IN THE COLORS
Some
years ago a work assignment in Salt Lake City gave me the opportunity to hike
out west at the beginning of October. I
spent that trip in southwestern Utah.
While I was there, I was blown away by the spectacular fall colors. It seemed as though every mountain was
covered in aspen groves, and all of them were a brilliant gold. Ever since, I’ve been itching to get back out
there at the peak of fall foliage. A
later trip to Utah had been in mid-October, which was a bit too late. That was followed by a trip to Utah and
Colorado in mid-September, which had been just a little early.
This
year for our vacation Christy and I took a different approach. We abandoned our usual month-long
adventure. Instead, we took only two
weeks in June to visit southwestern Utah and the Grand Canyon. I booked my other two weeks of vacation over
the last half of September. My plan was
to do some backpacking in the Colorado Rockies.
I was pretty confident that I would catch the peak of fall color during
parts of the trip. I knew that the
beginning of the trip would probably be early, but figured that prime time
would occur during the heart of my backpacking trip.
Unfortunately,
because Christy is a teacher, she couldn’t join me. Originally I thought it might be a solo
trip. I wasn’t terribly excited about
that prospect. I don’t mind going solo,
but I definitely prefer companionship.
Happily,
two friends decided to join me. Bob J is
retired, and he eventually talked his wife into letting him go. J Bob managed to scrape together enough
vacation to come along, too.
Our
plan was to do an 8-day backpacking trip in the Weminuche
Wilderness in southwestern Colorado.
However, because of the high elevations, we knew it would be necessary
to spend several days acclimating to the altitude first. We would spend several days car camping and dayhiking before starting our backpacking trip at the end
of the first week.
Doing
the trip in late September had several other advantages. By then, the mosquitoes would be long
gone. The summer crowds would disappear,
too, promising more solitude. September
is also elk mating season. Hearing the
mating call of a bull elk in rut from a dark tent is an unforgettable
experience. Finally, the chance of afternoon
thunderstorms would diminish. From
mid-July to mid-September, afternoon thunderstorms are nearly a daily
occurrence in southwestern Colorado.
On
the other hand, the chance of getting snow in late September is fairly
high. A full-blown blizzard would be
unlikely, though certainly not outside of the realm of possibility. But the chance of snow showers seemed pretty
likely. We packed for our trip with this
possibility in mind.
ELK SONG
The
worst part of these trips is the packing.
First, it requires a lot of work, from planning what to take to the
traditional weighing of the suitcase (which can’t weigh more than 50 pounds
without incurring an extra fee). I
managed to get through the process on Friday evening with a minimal amount of
misery, with one exception. I couldn’t
find my favorite pair of hiking pants.
I’d packed two pair for dayhiking, but had
intended to reserve my favorite pair for the backpacking trip. Eventually I gave up and went to bed. It wasn’t until I took my pants off to crawl
under the covers that I realized that I was wearing them.
Senile at 40. What a tragedy.
Bob
J drove down from Statesville on Saturday morning. We met at my house and took a taxi to the
airport. The taxi was late, but the
airport wasn’t crowded, so we were still plenty early. We met J Bob there, as he had been dropped
off by his wife. In fact, his wife had
already made two trips to the airport that morning. When she dropped him off initially he had
left his camera (!) in the car. Luckily
she saw it before she’d gone very far.
She drove back to the airport to deliver it to him.
We
had breakfast at Chili’s before boarding our flight to Denver. The flight was smooth, and we picked up our
car at Dollar Rent-A-Car. I rarely rent
from Dollar, but I’d found a great deal on a full-sized car. The price had been too good to pass up.
We
had a nice lunch at a Wich Wich
in Westminster. Then we picked up stove
fuel and supplies at REI and groceries at Target. Things were going remarkably well – surely
the trip wouldn’t continue to be this smooth?
Things
started going downhill at Target. First
I spilled J Bob’s soda all over the back seat of the car. Then I noticed that the air pressure in one
of our tires looked low. We found a
Firestone place and had them check it out.
