Intermediate 4th of July Backpacking Adventure - Abyss Lake! 🇺🇸🎒

🇺🇸 4th of July Backpacking Adventure!
Hosted by Big Mountain Adventures Denver

🗓️ Trip Overview

AllTrails:

Abyss Lake via Abyss Lake Trail #602 on AllTrails
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/colorado/abyss-lake-via-abyss-lake-trail-602?sh=xf4ekk&utm_medium=trail_share&utm_source=alltrails_virality

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/share/18T65UE5NK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Trail Info: Abyss Trailhead, decent parking lot

🥾 Hike Details

Distance: ~17 miles total round-trip with exploration)
Elevation Gain: ~3,400 ft
Pace: ~2 mph
Difficulty: Moderate to hard – expect some steep sections
Scenery: Forested trails, alpine creeks, wildflowers, and sweeping mountain views
Conditions: Snow-free trail with water/creek access along the way

🏕️ Camping

We’ll be camping along or near the trail for 3 nights under the stars.

🌄 Come enjoy a beautiful high-country adventure with a friendly group of hikers. Great for anyone ready for a moderate challenge, big views, and mountain vibes!

🐾 Dog Friendly!
Leashed, well-behaved dogs who are trail-capable and friendly are welcome. Owners are fully responsible for their dogs.

🎒 Recommended Backpacking Gear

Backpack (45–65L recommended)
Tent (lightweight backpacking tent or shared)
Sleeping bag (rated to ~10°F or lower)
Sleeping pad
Trekking poles (helpful for the elevation gain)
Headlamp (with extra batteries)
Map or GPS (AllTrails app with offline maps is a plus)

🧥 Clothing

Moisture-wicking base layers
Insulating mid-layer (fleece or down jacket)
Rain jacket & rain pants (weather can change fast!)
Hiking pants / shorts
Wool or synthetic socks (2–3 pairs)
Hat & gloves (for cold nights)
Sun hat / Buff / bandana
Camp clothes (something dry and comfy to sleep in)
Extra underwear

👟 Footwear

Hiking boots or trail runners (broken in)
Camp shoes (light sandals or crocs)

🍴 Food & Water

Food for 3 days (meals, snacks, trail food)
Stove & fuel (shared OK—check with the group)
Lighter/matches
Mess kit (bowl, spoon, mug)
Bear-proof food storage (bear canister or Ursack)
Water filter/purifier
2–3 liters water capacity (hydration bladder + bottles)

🧼 Toiletries & Hygiene

Toilet paper & trowel (Leave No Trace)
Hand sanitizer
Toothbrush/toothpaste
Bug spray
Sunscreen
Lip balm with SPF
Small quick-dry towel
Wet wipes

🐾 If Bringing a Dog

Leash (required)
Dog food & bowl
Poop bags (pack it out)
Sleeping pad/blanket for dog
Plenty of water or purification option

🛠️ Optional but Recommended

First aid kit
Knife or multi-tool
Power bank
Notebook/pen
Camera or binoculars
Trash bag (pack out all waste)
Earplugs (for windy nights or snoring neighbors)

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FAQ & Rules for attending any Xplore N More overnight trip:
By signing up for any overnight Xplore N More trip you are agreeing and self-certifying that you are not a convicted sex offender, nor have you been convicted of a felony, or violent crime. If either of these are a point you wish to discuss with specifics, reach out to John Harper.
You are liable for any damage to housing, hotels, common area amenities at those places (such as hot tubs) by either you, or guests that you have invited. You are also responsible for damage to vehicles and equipment that you cause. If damage occurs that no one admits to, the cost will be shared among those in that lodging. Guests should be approved by housing coordinator and others in the lodging and should not be overnight.
If your actions or behaviors cause the group to be removed from lodging, you will be financially responsible for bearing the cost increases for any such move.
Our group maintains no liability for actions of any individuals, and these trips are attended at your own risk. Financial risk is also assumed by individual trip members when things happen outside of our control, such as if a house that the group has rented gets canceled by the owners, or flights canceled, etc. Honest mistakes happen from time to time, and as we are not an official business operating with any profit to trip organizers, attendees also assume risk due to honest mistakes of organizers.
Pets are typically not allowed on overnight trips. Certain times, people may contact hotels or property owners but then roommates would also need to approve, property owners would need to approve, and all liability relating to the pet would fall on the pet owner, and not the trip coordinator.

