Indian Peaks Wilderness - May 2002 - We decided to hike this trail in the Indian Peaks

Wilderness before they started charging parking fees for the summer, and before the crowds

hit.  Of course, it was already getting crowded at the trailhead, but when we got up on the trail,

we made it about 2 miles, and the snow was still really deep.  We crossed a creek, and the

snow became REALLY deep.  Of course, we left all the people behind at that point, but the

snow was REALLY deep, and we didn't have snowshoes.  We ended up sliding across the

snow on our backs just to get back across the creek!  Needless to say, we didn't make it to the

lake.  We did see some people doing some backcountry snowboarding and skiing.  That was

crazy.  The people were up on these massively tall and steep mountains...and they just skied

down them.  It scared me just watching them.  And looking at the map, I couldn't see any trails

near them, so they had to have hiked in a couple of miles just to get to the mountain.