Lumpy Ridge to Gem Lake

The last hike of our trip to Colorado was along lumpy ridge on the eastern border of Rocky Mountain National Park. All of the info I had read on this hike promised that it was unique to the rest of the jaunts the park had to offer. The morning of the hike we took down our tents, packed the car and headed for the trailhead. Since we were still quite sore from the Hallett peak hike the day before I was hoping this hike would be pretty easy. I was wrong, for the most part, as immediately after leaving the parking lot the trail climbed sharply uphill. Mark muttered a few choice words as we climbed up for the entire 2 mile trek to Gem Lake. As we struggled up the last leg of the hike there was a pretty rustic, dilapidated looking "outhouse", and I remember thinking I hope I never have to use that. A few hundred yards more of hiking and we came out onto the shore of Gem Lake, a bit smaller than I had imagined but still pretty scenic. The back wall of the lake was up against a strait rock face and the front of it was lined with a beach and some shade trees, which I took full advantage of by laying down and relaxing. I was assaulted by several chipmunks who liked my GoPro and after about an hour we stood up and hiked back down to the cars. A very pleasant end to a great trip.
I realize this is a short blog post, it's been a busy couple of weeks and to tell you the truth I haven't had much inspiration in the writing category as of late. My big trips for the year are all over and I'm starting to get the ball rolling on whats to come for next year. That being said I will leave you with the top five websites I've found helpful throughout the course of planning trips. Hopefully one or eighty of you will find something new you didn't know about and plan a trip for next year. 
Here goes: 
1. HomeAway - This site exists for the sole purpose of listing vacation rentals. In my experience you can find a nice house/apartment for cheaper than an average hotel room. And last time I checked a full house is better than one room with floral sheets and two identical pictures of boats over the bed. I rented an eight person house in Maine last year for five days over new years and it costed me less than $500.
2. RetailMeNot - This website has coupon codes for almost every major travel website. I've gotten anywhere from $5 to $30 off nightly hotel rentals alone just by coping a code and pasting it into the spot on hotels.com. Pretty lengthy process but definitely worth it. Check it the F out.
3. Priceline Express Deals - This feature on Priceline's website will save you up to %50 on a hotel that you may have been about to book for full price anyways. It allows you to choose the location and star rating of hotels and gives you a flat rate for that criteria. Now you can't choose the exact hotel, but you can almost always do some detective work based on the review rating and provided amenities and find out exactly what hotel you're getting before you book it. I've used this multiple times, earlier this year I got my Quebec City hotel at half the price.
4. Southwest - They have fare sales all the time and you get two checked bags for free each flight. That's ridiculously up to $80 extra with other airlines. They also almost always have free wifi TV onboard and their flights don't suck like oh, I don't know, piece of shit spirit airlines.
5. Enterprise - Most major cities have multiple locations near the airport, pick the cheapest one and take a cab from the terminal, you'll probably end up saving a chunk of cash on longer rentals. Sign up for their members card and you don't have to wait in line at pickup and your rentals earn you free days. Also they send out emails with 10-20% off on the reg.

Cheers!


Mileage: 3.6 Miles

Sun shine.

Crane Neck.

Perched!

Sup guys.

Centerfold.

Not mad about it.

Estes Park View.