8, 2004 Rawah Lakes 10670', North 40° 41' 24”, West 115° 57

Home , Cameron Pass (Colorado), Rawah Wilderness

June 11 – 13, 2004, August 6 – 8, 2004 Rawah Lakes 10670’, north 40° 41’ 24”, west 115° 57’ 18” 7.6 miles, 2568’ (to Rawah Lake No 1) Rawah Wilderness, Roosevelt National Forest, Larimer County, Colorado

On June 11, 2004 Idelle, Todd, Phil, Titan and I left the house at 9:30 AM, stopped at Café Mexico for burritos and were on the road at 9:45. We took I-25 north to Ft. Collins and then CO-14 up the Pourde Canyon almost to Cameron Pass. Before we left we did not have a positive destination, but I had an idea of a few places near Cameron Pass. We could go to Blue Lake, just north of the pass on the east slope, a bit further north to Rawah Lakes, also on the east slope, or go to the Colorado State Forest and Kelly Lake, on the west slope. After some on-the- road voting we decided to try the Blue Lake Trail. We pulled into the Blue Lake Trailhead parking area on CO-14 about noon. But the trailhead signs ruled that we could not camp around Blue Lake (10600’), and the distance was 6.2 miles and 1400’ of elevation above the trailhead. I had estimated a 4-mile hike. We re- counted the votes, found voting irregularities, and then agreed to try hiking to Camp Lakes and Rawah Lakes, in the same general area, but ten miles to the north. There were no posted camping or fire restrictions there. Fifteen lakes lie within a couple of miles of each other, five of them within less than a mile of each other, all at an elevation of about 10700’. That distance would be about seven miles, according to my estimates from the Rawah Lakes Quadrangle topographic map. We got back in the truck, drove north a bit over 11 miles on the gravel Larimer County Road 103, past the West Branch Trailhead and arrived at the Rawah Trailhead about 12:45. We were on the trail at about 1 PM. The trailhead sign showed the Rawah Trail ran 13.5 miles before it intersected the West Branch Trail. Our destination was about half way. So my estimate of 7 miles was close. Todd and Idelle took off first and saw the rear end of a moose a short way into the hike. Almost immediately after the sighting we came to a pond that was overflowing and covering about fifty yards of the trail with water. We had to go under a fence onto private property to get around the pond. Phil led the way from there on. We crossed the Laramie River on a nice footbridge and started up the east slope of the Medicine Bow Mountains in the Roosevelt National Forest. A little over a mile from the trailhead we stepped into the 73,068 acre Rawah Wilderness at 8700’ above sea level. The Rawah Trail ascends ridges and hillsides, and crosses saddles, but generally follows Rawah Creek all the way up to the lakes. The trail has bits of downhill, but generally goes uphill, changing from steep to flat to down. The trailhead sign showed that the forest service rated it as “difficult”. A little scary but the re-count voting results gave us no choice but to try it. During the first half of the hike we came across four equestrians coming down the trail. They were not as tired as we were. Neither were their horses. We saw nobody else during our hike up the trail. About half way up we stopped near an unnamed lake close to Halfway Creek. As Idelle and I nursed our brand new blisters, Phil commented that we should camp there. But the re-count voting results gave us no choice, we kept on. The next landmark would be Rawah Bog, 2.2 miles from the lakes. The bog is over a half mile long and as we hiked past it we lost site of it through the thick trees. The forest seems to be one of the more dense forests in the state. The dense forest, rolling hills and lack of definite valleys and peaks could make off-path hiking a bit confusing. Just past Rawah Bog, between mile five and six, we began to run into snow drifts. In almost no distance the snowdrifts became nearly constant. Very tough, slow hiking. We could walk on the top snow or break through with no warning. The elevation was about 10200’. We had planned to hike in the Mt. Zirkel Wilderness between Steamboat Springs and Walden. Todd wanted to go to Rainbow Lake (9854’) again (June 13, 2003). But the National Forest rangers I had talked

