Sept 10, 2004, Friday Rabbit Ears Range 9100’, north 40° 5’, west 106° 20’

Sept 11, 2004, Saturday & Sunday Park Range 9000’, north 40°, west 106° 43’ Routt National Forest, Jackson County, Colorado

Left Friday morning about 9 AM. Took I-70 west to US-40 and took it over Berthoud Pass. The state is still doing construction on the east side of the pass. Went over Willow Creek pass and stopped at the old hunting place. There were a few hunters in there.

I used the opportunity to check the Routt National Forest map but discovered I didn’t have it. And, I could not recall the detailed directions to get to Arapaho Lakes. Including the county road number from Rand west. I drove about a mile past Rand looking for that road, but got sceered and turned around. I was so hosed up I took CR-27 east, which goes from Rand to Gould. I followed it about 10 minutes and decided this wasn’t the road toward Arapaho Lakes. I turned around and went back to Rand and followed CO-14 toward Walden. I figured I could go to Waldon and get a Routt NF map and then go to the lakes. But about 4 or 5 miles past Rand I came on CR-28. It was obvious that this was the road I had been looking for. I took it, without the NF map.

After about 10 miles CR-28 intersects with CR-11, which goes south to Seymour Reservoir and then to Arapaho Lakes. About 8 miles later I came onto Slack-Weiss Reservoir. I was slightly encouraged by the amount of water in the 30-acre lake, and in the smaller Ninegar Reservoir just east of Slack-Weiss. They were low, but not real low. I wanted to take a road just prior to these reservoirs that goes back into Two Ledge Reservoir, but I couldn’t find it. Without the map I was not sure exactly where it was. I kept on, past a Flat Lake, a very shallow 15-acre lake that was full, but nearly covered in moss. Bummer. But Flat Lake is probably too shallow to use a float tube on anyway, and I was hoping to do some fishing from the float tube.

I drove a few more miles and turned west, drove ½ mile on a 4WD road and camped near Finger Lake, or just up the irrigation stream from it. There were lots of cows in this open range area. Lots of cow shit too. Bummer. I set the tent up and ate an egg salad sandwich and a few goodies. After eating I drove back to Slack-Weiss, thinking I would look much closer for the road. I still couldn’t find it. I traveled a few miles further out on CR-11 and came upon FR-2507. I thought maybe this was the road so I followed it north. (It turns out this road is not even on the Routt NF map.) It has a few turnoffs on the right that “could” go to Two Ledge Reservoir, but I decided to come back later to see where they go.

I noticed a lot of hunters’ camps in the area, especially along CR-11 past Slack-Weiss. With that being a fact I did not want to walk around the woods much, for fear of Titan, and to keep from scaring any animals out of the area.

I returned to camp, cooked hot dogs and ate. It was getting a bit dark so I broke out the Spanish cards and tried to bone up on my Spanish. No apprendarso mucho. I decided that in the morning I would pack the tent see if I could find Two Ledge, one more time. I would then either go home, go to Wladen to get a map and find another place in the Routt, or find somewhere in the national forests for which I did have maps (Arapaho and Roosevelt, and White River). I drove up roads for a couple of hours and gave up. I took off toward Walden.

While in the Arapaho Lakes area I generally have visited Cliff Lake and Disappointment Lake. Cliff Lake is a 10 acre lake at the bottom of a steep, curvy, narrow 4WD road that starts by falling off the end of FR-996. The road stops and a foot path continues about a ½ mile past Cliff Lake in the trees to Disappointment Lake. Cliff Lake, at 9790’, is unimpressive, except for the 1500-foot high, half-mile long cliff that begins on the opposite side of the lake, and continues to the northeast. The lake is fairly shallow. But Disappointment Lake seems to have been ill-named. At least on first look. This single acre lake has no discernable inlet stream, but a steady flow in it’s outlet stream. The water is very clear and apparently very deep at the east end. A most peculiar little lake. The bonus is that if one waits long enough, one will see some of the biggest trout I have seen in the wild. Easily 24 inches long, and fat! They cruise the water at the east and north ends of the lake. These are probably the same trout that I tried to catch when Idelle, Candy and I camped there in the mid 80s. I used the float tube there in 2002 and one of the behemoths brushed my leg, but I never have caught one. I was not about to face more disappointment this time, so I didn’t even go down there.

