Nate and I were itching to get out into the mountains overnight. The forecast didn't look great for Saturday, but we thought we could hike in a few miles Friday after work, camp overnight, and catch a morning window to meander over some summits before hiking out and beating the rain. Not wanting to pay for or use valuable overnight permit days, we decided the Never Summer Wilderness would be a good place for our short overnight adventure.

The Never Summer Wilderness encompasses a total of 21,090 acres and shares its eastern boundary with Rocky Mountain National Park. The wilderness includes diverse landscapes from forested ridges to steep tundra ranging in elevation from 8,900 to 12,520 feet. True to its name, the Never Summer Wilderness receives large amounts of rain and snow and provides water to three major rivers: the Colorado, the North Platte, and the Cache la Poudre. The Never Summer Wilderness has multiple trails that lead up gulches, through passes, over summits, and traverse portions of the Continental Divide.

We left Friday after work and drove over Trail Ridge Road. It was quite foggy and wet on the east side, but as we crossed over the Continental Divide, we drove out of the fog and were treated to a beautiful mountain vista on the west side. Just past the town of Grand Lake, we turned west onto a dirt road and drove to the North Supply Trailhead. We hiked a few miles up the trail (the hike was pretty interesting, since this area was burned in the 2020 East Troublesome Fire that raged through Rocky Mountain National Park), and found a nice campsite right on the crest Blue Ridge. We enjoyed a pleasant evening, happy to not be under the dark clouds that covered RMNP to the east. The plan for Saturday was to capture a morning weather window (rain was forecasted for Saturday afternoon) and do a 9-mile loop over Cascade and Ruby Mountains to Bowen Pass, then down to Bowen Lake and then back up to Blue Ridge where our camp was. But we woke up in a cold cloud and low visibility. This did not bode well for our traverse plans. Darn it. But I was set on getting to the top of something, and Cascade Mountain 2.5 miles from our camp seemed like an appropo target for a very North-Cascades-like day. Nate wasn't as inspired. So I headed out alone. Needless to say I didn't get any views but I got to the summit. But this was better than nothing—some extra exercise and the requisite objective to spin a trip report! I hustled back to camp, and we quickly packed up and hiked out (thanks Nate for pre-packing my sleeping stuff to make exiting camp go even faster). We got back to the car just as the rain began to fall out of the sky. We stopped in Grand Lake so Nate could get a delicious-looking elk burger at Sagebrush BBQ & Grill, after which we drove back to Estes Park over the always stunning Trail Ridge Road.

Below is a trip report for our short overnight + summit (Steph) + burger (Nate) adventure. Enjoy!