August 17 - 20, 2006, Thursday - Sunday Rawah Lakes 10728’, north 40° 41’ 39”, west 105° 57’ 05” 8.0 miles, 2568’ (to Rawah Lake No 2) Rawah Wilderness, Roosevelt National Forest, Larimer County, Colorado This was the third time I had been to Rawah Lakes. Once was in June 2004 and we were turned back by snow fields on the trail and camped at Rawah Bog. Phil had hiked up that time too. The second time was early in August the same year. On that second trip I camped just west of Rawah Lake #1. This year Phil, Titan and I set out on a four-day escape from civilization. We started hiking at 10 am. The trail is in the shade virtually all the way to tree line. It was cool, especially relative to the city, where it was in the 90s. But the hike was not a cool stroll in the mountains. Except where it crosses the North Fork of Rawah Creek the trail goes up. Rawah Trail (Forest Service Trail (FS) 961) ascends 2100 feet in seven miles to the junction of FS 968, or Camp Lake Trail. I had planned to camp at Big Rainbow Lake, which is another half a mile from that junction, but I did not pay enough attention to the map and went to the right, and we ended up at Rawah Lake #1, about three quarters of a mile from the junction. I did not even pay enough attention to my memory of Rawah Lake #1 and we camped close to the outlet of what I knew was not Big Rainbow Lake, but was not sure which lake it was. It didn’t matter. The hike up was a tough four hours and we were tired … more than glad to camp at this beautiful place. A couple of fellows who had started the hike about the same time as us were taking a break at the Lost Lake Trail junction, at about 5.5 miles, adjacent to Rawah Bog. They had passed us about a mile earlier. We walked to the far end of the bog and took a break and ate some jerky and trail mix. We were surprised how much we liked the Indulgent Trail Mix 1. Once we found a good campsite Phil set up the tent and sleeping gear and I set up a tarp for a cooking area. Titan combed the area for a good stick. We got some water from the creek and at about 2:30 p.m. we all went in the tent; Titan and I took a nap and Phil read. I woke up about 4:30 p.m. Phil was still reading. I went outside with Titan and threw a stick for a bit. It had turned cold. I had to put on long pants, a long shirt, and later a sweatshirt! Soon I was gathering wood for a fire. Phil got up and made a rock fire ring. We had set camp in what evidently had been a popular campsite. We were on top of a small hill just north of where Rawah Creek flows out of Lake #1. A couple hundred feet to the southeast was the trail. A couple hundred feet further was the outlet of the lake. To the northwest was forest, full of spruce and fir but wit relatively sparse ground cover. To the northeast was a nearly bare slope, except for some young spruce trees. While I was collecting wood I found a notification sign that the area was closed to activity for re- vegetation. The sign had fallen down and had been propped up again with a pile of rocks. I thought we would have to move, but I reasoned that we were above that closed area by quite a bit. To the South west of camp was a shallow valley of grass and kinnikinik. On the other side dense forest took over the hillside. Just where the forest began on the other side of the shallow valley, about 100 feet, was a downed tree. Perfect for a target. I set it up and pulled the .22 out of the tent. Phil was up in moments. I took a few shots and found out that I can no longer focus on the open sights. Pretty discouraging, and more importantly pretty hard to hit the bullseye. But Phil did good, tearing up the center of the target. Fifty rounds later we stopped. We figured all that noise would scare away any animals in the area. We had seen no people or signs of them up here. As I was picking up the empty shells I noticed another re-veggie sign. The area where we were shooting was being re-vegetated too! We would have to move for sure now. But it was late and we could not get moved before dark. We would move in the morning.