In the mid eighties, from a canoe, I caught one of my nicest rainbows ever at Slack-Weiss. But that fish was dwarfed by the trout at Disappointment Lake. Back in those days mosquitoes were bigger than birds and more plentiful than pine needles. The old ‘77 Dodge van was the mode of tranport. This year the mosquitoes were replaced by cattle so I drove the big Silverado to Walden.

I stopped at the national forest office in Walden and bought a $6 Routt NF map. I sat in the truck outside the office and studied the map. Where could I go that I haven’t been to? I decided to go to the northeastern edge of Mt Zirkel Wilderness, specifically, in the Big Creek Lakes area. I decided against getting diesel in Walden, opting to get it on the way back. I had a bit over a half tank. From Walden I took CO-125 northwest to Cowdry and then CR-6W west out of Cowdry. The road is paved for about 8 miles and then turns into a gravel road where it meets CR-7 which goes south to Lake John. Following the gravel road north about 15 miles brings you into Wyoming. But at about mile 8 FR-609 goes west into the forest.

FR-609 and FR-660 makes a 20-mile loop through the forest, flanking Big Creek Lake about five miles off of CR-6W. I thought I would take the long loop and camp near Big Creek Lake. I drove into the Routt National Forest on FR-609. As the road climbs the mild slope it quickly turns into a slow goer. At the “top” of these hills the road is pocketed with mud holes. I was planning to find a place to camp in the woods on this hill, or go all the way to Big Creek Lake.

A couple of mudholes were scary enough that I had to get out and scout them out to see if I could get though. A sign at CR-6W and FR-609 talked about the road being closed because of high water at some place whose name I could not make out. After all these mudholes I thought I must have already had made it through in that flooded area.

After easily driving through a few particularly scary looking mud holes I found a nice place to set the tent near a brilliant gold stand of aspen. I had to do a make shift repair on one of the tent frame pieces that broke while I was setting it up. But, I got the tent up. I ate a sandwich and then explored around the area a bit. I imagined there were hunters were in this area too. I stayed out of the deep woods as much as possible. While I was in the aspen I heard a group of three ATVs come rattling up the road. Later while stickin’ with Titan a Ford Explorer pickup came through. They both came back about an hour later. This was good news because I knew they had came from the Big Creek Lakes area and were going back. That meant the road was passable. I had not been sure before that because I could not tell where the road closure was. After dinner Titan and I did some more stickin. Until dark. Then I sat around and sipped a beer before going into the tent to look at some more Spanish. The big Coleman lantern provided plenty of light.

In the morning I heard nobody before I got up, which was a late 8AM. I ate breakfast, cleaned up the dishes and myself, and packed the stuff into the truck. I would explore the area a bit and then make for Big Creek Lakes. The aspen were not in their prime viewing colors, but they were pretty spectacular in places. Including the area near camp. It was mostly cloudy this Sunday morning but some sun was shinning through. I waited until sun made the aspen glow and took a few pictures. With both the digital and the

Canon 35-mm. I also played with the aperture and time settings on the Canon. After awhile I decide that there were more clouds than sun and returned to the truck.