1 to on the phone earlier in the week, from both the Walden and Steamboat Forest Service offices, had said snow was still down to 10000’. I had also phoned the rangers at the Canõn City Forest Service office to inquire about Brush Creek Lakes (11000’) in the Sangre De Cristo mountain range in southern Colorado. I had hiked up there in 1990 and had considered it for this trip because of it’s more southern location and probable better snow conditions. The ranger I talked to had said that we could get to the lakes, though I am not sure she knew which lakes I was talking about, or even which national forest I was talking about, maybe not even which state! From all that information I concluded that it would be best to stay on the eastern slope to the north and avoid the snow still lingering on the western slope. I was wrong. We were on the eastern slope here in the Rawah Wilderness, but we had not escaped the snow above 10000’. We turned around at the snow drifts, hiked back a short distance and found a suitable campsite at the south end of Rawah Bog. It was about 5:30 PM. The immediate area had no running water except a small stream running into the bog a few hundred yards back up the trail toward the snowdrifts. Another stream crossed the trail several hundred yards down the trail. On the far side of the bog we could hear Rawah Creek. But getting around the bog was at least a half-mile walk. Walking through it would have been wet. We talked about hiking around the bog to camp, but our tired bodies and snowdrift shattered spirit voted against it, and won. We set up camp right there at the bog (10100’). There were enough drifts around camp to keep the meats and cheese buried in snow. And to keep the evening temperature cool. The water we collected from Portrait at Rawah Bog the small stream was a bit green. We either boiled it or used iodine in it. We set up tents, collected some firewood and got down to the business of doing nothing. Too bad the day was nearly over … we didn’t have enough time to get all of our doing nothing done. We talked about hiking back down to Half Way Creek, maybe getting some fishing in at the small lake there. We had little hope of fishing success, though. But we agreed to hike down to the lake in the morning. It was windy and a bit cold at the bog, but we had no rain. We sat around the fire until after dark. I got a case of chills before long and went to ‘bed’. Titan went with me. Idelle and Todd went to their tent shortly after. Phil stayed up and watched the fire burn down and out. I never did hear him come into my tent. It snowed early the next morning, before any of us were up. I could hear the distinctive patter on the tent and verified it through the window. When we did get up the weather was cloudy but otherwise nice. There was no new snow on the ground. We ate and packed our stuff. Todd re-naturalized the fire pit and then we began our hike back down the Rawah Trail. Phil led the way again and got a ways ahead. He hikes pretty fast. So fast, in fact, that he missed the trail that cuts off the main trail to the small lake we had stopped at on the way up, our agreed destination. Idelle caught up with me a few minutes after I arrived at the juncture and we hiked over to the lake (9600’), found an old campsite and dropped our packs. We then went back to the Rawah Trail and waited for Todd, and hopefully Phil. We decided to walk back up the trail to Half Way Creek and see the two small lakes just to the southwest of the trail, and maybe meet up with Todd, who would still be hiking down. We met a couple taking a break on their hike up. They said they were about done hiking for the day. We told them about the snow past the bog. Shortly after that we met Todd hiking down the trail. He had stopped along the trail at Rawah Creek for some fishing. He had caught a few small fish, but no keepers. We turned around, before we had walked to Half Way Creek, and went back to camp at the nameless lake. We passed two guys hiking up. It had rained off and on since Idelle and I had arrived at the lake. But it now started to sleet hard. Idelle and Todd quickly set up their tent and I went looking for Phil. It rained intermittently, sometimes hard. To keep from getting my only set of clothes wet, I had put on my rain suit for the first time in I can’t remember how long. During a break in the showers I talked to a couple just settling in a camp a bit off the trail. Soon after that I passed a day hiker coming up the trail. He said he had passed Phil about ten minutes earlier. I finally met Phil and Titan coming back up the trail, close to the