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1 Shortly we were under the red tarp heating water for tea and for the Chicken & Rice 2 dehydrated dinner. We also had some potato cups, Phil had a garlic flavored potato cup and I had a vegetable potato cup. It was all pretty good. The sun had set behind trees on this rolling high country plateau and dusk was setting in. Titan took to barking with a steady eye to the bare slope to the northeast. After telling him to be quite I noticed the moose he was barking at, not even 50 feet away, strolling across the slope toward the creek. The big bull stopped and looked at us a moment and then resumed his casual stroll. By then Phil was checking it out too. Titan had calmed down but still had a keen dog-like interest in the big brute. The bull had moved across Rawah Trail, through the creek, and into the brush and evergreens on the far side. While we were watching him a big owl glided into an evergreen tree on the other side of the creek. We watched the bull and owl for about ten minutes and then returned to camp to cleanup for the evening. We made a campfire and roasted s’mores. Relative to the early evening, the temperature had warmed up considerably. The sky was mostly clear and dark with no moon, rendering a great display of stars for us. Later the fire burned out and in cool weather we retired, about 9:30 or 10 p.m. Unlike a few weeks earlier and a couple of thousand feet lower at Encampment River, it was cold and it felt good to completely cover up with the sleeping bag. Titan slept curled up between Phil and I. I woke up before Titan, for maybe the first time ever, but still late, probably about 8:30 am. I got up and heated water for coffee and gave Titan some food. After coffee I walked up the trail to the next lake. I was pretty sure we weren’t camped at Big Rainbow Lake, but I thought I would verify that and walk to what would be Upper Sandbar Lake, if this were Big Rainbow Lake. In 10 minutes I was at the next lake. It was not Upper Sandbar Lake. I thought it was probably Rawah Lake #2. I could not be sure how I missed the “tee” in the trail that went south to Big Rainbow and west to Rawah Lakes. I remembered the sign pointing the way of Camp Lake Trail, but I couldn’t quite put it together. It didn’t matter. We had to move from the re-vegetated areas near where we had camped. I checked out a few camp sites at this new lake, and found one that was pretty nice; a splendid view of the lake through the tress, and an easy walk to the creek to get water. I walked back to camp at #1. When I got back I rousted Phil and we had the 6 eggs we had packed in. Mixed with bits of beef jerky the breakfast was excellent and a quart of Tang topped it off nicely. After we ate and cleaned up we packed the tent and tarps, re-naturalized our campsite, and hiked to Rawah Lake #2 and across the outlet creek on a logjam to our new camp. We quickly set up again and well before noon we were doing some serious nothing. We decided to climb up to the hill just northeast of the lake. The hill rises 400’ above the lake, peaking at 11145’. We would be able to get a good view of the area from either part way up, or for sure, from the top. Within a half an hour we had packed some food and the camera and were on the rocky top. From that vantagepoint, and with the map, compass and binoculars we could plainly identify most of the lakes on the Rawah Lakes plateau. We verified we were at Rawah Lake #2. We had slept at Rawah Lake #1. Big Rainbow Lake was on the other side of a densely forested hill to the west. I pointed out to Phil where Rawah Lake #4 was at, but because it’s water level was 300 feet higher than where we were standing we could not see it. We ate some jerky and drank some water, took in the panorama and generally lazed around awhile. We decided to take the northern route to Rawah Lake #3. A lot of scrub fir and spruce covered the rocky peak, but the peak is basically above timberline. Most of the terrain around Rawah Lake #3 (10873’) is above timberline. One area on the eastside of the lake is forested