Apparently someone had patched a hole in the sidewall of the tire, and
the patch had failed. Attempting to
patch a sidewall is a no-no, but we didn’t know if the culprit had been Dollar
or one of their customers. I bought a new
tire for $200(!), which I eventually got reimbursed for. Unfortunately the whole episode cost us a
couple of hours on a beautiful day that could have been better spent pretty
much anywhere else.
While
we were at Firestone, J Bob realized that his brand-new gore tex rain gear was missing. He searched his baggage and the car multiple
times, but it didn’t turn up. We
contemplated numerous scenarios. He knew
he had packed it. He had re-arranged
some of his gear at Dollar, and thought it might’ve fallen out of his duffel
bag there. However, a phone call to them
was fruitless. Could it have fallen out
at the airport? We eventually came to
the conclusion that it had been stolen.
It had been in his checked luggage, which was unlocked. The rainsuit was
brand new, and still had its tags, making it easy to sell.
This
was a problem. Backpacking in the
Rockies in late September without adequate rain gear was simply not an
option. J Bob ended up spending parts of
the next several days shopping for a replacement. He eventually found a jacket and pants, but
they weren’t nearly the same quality as the set he had lost.
ELK SONG
We
eventually got our tire fixed and headed west.
First on our agenda was Rocky Mountain National Park. We had reservations for two nights at the Moraine
Park Campground. We drove to the
campground and set up, passing herds of elk along the way. While we were setting up, we were treated to
nearly constant bugling of the elk in the meadows surrounding the
campground. The elk mating call is an
incredible sound. The first time I heard
an elk bugle it made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. We heard lots of bugling throughout the trip,
but I never grew tired of their song.
On
the way through Estes Park we stopped at a liquor store to pick up some Moose
Drool. Moose Drool is one of my all-time
favorite beers, but currently it is only sold in the western and mid-western
states. While we were there, we ran into Billy, one of Bob J’s friends. Billy is a volunteer ranger at Rocky Mountain
National Park. He gave us some helpful
tips about the hike we’d planned for the next day to Sky Pond. The most helpful is that we needed to arrive
early. The Bear Lake Trailhead typically
fills up during the weekends. There is
no overflow parking, so once the lot is full it is necessary to take a shuttle
bus from the Visitor’s Center.
Complicating matters further, Bear Lake Road is currently under
construction, and it is closed to private vehicles from 9am to 4pm.
Originally
I planned to do a short leg-stretcher of a hike on Saturday evening. However, the flat tire incident killed
that. We had dinner at the campground
and went to bed early, exhausted from a long day of traveling.
SKY
We
got up early on Sunday. I made breakfast
and coffee while the Bobs tried to get organized for our hike. This was an ongoing challenge during the
first half of the trip. We had a
full-sized rental car, but it still wasn’t really big enough for 3 people and
all of our gear. We spent entirely too
much time searching for things in that car.
We
left camp a bit after 7 and arrived at the Bear Lake Trailhead at 8. The parking lot was only half full, so we
were plenty early. We started our hike
on the trail to Alberta Falls. Although
the trail is mostly forested, we were treated to some nice views along the
way. The aspens had already begun to
turn, which was a surprise, as I wasn’t expecting to see much color early in
the trip. In some areas, particularly at
the higher elevations, the foliage was already spectacular.
One
of the best areas was right at Alberta Falls.
Alberta Falls is an impressive cascade through a steep, narrow
gorge. It was too sunny for great
photos, but that didn’t stop us from trying.
From there we continued on, climbing to a junction, and a decision
point. From here, we could continue
ahead to Mills Lake, or we could turn right for Loch Vale, the Lake of Glass,
and Sky Pond.
I
had actually been to Mills Lake and Loch Vale once before. That trip had been in March, and most of the
hike had been on snowshoes. Needless to
say, everything looked completely different in September. Although Mills Lake is a lovely destination,
we took the trail towards Loch Vale and beyond.
A
stout climb on a busy trail brought us to Loch Vale, where we took a lengthy
break.
