Meetup: Zero: Day 27 – Saturday 8/8/2020 – ZERO DAY – 1692.5 – clear, partially cloudy, sunny, hot. I woke late, but I didn’t have to hike today so it was OK. My tent site was in some trees about 0.1 miles above the pass. I packed up and was at the Jeep in the Berthoud Pass parking lot at 6:30 am. Justin was already awake. We had breakfast and drove to Second Creek. There we waited for Casey, Kyle, and Tam to arrive. They got there around 9:30 am for a 1 mile hike with an elevation gain of 800’. Little Tam, 5, was a trooper and climbed it with only one scraped knee. At the top even through there was a closed hut, there was a picnic table here so we sat and talked and ate snacks. The wind was gusty and we had to hold things down. After a while we hiked down and said our goodbyes. We might see them again at Tennessee Pass. They’ve rented a hut. After our hike Justin suggested we drive down into Winter Park CO. In town we had BBQ lunch. Then as a treat we stopped at Safeway grocery store and I bought and devoured a pint of Caramel Core ice cream. Having exposed me to enough COVID-19 we left town after getting gas and me downloading some audio books and podcasts. Back at the pass parking lot we sat, talked and watch the other people at the Pass. It looked like some of them were having a wedding there today. The backdrop of the Rocky Mountains is spectacular. Justin cooked breakfast tacos for dinner. Yum! My ZERO DAY was fun. Now I’ve got to go back to the trail tomorrow where I’ll be taking the Silverthorne alternative instead of the more difficult Grays-Torrey Peaks.
