New [Mexico] Adventures!: It's the end of the summer as we know it...

And we felt fiiiiiiiine. On September 21st we decided we wanted to do a little adventure seeking since our summer had pretty much been tame compared to last year (here, and here). We knew the weather was probably in our favor as well as the changing aspens in the area so we garnered the help of our friend Nate in order to "lead" us on our first backpacking adventure as a married couple. We decided to try a pretty well known hike (most popular hike this side of the Mississippi, or so rumor has it) and stuck close to home (yes we live in a gorgeous area, what can we say?). We started the hike at the Santa Fe Ski area with the intention of "bagging a few peaks" along the way. To start we decided just to forge our way straight up some of the runs (this is a blue...this is a black...) and as we summited after a couple hours the views were gorgeous. We climbed 3 peaks and definitely saw more in the distance we decided one day we would summit as well and then we spotted the lake we wanted to camp near. We bushwhacked our way down from the peak (I fell numerous times down this part, making it more of a slip-n-slide decent than actual bushwhacking, thankfully Ethan was nicely worried for me and kept asking if I was OK as I sent pebbles and other not so small rocks sliding past Jack and Nate and Ethan) and finally were able to set up camp down in the bowl formed by the lake and cirque. We found lots of dead wood on the ground and Jack built a nice fire to ward off the cold temps that night. Then we sat around talking around the fire and made dinner. Thankful for freeze dried dinners, just add water and a hot meal awaits. They were really good, too! Then it was time for bed. I tossed and turned all night long, going from sweating to freezing but Jack seemed to sleep really well and even snored some. At some point we had some sort of visitor through the camp we made because in the morning some poles Nate had specifically set up near the tent in order to see if any animals had come through had been knocked over by morning. Not sure what scoped us out but thankful we weren't that interesting to it. We made a nice breakfast and had some hot chocolate and then it was time to pack up and head back down the trail to go home. The hike out was really pretty and we met a ton of people on the trail. We were thankful we were the only ones camping up near the lake that night and that we got an early start to the morning seeing as how there were so many people headed up to the lake the next morning. The sites were pretty, the company pleasurable and over all we had a great time. Jack and I definitely are looking forward to do more backpacking in the future. It seems once you get past the "fear" of the first trip (do I have the right equipment, enough water, right clothes, etc) then it's more exciting thinking about the next trip! Until then...enjoy the pics (there are a lot. Click them to make them bigger if you wish).