I've had trouble adjusting to Aspen. I'm not sure if it's the unfamiliarity of the mountain setting, the pressure of trying to formulate a personal, creative response to a landscape that is both spectacularly picturesque and somewhat alien, or something about finding myself alone, tired, and 3 or 4 days' drive from home.
Today - my day off before becoming the hotel painter in residence - things took a turn for the better. After my first night in the Hotel Aspen...a restless 4 hours...and a hotel breakfast, I decided to take a hike above the treeline. To be honest, the magnificent yellow aspen foliage I came here to see and maybe paint can be really beautiful, but splashes of bright yellow everywhere you turn can cause sensory overload pretty fast. I needed a break.
A recent acquaintance (and host for my 1st 2 days here), Gary, had recommended a hike to the suitably named Lost Man Lake, by way of Independence Creek and Independence Lake (pictured below). It's a 6 mile hike with 1200 feet of altitude gain - starting at 2 miles high.
Mostly I wanted to swim in an alpine lake, preferably with the sun shining. The clouds parted when I reached Independence Lake, so I jumped in then and there - which proved a good choice. As if to confirm that, a raven came soaring by a few moments later, croaking amiably. A bit further along the trail, as I gazed down at Lost Man Lake from a dividing ridge, I was surprised by the sudden presence of wind, snow and hail.
The barren, bracing, elemental quality of the mountaintop outing was a good tonic. As was making a good decision about which lake to swim in (a small matter, but such clarity has been rare lately; this whole trip seems muddled in complications and poor choices).
At any rate, the aspen trees looked prettier than before when I got back to lower altitudes:
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