People under the age of 21 are generally not permitted on trips as alcohol is often consumed on these trips. For specific exceptions of children accompanying their parents on a trip/house, it can be discussed with the house coordinator and/or trip organizer. Members/attendees expect to be surrounded by adults on these trips.

RENTAL CARS:

For splitting rental cars, the points are the same as with housing - that you are liable for any damage you cause which ends up being an expense. Rental cars and fuel expenses are usually split up at the end of a trip, and overall are usually split evenly with those who agreed to be a part of the rental car before the trip. In an ideal world, flights are coordinated with others, people are in the same rental cars for the duration of the trip. If that is the plan going into the trip, then it should be paid that way. We all need to keep in mind that the alternative to carpools is to have tour operator organized bus trips where the costs are often double (for the entire trip), so we should not fret over smaller amounts of money, and we should not be taking advantage of each other, we should not be profiting off of each other.

If the goal is for one person to be in multiple cars (such as instances where flight times work better for different carpools to and from the destination airport), then ideally this is discussed ahead of time, and some sort of a proportion for that part of the trip may be paid to each driver (think about what an Uber would cost for specific legs of a trip to estimate proportions) and split based on number of people in the car for different legs of the trip.. Remember that the goal is to be much less expensive than taxis/ubers/shuttles. If someone drops out of a trip last minute (within the last two weeks as an estimate), they should still pay their share of the rental car, but not the gas or tolls. A reasonable effort by the original driver should be made to see if carpools can be adjusted to fill cars in other ways as well. If you do not promptly pay your fair share, which you agreed to, after a trip, you will risk not being allowed on future trips.
Food and Alcohol:
This is not usually a part of XNM and/or house coordinator’s responsibility. Going over an itemized receipt, and figuring out who had two tablespoons of peanut butter and who ate an extra slice of bread at breakfast gets tricky. House alcohol expenses can be as well etc. The easiest approach (but often less “fun”) is that everyone brings/buys their own food, and sometimes even labeling can be helpful to avoid mixups if multiple people want to purchase food together but a few others do not. Splitwise can be a very helpful app/tool, but getting everyone to use it can be a struggle. If you are planning to partake in food sharing, make sure the food purchasing people know that you are planning on that, and if you are doing food shopping, make sure AHEAD OF TIME, that you know who is participating in the purchase of what food. Often a “meal signup” sheet may be helpful, but again, splitting house food up to figure out exactly what ingredients go into each meal may be tricky.

Politeness:
Be courteous to your housemates to avoid disturbing their sleep when appropriate… Especially if there is an open loft (often above a kitchen), or common area sleeping that has been agreed to as a part of the bedding, be extra courteous and stay extremely quiet between approximate hours of at least 11PM to 6:30AM at minimum. Any guests should be gone during those hours as well.

FAQ:

Question: How do I secure my spot on a trip?
Answer: If the trip has spots available, make a deposit payment to secure your spot.

Question: How do I tell if a trip is full or has spots open since Meetup can be confusing?
Answer: If in doubt, ask the event host/trip coordinator…. Meetup can be tricky due to their interface limitations and different event hosts may handle this differently for different trips… As an example, often trip coordinators may set the attendee limit to “1 person” and then to manually move everyone from the “waitlist” to “attending” once they have paid the deposit. The downside is that Meetup will then ALWAYS SHOW AS THE EVENT IS FULL. The other option is to set the attendee limit much higher and it will then show as open, but it can be tricky for larger trips to figure out who is actually paid and attending to set limits since not everyone has a Meetup account or actually RSVPs for trips on Meetup.