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2 by a stand of evergreens. Otherwise the lake is surrounded by rock, scrub evergreen, dark green brush, and lots of grass; typical alpine vegetation We walked down a shallow valley carpeted with lush green alpine grasses and colorful flowers. In ten or fifteen minutes we were throwing a stick in the water for Titan. I walked up the bank a bit to compose an award-winning picture with some of the wildflowers and the lake. That is when I saw the bull and cow munching on the grass a hundred yards or so to the southeast. I quickly walked back toward the water and called Phil. He and Titan came over and we set about watching the moose for five or ten minutes, and trying to position ourselves to get the perfect picture. Of course, moose are camera shy and they both did their best to prevent that perfect shot. The big bull was more camera shy than the cow, which figures because I wanted the shot of him the most. I never got that award-winning shot of the moose or the landscape, but Phil, Titan and I had a good time watching the pair. Almost a perfect scenario, big moose on the wildflower endowed banks of a timberline lake in Colorado; and no other people. Instead of chasing the moose all afternoon and maybe getting that award-winning shot, or maybe getting attacked, I put the camera away and we walked up the west side of the lake to Rawah Trail. We were satisfied for the opportunity to watch some relatively new wildlife type for the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. Moose were generally unknown in Colorado until they were introduced by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Twelve were translocated from the Jackson, Wyoming area to Jackson County, Colorado in the winter of 1978 and twelve more were similarly introduced in 1979. In 1987 another twelve Alces Alces Shirasi were translocated into the Laramie River Valley, here in Larimer County. Today there are hundreds of moose in the two counties. So many in fact, that just 20 miles south in Rocky Mountain National Park there is concern that the moose are helping an overabundance of elk decrease the beaver population by foraging on the park’s limited willow bushes – the preferred habitat of the beaver. The Shiras Moose is the smallest moose in North America, but probably the most beautiful. Still, bulls weigh up to a 1000 pounds and stand six feet tall at the shoulders, while the cows weight about 600 pounds. Their backs and flanks are a very dark brown, sometimes appearing nearly black. We were likely watching the prodigy of those original twelve moose released in 1987. We left Rawah Lake #3 and reached the Rawah Trail at about 11000’. Walking north down the trail we quickly came upon the fork in the path that would require yet another decision. My mind was already made up, we would go see the lakes that feed the middle and western forks of Rawah Creek: Upper and Lower Sandbar lakes, which make the middle fork, and Big Rainbow Lake. Rawah Trail follows the ridge just west of Rawah #2. We could have cut through the trees to camp, but we continued on and ran across two U.S. Forest Service guys measuring trees along the trail. They were checking tree density and bug infestations on this plateau. They agreed that the forest here was healthy. We next walked to Lower Sandbar Lake and surprised another moose that was feeding in the shallow lake. She splashed her way out of the water and into the forest and out of site. I had seen a cow feeding in this lake in 2004. It was turning cloudy so after checking out Upper Sandbar and Big Rainbow, all within less that ten minutes of each other, we returned to Lower Sandbar and then bushwhacked our way toward Rawah Lake #2. Phil set a compass course and we came out at Rawah #1 and then we walked on the west side of lake and Rawah Creek to camp, a ten-minute walk. The clouds began to throw some moisture our way so we took some time off in the tent. An hour or so later when I got up it was very cool again. I had to wear long pants and a long shirt. But the rain had been brief. I collected some wood for the evening fire. The forest around our site had a good choice of downed trees and firewood collection was easy and fast. The undergrowth was wet from the rain, but the wood was dry.

3 As I was rummaging around in the forest for firewood three cowboys rode by camp on horseback. They were at the far end of the lake by the time I got back at camp with the wood. I could see one of them watering the horses at the lake. Another camp of six young men had set up at the far end of the lake too. They had made quite a bit of noise while they were setting up. It was Friday evening. I started some Calico Chili Mix 3 soup for dinner. It would simmer for about an hour before we would eat it so Phil broke out the .22 and tore up another target. When the target was full of holes he changed to shooting at small rocks set on branches of the downed tree. He practiced gun control for probably a half an hour. He hit all of the rocks at least a few times. Not to be outdone, I picked up a stone, called my shot, and with my deadly accurate arm, I squarely tagged the called rock from more than 100’. When we stopped laughing we ate the delicious soup. After we ate Phil built a rock fire ring. We used the target to start the fire and sat around until well after dark. We ate s’more s’mores and watched the clouds come and go across the dark star filled sky, sitting on our tripod chairs at about 10740’, in the silence of the Rawah Wilderness. Titan had retired early again. While we enjoyed the fire and quiet, I occasionally walked to the lakeshore and checked out the camps on the far end of the lake. There were two, both marked by the orange glow of their fires. No sounds could be heard. About the third check I found that both campfires had burned out; it was nearly pitch black across the water under the late summer, moonless sky. A cool breeze kept the water active. After our fire burned out more clouds moved overhead, choking out the stars. We went to bed. I was up about 8 am on Saturday morning. I let Titan out for a break and when I was crawling out he came back in the tent to get some more shut-eye. Phil was not stirring. After a cup of coffee I walked at a 30º bearing through the forest to Lower Sandbar Lake. As I approached I slowed down and picked my footsteps carefully so that I could be quiet. It paid off. Eating about 30 feet from the shore was a cow moose, oblivious to my presence. I picked a spot under a fir and sat down. I watched the cow for maybe 30 minutes. Any noise I made drew her attention and her head would quickly come out of the water and look in my direction. Apparently there were noises in other parts of the forest around the lake too, because she would occasionally check out various parts of the forest. Getting up and out from under the tree proved to be more difficult than I had thought. I made enough noise to draw the cow’s attention numerous times before I was able to back off into the woods. I took a compass bearing and walked back to camp through the forest at about 9 a.m. I let Titan out of the tent and woke up Phil. We had a pancake breakfast and were cleaned up by 10 am. As we ate, the three cowboys rode by with their dog, off on some equestrian adventure. One of the fellows we had talked to on the hike up said fishing was supposed to be good at McIntyre Lake. Phil and I agreed to walk to McIntyre, a little over a mile to the northwest along the trail, and do a little fishing. We walked back down to Lake #1, and turned onto the McIntyre Lake Trail, walked over a fifty- foot high hill and then down into the lake, a total distance of a mile. The cowboys and their horses had walked the same way and I expected to see them at McIntyre. But not a soul could be seen at the lake. After a bit of fishing where we had came onto the lake, we decided to try our luck on the other side, which appeared to be deeper. It turned out that the other side was only marginally deeper. We did not fish long before we decided to walk up to Sugarbowl Lake. We walked on the north side of the creek that flows from Sugarbowl into McIntyre and arrived at the higher lake in maybe 20 minutes. Sugarbowl Lake (10791’) sits in a bowl at the base of an 11400’ cirque. The half of the lake we came into is squeezed by forest and brush all along the shoreline. But at the other side the water laps at a rock field that has formed from the centuries of rocks cracking off the cirque’s rocky ridges. Three snowfields hugged some of the steep areas below the ridge. One snowfield is marked on the topo map so I figured it must have

