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, 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 . 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. We all stopped while she put it back on. And continued down the trail. We stopped briefly for photo ops at a lush green section of the trail that overlooked the North Platte River Valley. Just after crossing Trail 1126 we met a couple of backpackers who were also walking out. The two guys were probably in their 50s, maybe older, and were packing out some Rainbow Lake fish. We passed them and kept hiking toward the truck. It was just after we left them that I realized I no longer had the fly rod I was carrying when we left Rainbow Lake. I had the bad feeling I left them where Idelle’s sleeping bag came off, or where we took the pictures of the valley. I had a slim hope that Phil might have been carrying the rod. So I picked up my pace to try and catch Phil, who had gone ahead with Titan and the keys to the truck. I caught up with him at the truck and he did not have the rods. He volunteered to go back and get the rod. I suggested they were at either the lush area or where Idelle’s sleeping bag had fell off. He took off as Idelle and Todd arrived at the truck. Idelle, Todd, Titan and I waited around the trailhead for about a half-hour and then I decided to walk back up the trail and meet Phil. I met him above the Trail 1126 junction as he was coming back down ... without the rod. We talked about where he had looked and decided to go up again and look more. I would check the lush green area and he would hustle to where Idelle had dropped her sleeping bag. He found the rod way up where Idelle’s sleeping bag had come off. After all that we jogged back down the trail to the truck. We had lost over an hour because I left the rod on the trail. I decided that whenever I take rods in the future they will be tied onto the pack. I had made that decision years ago but had got slack … and paid for it. I had picked Rainbow Lake because it is at a lower elevation and I thought we would not have the problem of walking through snow. It proved to be a good idea. The two guys I talked to on the way down the trail had hiked up to Slide Lake, over mile and a half beyond Rainbow Lake. They had talked of a lot of snow on the trail and how Slide Lake was nearly solid ice. Only a small area at the inlet had water showing. We did not walk to any of the lakes past Rainbow Lake. But there is a plethora of nice high country lakes up the trail both on the east and west sides of the Continental Divide, which forms the top ridge line of the and splits the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness. On the eastside of the Divide, only a few hundred yards past Slide Lake is Upper Slide Lake, at 10754’. Less than a mile as the crow flies, but about

3 3 miles further on the trail, lies Roxy Ann Lake at 10200’. All of these lakes are right at timberline. The entire trail between Upper Slide Lake and Roxy Ann Lake is all above timberline. Rainbow Trail actually continues up to the Divide at 11400’, six or seven miles beyond Rainbow Lake. Trail 1179 cuts off to the north and east and drops in to Roxy Ann Lake. At the Divide, Rainbow Trail joins the Wyoming Trail, or Trail 1101 and follows the Divide south for about a mile to just north of Mt. Ethel (11924’). Rainbow Trail then drops off the Divide to the west into the Mad Creek drainage. The Mad Creek drainage includes several lakes, including Lake of the Crags, Luna Lake, Big Creek Lake, Lake Elbert, Mirror Lake and Lake Margaret. In 1997 a natural windstorm blew down millions of trees in a huge area on the west slope of the Divide in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness. Phil and I encountered this “ blowdown” firsthand in 1998 when we hiked into Lake Margaret from the Steamboat Springs side of the Wilderness. The six-mile hike took all day and we had to stop short of the lake because it was getting dark. The trees were blown down and piled up to 10’ high. We had to climb through and over them for a mile or more. We took another route on the way out, trying to avoid the blowdown and more or less succeeded. It didn’t take us nearly as long. Looking at the mountain sides of blowdown was analogous to looking at a million toothpicks lying down … all in the same direction. Very weird, and memorable. What a trip to decide to leave the camera at home. In August of 2001 Elaine, Phil and I hiked into Lake Katherine, about six miles north of Rainbow Lakes on the eastside of the Divide in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness. That year a fire burned in the blowdown over the Divide west of Lake Katherine. Thick smoke blew over divide and into the Lake Katherine valley. The valley quickly filled with haze and as quickly cleared up to clear mountain air. On July 9, 2004 Idelle, Todd, Elaine, Titan and I hiked up to Rainbow Lake again. The drive to the trailhead was uneventful. And the hike to the lake was uneventful. But things were different. There was not nearly as much snow and the mosquitoes were thick. We had to bug juice up as soon as we arrived. When that didn’t work we resorted to long pants and shirts. The fishing was not as good either. We caught some fish, but not many.

Upper Slide Lake 10770’ Slide Lake 10527’

On Saturday, the 10 th , we walked up to Slide Lake. Slide Lake is about three miles up trail 1130. We caught cutthroat trout in the beautiful Norris Creek along the way. But the lake cannot be seen from trail 1130 and we walked past Slide Lake to Upper Slide Lake, about a half mile further. We thought we were at Slide Lake until I checked the map. We fished in the small (10 acres) shallow lake where the luck belonged to the fish, which we could see rising continually. We circled around the eastside of the lake and walked cross- country down to Slide Lake. Slide Lake can be seen from the peak just to the south west of Upper Slide Lake, but not from the lake itself. Slide Lake is much deeper and maybe 30 surface acres. A lone fisherman and his young black lab were enjoying the lake. He was fishing. Otter was at total excitement to see Titan. No more excited, however, than Titan was to see him. We talked a bit and let the dogs play briefly and then walked down a long sloping rock where the water from Slide Lake flowed down to and over trail 1130 and made Norris Creek. The wildflowers were just about to begin blooming in profusion that weekend in 2004.

4 I would have liked to walk all the way to Roxy Ann Lake, but it is another three miles up the trail, almost 10 miles from the trailhead. Roxy Ann Lake is almost a prefect 100-acre circle. Maybe some time on a four or five day trip. Or when I get in better shape.

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