1 June 13, 2003, Friday Rainbow Lakes 9854', North 40° 38' 45”, West
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June 13, 2003, Friday Rainbow Lakes 9854’, north 40° 38’ 45”, west 106° 37’ 35” 3.2 miles, 1340’ Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, Routt National Forest, Jackson County, Colorado We drove from home, I-70 to CO-9, to Kremling, Colorado. We turned west on US-40 to CO-14 at Muddy Pass, and traveled east on CO-14 to Hebron. At Hebron we found County Rd 24 and followed it southwest and then west about 8 miles to County Rd 5. We then went north and northeast about 7 miles to County Rd 22. We took County Rd 22 about 4 miles west and southwest to an unnumbered road. At that junction is a bunch of mailboxes for the cabins along the road up to the Rainbow Lake trailhead. About three miles up the road is the parking area and trailhead for Forest Trail 1130, or the Rainbow Lake Trail. The drive takes about 3 hours. It took us over four hours. About 3 miles in on County Road 22 an unmarked dirt road veers left, directly east, down and along the face of a steep hill into the valley on the right. The road is marked as the public access route. We took it and followed the road and public access signs into and through a farmer’s cattle corral, opening and closing his gates at each end, then around a hill north and then east to the end of the road. At the end of the road was a bare wooden platform that looked like at one time it would be the floor for a cabin. But no trail was to be found there. We drove back to the farmer’s place and asked where Rainbow Lake was. We stopped at both farmhouses on the way out and at the second house I talked to a guy who gave me some direction. This side trip offered the opportunity to test out the Chevy’s four-wheel drive, but it took over an hour. We didn’t arrive at the real trailhead until about 1 PM. The trailhead is just inside the Routt National Forest boundary at about 8760’. A slightly improved parking area can hold about 10 vehicles. There were three other pickups parked at the trailhead on Friday, June 13, 2003. The Forest Service information board at the trailhead explained that Rainbow Lake is the most popular overnight destination in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness. Due to the lake’s high use, most of the area immediately around the lake was off limits to camping. Only existing campsites (all unimproved) on the north side of Rainbow Lake could be used. Campfires are discouraged, but if desired were supposed to be built only in existing fire rings. Rainbow Lake Trail crosses Trail 1126 about a half-mile walk, and 340 feet of elevation gain, from the trailhead. Trail 1126 has been called the Grizzly Helena Trail and skirts nearly the full eastern boundary of Mt. Zirkel Wilderness, about 28 miles. Several trails go east from, or cross, Trail 1126 into the wilderness. Rainbow Trail crosses the Grizzly Helena Trail and then follows a ridge east along the wilderness boundary 2.8 miles to Rainbow Lake. The trail peaks in elevation at 10100’, for a total gain of 1340’, and then drops down 145’ to the southeast corner of Rainbow Lake at 9854’ above sea level. The total distance from the trailhead is 3.2 miles. Nearly the entire trail is in the shade of the forest. Some of the trail is surrounded by some lush green under growth. The trail is probably medium difficulty but has some fairly steep up hill for a good part of the distance. It took us a little over two hours to hike to the lake. We crossed to the north side of the lake at the log- jam on the outlet of the lake. That was about the only convenient choice because Norris Creek, which flows through Rainbow Lake, was running pretty high. Norris Creek would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to cross. The logjam was not an easy crossing either. Some of the logs 1 would not float under our weight. We had to pick our way across. Once across the logjam we continued north over a 30’ deep snowdrift that appeared to have blown in from the east and the lower two Rainbow Lakes. We chose an old campsite a hundred yards from the northeast end of Middle Rainbow Lake. A year later we would chose the same campsite. The weather was warm, probably in the 70s during the day and not even down into the 40s at night, but quite a few snowdrifts and snow piles lingered. We used one snow pile near camp to store some of our food. Since we had arrived fairly late (3 PM) on Friday we did not do much fishing or exploring. We set camp and gathered wood for a fire. Todd started the fire to dry out his shoes and shirt, which had got wet crossing the logjam at Norris Creek. The fire (in an existing fire ring, of course) was welcome after the previous two years of drought influenced fire prohibition. We set up a tarp for a cooking area in case of rain. Setting up the tarp almost ensured that no rain would fall through the weekend. It rained only once and for just a few minutes. Later in the evening Todd fished the northeast corner of the Rainbow Lake and did pretty good, catching at least a few fish, including a nice fat rainbow about the size of his forearm. Titan took advantage of the water almost as soon as we arrived. He loves to swim and chase sticks. Swimming after sticks nearly sends him into a frenzy. We had to keep him out of the water later in the afternoon so that he would be dry when we went to bed. Rainbow Lake is almost rectangular except at the eastern end where it drains through Middle Rainbow Lake into Norris Creek. Along the southern edge of the lake were a number of snowdrifts that prevented access to the water. On Saturday part of one of the snowdrifts broke off and added to the numerous snowbergs floating in the lake. The north side of the lakeshore was free of snow. The woods around the lake held numerous piles of snow, but for the most part the area was snow free. Rainbow Lake is one of the bigger high country lakes in the state, a little over a half-mile long and about a quarter mile wide, over 90 surface acres. It is surrounded by trees except for a large rock slide area at the western shore. Titan and I walked around the lake on the north to the rock slide area. Titan did not seem to grasp the method of walking over the rocks, so we did not complete the walk around the lake. Instead we strolled back to camp. On the south side of Rainbow Lake, just across from the rockslide area is the continuation of Trail 1126. The trail continues west, up to and beyond Slide Lake. On Saturday Idelle, Todd and I walked the north shore of Middle Rainbow Lake and then down to Lower Rainbow Lake. Both of these lakes are about an eighth the size of Rainbow Lake. Norris Creek was quite a torrent between Middle and Lower Rainbow Lakes and created a nice waterfall into Lower Rainbow Lake. The creek drains the three lakes at the east end of Lower Rainbow Lake. Just northeast of Lower Rainbow is a beautiful view of Livingston Park. Ceanuthuse Lake lies about a half-mile north of Middle Rainbow Lake in some very rough terrain with no marked trails. Ceanuthuse Lake also drains into Norris Creek, joining Raspberry Creek at the east-end of Livingston Park and then flows east into the North Platte River. The North Platte flows north to Casper, Wyoming and then turns east joining the South Platte to form the Platte River near North Platte, Nebraska. After flowing east across Nebraska it joins the Missouri River at Omaha, Nebraska, which flows south to Kansas City, then east across Missouri and joins 2 the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Eventually water flowing out of the Rainbow Lakes reaches the Gulf of Mexico, at New Orleans, traveling well over 3000 miles through twelve states. On Saturday evening Phil and I fly fished at the southeast end of Rainbow Lake. We caught nothing, but watched a couple of other anglers catching fish at the logjam, where we had hoped to fish. The logjam at Rainbow held a lot of trout, including some large ones that could be seen from either on the logs or from shore. Todd fished the north shore and caught a few more nice fish. Everyone catching fish was using dark lures. Todd and I fished a little more on Sunday morning and caught a few fish using Todd’s pole and his lures. We caught no fish on flies at Rainbow Lake. We packed up and started the hike out after lunch. At the beginning of the hike out Todd took a picture of his four companions, Idelle, Phil, Titan and I standing on the big snowdrift. We then crossed the logjam and started the hike out. We hiked up to the crest of the trail, just east of the lake, and then started the easy trip back to the trailhead. Not long after we started down Idelle’s sleeping bag fell off of her pack.