I continued southwest on FR-609, to FR-660, to the corner of the forest boundary, very near the North Fork of the North Platte River, then turned northeast on FR-660. Lodge pole pine share the mountains with the fall colored aspen. Sage brush and grass fill the areas where the trees are sparse. FR-660 was fairly easy going. I figured I must have past the closed area up on FR-609 up on the mountain top. But about 2½ miles from camp the road crosses a small stream in Pleasant Valley that had dammed up and made quite a lake, through the middle of which went the road. This made me wonder if I would have to go back over FR-609. It required some scouting to be sure. I put on some shorts and tennis shoes and found a path through which I could get the truck. I was worried about the depth of the water, but thought I could get through. I drove the truck through the “lake” without problem and continued toward Big Creek Lakes. Shortly after crossing the stream four ATVs came rattling by in the opposite direction. The rest of the drive on FR-660 was typical for a forest road. I would not have to go back over the mountain on FR-609. I arrived at Big Creek Lakes Camp Ground and cruised the area. The fee is $9 a night. The 500 acre lake has a boat ramp and maybe a hundred sites at the few camp ground loops. On the west side of the lake I drove up to Seven Lakes Trail Head and turned around. The trailhead was populated by at least a half dozen horse trailer rigs, plus some other vehicles. The trail goes into the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness but first passes the second Big Creek Lake, a smaller lake of about 125 acres, upstream a bit less than a mile on the trail. I wanted to use the float tube, but it was pretty windy and Big Creek Lake was covered with whitecaps. I did not want to walk a mile with the float tube to find out that the smaller of the two lakes was just as bad. The weather was turning more and more cloudy and windy.

I stopped and again studied the Routt National Forest map. I decided to try down on the south side of the Wilderness. Maybe try Aqua Fria Lake (10020’), or Teal Lake. So I drove back to CR-6W on FR-660, and then drove back to Cowdry and Walden. Not long after getting on CR-6W I saw a nice bull moose in the field to the west of the road. It was beginning to rain. I filled up with diesel in Walden, got a bag of ice, and hit CO-14, bound for Hebron. At Hebron I turned west on CR-24 and followed it for about 8 miles to Grizzly Creek Campground. There were more than a few hunters and other campers there. I turned right on FR-615 and continued to Tiago Lake (8845’, 30 acres) and Teal Lake (8812’, 50 acres). Both looked like nice lakes, but it was raining fairly hard. No float tube yet. I decided to set up a camp and fish when the rain let up. There are two nice lakes to fish from a float tube. Teal Lake looked very promising and Tiago Lake looked nearly as nice, but had some water lily activity at the south end.

I found a place to camp just above Taigo Lake, at it’s south end. But the tent, whose frame had broke while putting it up on FR-609 the evening before, did not cooperate. Since it was raining and the tent was getting more and more wet, I decided to call it a day and head for home. I packed the tent and left Tiago Lake about 5:30 PM.

Driving back toward CO-14 on CR-24 two deer jumped up the bank from the right side of the gravel road and ran across right in front of the truck. I was going slow and missed them, or they missed me. But the third deer jumped up onto the road an instant later and I hit it and knocked it down. But he rolled a bit, stumbled to his feet and bounded off over a fence and into the woods. I had stopped and watched the small deer and then got out to check the truck.

The collision had broken the plastic grill and I could hear hissing. I thought maybe the radiator had been damaged, but I couldn’t see or smell coolant. I decided it must be the air conditioner’s freon. The impact had knocked the big gold Chevy bow tie emblem off the grill. After checking a bit more I decided it was okay to drive, but I would have to keep a close watch on the engine temperature and stop occasionally and check it for leaks. I got back in and drove toward home. The deer was nowhere to be seen.

I watched the engine temperature closely as I drove back toward CO-14 and then to US-40. I stopped a few more times on the way home to check for coolant leaks from the radiator, but found none. It was still hissing when I arrived in Kremmling, 45 minutes later. But I could not see nor smell leaking coolant. I figured I was home free. I took CO-9 south past Green Mountain Reservoir to I-70 and home. No problems with the engine temperature, but the air conditioner was did not blow any cool air when I tested it. While moving the truck the next day to clean it I saw that the Service Engine Soon light was on. Bummer. I found the Routt National Forest map that I thought I had left at home, under the passenger seat. Bummer, I wasted six bucks.