartooth Hwy in Montana but the campgrounds close 9/8/24, so if we want to do that we need to leave tomorrow. 

Larry spent the evening planning our route. He also started preparing for the Beartooth area. There is no cell service along the entire Beartooth Hwy. He downloaded some trail maps on the phone and figured out what campgrounds have hiking. He made sure those campgrounds were open until the 8th. 

The refrigerator is still being temperamental. We had to run the generator for a bit to get the refrigerator to lite. While the generator was running we heated up a can of soup in the microwave for lunch. After turning off the generator the refrigerator lit on propane and ran great.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing with a book. I continued reading  The Invention of Wings. 

After dinner I walked around the campground to finish getting my steps for a half hour. I ended up doing 18,000 steps, which put me in 1st place in my group. We had a great day.