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4 some old snow in it. All three formed the source of Sugarbowl Lake. While we sat in the trees and munched on some of the food we had brought with us, we heard a couple of rockslides. But even with the binoculars we could not see the rocks moving. When we left McIntyre Lake it was sunny. But on the way

up to Sugarbowl the clouds quickly hid the blue sky and light rain began to fall, pattering on the lake as we watched and listened. Sugarbowl is basically a triangular lake and Rawah #2 is rectangular, but both cover less than ten acres. McIntyre is about twice as big. Upper Twin Lake is somewhere between McIntyre and Sugarbowl in size. And, it is only about a quarter of a mile from Sugarbowl, so Phil and I decided to bushwhack our way over to it. It would be the only way to see it because there was no path to it. Upper Twin Lake is about 200’ lower than Sugarbowl, but we had to walk up and over a hill before we dropped down into the lake. It has more brush and forest hugging the shoreline than Sugarbowl, but the west end is a big rock field borne of the cliffs along the ridge that separates the Rawah Wilderness from the Colorado State Forest. As we surveyed the lake we saw a big duck swimming along the west shore by the rock field. The weather was getting worse. We decided carry out the plan we had engineered at Sugarbowl. Phil set a compass course that would take us back to McIntyre Trail, north of McIntyre Lake. And a good course it was. After walking through nearly a mile of trees and a few boulder fields we came out at the trail in a clearing along McIntyre Creek. The skies had cleared up too. It must have been a sign. We checked where we were on the map and began our walk south on the trail back to camp. The cowboys were at McIntyre Lake and their three beautiful horses were munching the grass between the trail and the lake. When we arrived back at camp we ate potato cups and Ramen Noodles 4. It was too early for dinner and too late for lunch, but we were hungry and we figured if we wanted we could eat a bit more later in the evening. Once the quick bites were put away Phil took up his book and quickly became lost in adventure. I gathered some firewood and then went down to the lakeshore to scope out what was happening around the six-acre lake. Through the binoculars I could see no tents and guessed that the six guys had broken camp. So I grabbed Rawah Lake # 2 my camera and walked along the west side of the lake to that