There
was some confusion here. I explored
around the lake taking photos, before stopping along the far shore to wait for
the Bobs. What I didn’t realize is that
the Bobs had already passed by, thinking that I had left them behind. Ultimately, they were the ones that left me
behind. I didn’t realize that though
until I’d waited for a while, and then hiked back to our break spot. When I didn’t find them I came to the
conclusion that they had gone ahead.
A
bit farther up the trail I stopped in a meadow to take a photo. When I put my camera away, the lens cap
popped off. I found the cap, but failed
to realize that my polarizing filter had also fallen off. I searched for it later, without luck. This was aggravating. I’d brought a spare, but losing one on the
first day meant having no margin for error through the rest of the trip. I considered buying a replacement in Estes
Park, but I wasn’t too keen on paying $40 for one, considering that they cost
about $3 on EBay.
Eventually
the trail became steep. I scrambled up
boulders adjacent to a waterfall. I also
spotted the first Marmot of the trip along here. The difficult scramble ended at the shore of
a lovely alpine tarn at treeline. I found the Bobs waiting there for me,
soaking in the sunshine and the view.
There
was more confusion here. Bob J thought
we were at Lake of Glass, but the numerous other hikers in the area were
convinced it was Sky Pond. Somehow, they
managed to convince me. We’d passed
another small lake in the woods beyond Loch Vale, which I mistook for Lake of
Glass. This was pretty inexcusable, as a
brief glance at the map in my pocket would’ve cleared up the confusion. I’m going to chalk it up to the effect of
altitude on our first day at a high elevation.
Apparently the lack of oxygen had scrambled by brains.
Since
we thought we were at Sky Pond, there was no need to hike any further. I still had energy though, so I decided to
walk to the far end of the lake for photos.
When I got there, I found an obvious trail continuing up the
valley. Curious, I decided to follow
it. I passed a lovely cascade, and
climbed gently through colorful shrubbery to the foot of another lake. Sky Pond.
Oops.
Loch
Vale and Lake of Glass are beautiful, but Sky Pond is even more
spectacular. The alpine tarn is
surrounded by sheer rock walls on nearly every side. I took a few photos, but didn’t linger
long. I was feeling guilty that the Bobs
were missing out on it. I hurried back
and dropped the news. J Bob seemed
content where he was, but Bob J was annoyed that he had come up short. I encouraged them to go up there, as it is
probably only a ˝ mile of easy hiking.
They declined though, as we still had a long hike back.
We
backtracked to Loch Vale. However, from
there we took a different route back to Bear Lake. We took a loop trail over to Haihaya Lake. This
was a great choice, as it provided some nice variety from the route we’d taken
that morning. It also yielded the best
view of the hike. An overlook provided a
dramatic view of Longs Peak, perfectly framed by golden aspens. Needless to say we stopped there before
resuming the hike.
Haihaya Lake was pleasant, but it’s most
intriguing features were the massive boulders and gnarled ancient pines
surrounding it. From there we enjoyed
more views of the lake-speckled forest below.
We eventually descended to those lakes, passing Dream Lake and Nymph
Lake. Finally I made a brief side trip
up to Bear Lake. It was worth visiting
for the fine fall colors, but I didn’t linger long, as the area was swarming
with tourists.
We
drove into Estes Park, and met Bob’s friend Billy for dinner at Mama
Rosa’s. The meal was excellent, and the
wine (Rodney Strong Merlot) was even better.
Billy was great company. He
regaled us with all kinds of stories during his time as a ranger in the park.
My
favorite was about the Park’s moose. He
was working at Bear Lake one day when an older woman stopped by. She was as happy as a lark. She was delighted because she had encountered
a young man carrying a giant mattress on his back while she was hiking. She asked him why he was carrying the mattress. The young man explained that many of the
moose in the park had severe gingivitis.
He was part of a team that tracked down the moose. When they found one, they administered a
tranquilizer. The mattress was used so
that the moose wouldn’t fall on the ground.
Once the moose was sedated, he would floss its teeth. The woman was thrilled that this young man
and the Park Service cared so much about the dental health of moose.
We
returned to camp after dark. We enjoyed
some more elk song before retiring for the evening. We’d be breaking camp the next morning, but
planned one more hike in the park before driving west.
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