2 valley floor. We had to walk back about 2 miles, Phil with his pack and me merely walking. This was not what we were hoping to do after the hikes the previous day and that morning. Phil had hiked all the way to the pond that covered the trail. A couple of creeks cross the trail between where Phil and I met up again and the small lake where Idelle and Todd were. These creeks had some clear, swiftly running water. We drank that water with no treatment. Someday we might be infected with giardia, but that day we enjoyed the cold water. Phil said he would fill his Camelback there the next day on the way down. I talked to a day hiker/fisherman who had attempted to reach the same destination as we had. But he too had been forced by the snow to turn around. He deduced that the footprints in the snow past the bog were ours. He had come up for the first time on a suggestion from a relative who has always had good luck at Rawah Lakes and Camp Lakes. We both voiced our disappointment that we could not get up there. The skies continued to bathe the Rawah (Indian for “Wild Place”). When Phil, Titan and I made it back to camp Idelle and Todd were just getting out of the tent after the rains. Phil and I set up our tent. That afternoon we put up the tarps and made a nice cooking area, shielded from rain. The tarp area came in handy. It rained and snowed several more times, though not as hard as earlier in the afternoon. Todd built a fire. There was plenty of downed wood around, so gathering wood was almost a non-function. Most of the remaining afternoon we took care of the unfinished business of doing nothing. The fire burned hot through the intermittent rain and into the dark of evening. Titan had gotten wet on the hike earlier in the day, but he would not lie by the fire. He doesn’t much like fire. He stayed under the tarps, shivered and dried out. Phil made the short trek up to a rock outcrop just above camp. He called me up there so I went up too. I was feeling pretty sore, both from the big blister and from general fatigue. It was getting dark but the view from the rocks into the Laramie River Valley (8400’) was nice. I would come back up in the morning for a picture. After dark we hung around the fire for quite awhile. Phil again watched the fire burn down and out after the rest of us went to bed. It was not as cold as the previous night, the fire was hot, and no more rain fell. We almost caught up on the doing nothing. I was up first the next morning and Titan and I walked up to the rock outcropping and took the picture of the Laramie River Valley. In the late 1800s the valley was used as a natural logging route. During the summer and fall loggers would cut trees in the forests on either side of the Laramie River. Horses would pull the logs down to the river where they would be cached. When spring runoff filled the river the logs would be floated north to Tie Siding, Wyoming where they would be cut into railroad ties for the Union Laramie River Valley Pacific Railroad. The logs would help build the railroad and the water would continue to flow north and east to the North Platte River at Ft. Laramie, Wyoming. The North Platte joins the South Platte and flows through Nebraska as the Platte River. It joins the Missouri River just south of Omaha and continues it’s journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Titan and I came back to camp as Todd and Idelle were getting up. We made no fire, contrary to our plans from the night before, because the weather was fairly warm and we were still too worn out to mess with a fire. We ate, Phil got up and ate, and then we cleaned up. We had Mountain House ham & eggs for breakfast. Idelle, Todd and I thought they were pretty good, but Phil gave them two thumbs down.

3 Todd walked west less than a ¼ mile to Rawah Creek, about 200’ lower than the lake. He would try his luck fishing. I had planned to catch up with him and tag along but by the time I made it out of camp I couldn’t find him. Instead I strolled around the unnamed lake. There is no inlet or outlet to the shallow lake, but it appears that it never dries up … completely. It was full now, to be sure. After I circled the lake I