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5 south end. Titan joined me. Quite a ways up in the trees I saw the campsite the cowboys were using. I used it as the excuse to turn around and start back. I walked west a bit to the crest of the hill and came out on the portion of Rawah Trail that connects #3 and the Sandbar Lakes. I was surprised how close it was to camp. Once I got back to camp I took up what was becoming a favorite viewpoint on the lakeshore. I noticed a couple had moved into the camp that the six young men had used the previous night. As time moved on the skies clouded up more and the temperature dropped. A light rain began to patter on the water. I could see heavy rain coming across the lake, churning the water as it came. I grabbed my chair and hurried to the tarp, where I stashed the chair and ensured the gear would be out of the rain. I then joined Phil in the tent as the hard rain started to fall at camp. The three cowboys soon rode by in the rain. I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the tent. An hour later I woke up and it was still raining fairly hard. I noticed some water on the tent floor so I decided I better check out the tent and see why. As I adjusted the rain fly and the drop cloth under the tent, the rain slowed and stopped. The clouds were moving to the southeast and the northwest sky was clearing. It was another sign. Phil wasted no time getting a target and some rocks set up on the shootin’ tree. He shot another 50 rounds and then we ate some goodies. Everything was wet, but the rain had stopped and the sky was nearly cloudless. But it was the coldest it had been throughout the trip. There was to be no sittin’ around in shorts and short sleeves that night. But we were adequately dressed and comfortable. I fiddled with preparation for a fire, dumping gunpowder from the many .22 duds into a small box that held one small pine cone. I then built a teepee around it with the limited dry kindling I could find. Once I started the fire and the box of powder finally caught there was a quick, bright fssssstt! But it did nothing to get the fire going any better. The wet wood made it slow, but we got the fire going nicely and sat around it to warm up. We finished off the s’more supplies and cookies. As dusk turned to dark the clear sky began a fine show of stars. The Big Dipper barely cleared the trees on the north horizon, but the North Star and Little Dipper were in clear view. I walked down to the lake and there were no lights at the camps at the far end. The lake was pure black and glassy smooth, reflecting nearly every star in the black sky to the south, a genuinely spectacular view. But it was cold, probably getting down into the 30s. I returned to the fire and reported the exceptional scenes to Phil. Later, he went to the shoreline to check it out too. He was going to stay up after I turned in and burn all the wood I had collected, and read. But I stayed up too and instead of reading we talked for a couple of hours while constantly fussing with the fire. The fire finally burned out pretty late and we went to bed. We had let Titan zonk out in the tent at dusk and it took more than a couple of nudges to get him to move out of the way. Once again it felt good to get in the sleeping bags.

I had planned to get up early and try to get some good pictures of a glassy smooth lake against a backdrop of the alpine meadows and rocky ridges between North and South Rawah Peaks. I was up before the sun

6 rose over the horizon, but the lake was not smooth. I decided to walk up to the 11400’ peak to the west and see if I could take advantage of the suns’ artistic ability to illuminate peaks and valleys. I made it up to the top in time to wait for the sun, but there was some low cloud cover to the east and the full light of the sun never made for a dazzling shot. But there could hardly be a better place to be when the sun came up over the trees. I walked down from the peak to the north, stopping to take in Little Rainbow Lake, and then

Sunrise above Little Rainbow Lake, 11080’ Little Rainbow Lake, 10838’ walked to the west and Rawah Trail. When I got back to camp at 9 am Phil was still zonked out with Titan. I let them be and took one of the pack chairs down to the lake to do some carving. As I carved a moose head I watched the cowboys packing up the horses. They finally had them packed and rode off toward Grassy Pass to the south. It was a scene from the movies. After they were up the meadow and out of sight I went back to the tent rousted Phil and Titan, and started breakfast: oatmeal.

Rawah Lake #2, 10728, from the north shore

Phil and I had a leisurely breakfast and then commenced to leisurely break down camp. The bottom of the tent and the drop cloth were still wet from the rains of the previous evening, so we let them dry out in the sun. We filled our water bladders from Rawah Creek for the eight-mile hike down. We were packed up and ready to hike out at about noon that Sunday. Nobody else was at Rawah Lake #2. Nobody was at #1 when we hiked by either. But as we walked down we encountered more than a couple of groups. The first was an encounter with what looked like two bow hunters. We met up with them at the junction of Rawah Trail and Camp Lake Trail. One guy was carrying a daypack, but they had two goats carrying most of their gear. One of the guys commented that the goats were doing a lot better going down than they did coming up. The next folks we met were a couple coming up the trail for a few days at Rawah Lakes. They were most interested in how the fishing was. As we hiked past Lost Lake Trail and the Rawah Bog a guy was mulling

7 around a campsite on the bog side of the trail. And finally, near the bottom, we hiked past a young couple out for a day hike coming up the trail. Someone was following us down the trail too because once we arrived at the trailhead another two guys hiked in from Rawah Trail. We got our stuff off and into the truck. We had to lift Titan into the back of the truck because he did not believe he had the strength to jump up. We took a few goodies with us into the cab, and set off toward Colorado 14. We each sipped an ice-cold beer. As we drove slowly south on the graveled Laramie River Road (County Road - 103) we saw two more moose, both cows, eating in a willow meadow on the east side of the road. Significantly bitchin’!

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