Passes

We hiked to two big passes, one little pass, a mountain, and a long ridge.  It was a big day that got stopped in its tracks.  We started out descending down a beautiful valley.  A river flowed down it and combined with the snow melt left the ground very wet.  We had a few cold stream crossings too.  Then we climbed up to Jones pass which took a couple hours.  We followed a ridge and contoured around the mountain til we could descend again.  It was a beautiful morning but hazy.  After lunch we climbed up Mt Stanley.  Now that was a hard climb after Jones Pass.  We ha roughly 5 miles of ridge walking after the mountain and then descended to Berthoud pass.  This is where our walk came to a screeching halt.  It was only 4:30 and we'd hiked 19 miles already and had good momentum going.  But dark clouds were gathering and we weren't going to hike above tree line in bad weather.  Hwy 40 goes by the pass and there is a parking lot, informational signs and a warming hut with toilets.  Winter Park is 14 miles north and we were tempted to hitch into town but didn't.  We waited in the building hoping it would blow through but it just got worse.  So we cooked dinner and finally set up our tents in some trees out of sight.