walked back to camp. Idelle went to join Todd. Phil was reading in the tent. After a half an hour Phil heard Todd calling. He hollered back. Todd and Idelle were on the hill between the lake and the Rawah Trail, but could not locate camp. After a few hollers they were back on track and showed up in camp a bit later. Todd had been a bit scared. He was close to the small lake but could not figure out which way to go and the trees were so thick that no landmarks, including the lake, could be seen. We packed up and took to the trail. We were at the overflowing pond within an hour. This time we found a way along the public side of the fence, hiking through shallow pond water to the other side of the pond. We made it back to the truck at about 2 PM. The skies had been clear all day. After the trip a more careful study of the topo showed that Lost Lake may have been a good alternate destination. Lost Lake sits at 10155’ and we had camped the first night, out of the snow, at about 10100’. The North Fork of Rawah Creek originates at Lost Lake. We probably could have hiked to Lost Lake and spent the two days there. Maybe. I guess we will never know. We had been reminded, though, that Colorado in June, even with 90º temperatures on the plains, may still hold plenty of snow and prevent access to the high country lakes.

August 2004 So I went back in August. Just Titan and I this time. We found the last parking space at the Rawah Trailhead and were hiking exactly three hours after leaving the house. The trail crosses nice wooden foot bridges (handrails and everything!) at Laramie River, Rawah Creek, the North Fork of Rawah Creek and at Half Way Creek. I hiked about 4¼ miles up and took a 30-minute snack and water break at the Lost Lake trail cutoff, at about the middle of the bog , and 2½ hours into the hike. From the bog the trail goes up another moderately steep hillside. In June it was covered in deep snow. Now it was dry, but still in the shade of the old growth trees. The trail comes within earshot of Rawah Creek twice and almost falls into the creek at one point before coming to the junction of Camp Lake Trail. Camp Lake Trail goes left to the southeast while the Rawah Trail continue right to the west. About an hour and a half after the Lost Lake trail I topped a hill and saw Rawah Lake #1. Rawah Lake #1 is the lowest of four lakes at the source of Rawah Creek. It covers about 7 acres and is bound by heavy forest on all sides. A few ponds form in the outlet creek and as I hiked by I could see that the ponds held fish. The area around the lake is flat compared to many of the high country lakes in Colorado. The crystal clear lake is shallow for about 50 feet out and then gets deeper and dark blue.

4 I hiked along the west end of the lake to the Mc Intyre Lake Trail and found a campsite close to the stream flowing from Little Rainbow Lake into Number 1. I set up camp on flat ground in the shade of old growth trees, where I checked for trees that might finish falling down in a brisk wind. Some of the trees formed good corners of a rectangle and I used them to ensure no rain would fall: I set the tarp among them. Someone had camped there before because there were two long time unused fire rings. Titan could hardly wait for me to get camp together, but once I was finished I took him down to the lake for some stickin’. Four guys were fishing so we moved away from them before the fun began. The lake was very scenic. Wildflowers were in bloom in the meadows, the forest was dense and the lake was clean and dark blue. Titan looked like he was in heaven running through the green grass and colorful flowers or bounding into the water after a stick. And it was quiet; very little wind blew. The sky was a brilliant blue against a few bright white cumulus clouds. About 5 o’clock we returned to camp and I prepared some Mountain House Pasta Primavera. It will be worth carrying again. After dinner I cleaned up easily and returned to the lake for some lure fishing. Rawah Lake # 1 I caught two brook trout and lost another on the east side of the lake near the Rawah Creek inlet. The fish hit the lure unusually hard. Titan did not know what to make of the fish. When I threw them back into the water he had a real rough time staying out of the water, but he succeeded. No one else was at the lake when I was fishing. It did not take long before the 7- plus mile hike caught up with me. I struggled slowly back to camp and went to bed about 8 PM. Titan was tired too. Neither of us saw it get dark. I was up not much before 8 AM. My body felt much better. I made Natural High Cheese Omelet for breakfast. It was a bit runny with no texture. This is a dehydrated meal not worth carrying again. But it was filling. Again, it was an easy clean up. I packed day supplies and Titan and I were walking on the Rawah Trail at 9 AM.

