Igloo Camping 3-1-2008

Wow, what an adventure! We borrowed an igloo in RMNP last weekend between Jewel and Black Lakes. We headed out late on Saturday afternoon. We wanted to be sure to keep warm so we totally overpacked. This is an advantage to having a husband that is an ultra-runner. He put all the gear on a sled and attached it to a climbing harness and pulled it three mile UPHILL to our destination. This could be a disadvantage, because if I had to carry all that stuff, we would have stayed home. I was huffing and puffing trying to keep up with him and the sled. Talk about embarrassing. We kept passing hikers who gave us strange looks, probably because Alan was wearing his short sleeved I conquered Bear Lake T-shirt. Anyway, the weather was nice and we pushed hard to beat sunset. We were having a little gear trouble. Because of all the twisting and turning we kept having to rearrange our stuff. Right after Jewel Lake we realized it was getting dark and we were missing a sleeping bag. So once again it was nice to have Alan be able to run back and get it at the outlet of Mills Lake. We had to carry the sled for a short distance and it fell out. We had the GPS coordinates for the igloo so when we were about 100' from it, Alan had to scout it out in the dark. Hiking in the dark was weird. The stars were so incredibly beautiful that night and the kids enjoyed that. They were pretty cranky by the time we were almost there-cold, hungry, whining. Oh the joy! Now when they saw the igloo they were pumped. Alan dug out the entrance and was the first one inside. Then, one by one we went in to find that we needed to do a little remodeling so we could sleep all five of us. A 9 foot diameter igloo should have been fine for us, but it was designed for two sleeping areas and a sit pit. So Hannah and Alan hauled snow for 45 minutes to fill it in. Rebecca and Elizabeth got into their sleeping bags and drank herbal tea while we all worked. It was pretty cramped once we all got inside. I was freaked out a little until I realized that it was a solid structure and wasn't going to cave in on me. We first made room for all the sleeping mats and bags. We then unpacked the food stuff and threw our gear in the entrance to block the wind. We cook EasyMac for supper and got ready for bed. No one wanted to used the facilities outside before bed. The wind was howling. Oh what a long night with the snoring, wiggling and rustling sleeping bags. We were pretty warm, but we didn't get our gear arranged so we could block the entrance better. Because the sun had shrunk the igloo slightly and flattened the top, at around 4:30 the condensation began to build up and drip on Alan and I. More later . . .