Rawah Lake #2 10728’

The plan was to walk the paths that loop around the five small lakes nearest Rawah Lake #1. But plans are made to change. I walked south about 15 minutes to Rawah Lake #2. On the way I talked to one of the guys

5 who had been fishing at Number 1 the evening previous. He was with nine others who were camped on the east side of Number 2. The trail flanks the west side and crosses Rawah Creek a bit south and uphill of the lake. It then ascends meadows toward Grassy Pass, about two miles away and 600 feet up. The wildflowers were spectacular above Number 2. I continued up to Number 3, at about 10900’. The trail never comes closer than 300 yards horizontal, and a thousand feet vertical, to Number 3. I talked to one of three guys who were camped near the trail above Number 2 in small stand of short trees. One of them had brought in his guitar and was playing. Other than scrub trees and shrubs the area above Number 2 is alpine meadows. A sign between Numbers 2 and 3 indicated that campfires were forbidden in the alpine area behind the signs. I walked up the trail to a small clear pond well above treeline. The pond has no name but on the Rawah Lakes topo map it’s elevation is labeled: 11218’. I then walked west on another less used trail toward where I thought Number 4 would be, or at least hoped it would be. But as I topped a ridge and checked the topo I found that I was merely above the inlet to Number 3. At about 10 acres Rawah Lake #3 is only a bit bigger than Rawah Lakes #1 and #2. The ridge offers a nice view of Rawah Creek flowing across rocks and the alpine valley. These alpine areas had a beauty of their own, and are always relaxing to me. The lush green grasses dotted with colorful flowers contrasted perfectly against the rugged rocks. Rawah Lake #4 was yet to be attained. I debated returning to the original plan and visiting the lower lakes. But I decided to get up to Number 4. It’s beauty is available to only those who are willing to walk even higher and a distance equal to that between Number 1 and Number 3. I came into Number 4 (11474’) around a hill to the north- east of the lake. Here rock fields make up far more of the ground than the alpine grasses. Rugged cliffs that rise to a curved 12500’ ridge and North Rawah Peak, at 12473’, form the bowl that holds the lake. A snowfield, almost as big as the 12-acre lake, feeds the lake all year, every year. The water is especially clear and reflects the Rawah Lake #4 11474’ colors in the deep blue sky, the gray rocky peaks, the green grass and the white snowfield. I crossed rock fields and grass to a cove at the tip of the lake furthest north. The cold water from the lake becomes the source for Rawah Creek flowing under the rocks in this cove. The clouds moved through the blue sky quickly, just over the ridges and peaks around the lake. Occasionally a trout would slap the surface of the water in the small shallow cove. This was pure and complete relaxation. I walked east out of Rawah Lake #4 toward Grassy Pass keeping out of the rock fields and on the grassy meadows as much as possible. I saw four other walkers in the meadows below, both pairs eventually walking up toward Grassy Pass. Once I got to the Rawah Trail I followed it down to the Sandbar Lake Trail cutoff, right at treeline (10980’), and to the trail that loops around the five lakes. I walked another quarter mile to Lower Sandbar Lake. As Titan and I walked closer to the lake I spotted a cow moose eating in the shallow lake. I ditched my daypack and began sneaking up to the lake, with Titan. When he saw the moose his demeanor certainly changed, but he was a good sport. I got fairly close and realized that the moose was not too worried about me. I changed from the sneak mode to the slow walk mode and got close enough for a couple of photos. After a bit she began to leave the lake and then walked briskly through the bog to the west of the lake Upper Sandbar lake 10695’ and into the trees.

6 I retrieved my pack and Titan and I walked the few hundred yards south to Upper Sandbar Lake. Both lakes are less than six acres. One of the young fellows from the Rawah Lake #2 camp was fishing in the stream coming from Upper Sandbar. Titan and I avoided him as much as possible and found a place to do some stickin’ on the lake. After a few retrievals a couple of other young fellows from the same group woke up from their nap not a hundred feet away on the shore, hidden from our view by scrub fir trees. Rawah Trail, or a piece of it, loops around five lakes, all within a mile of my camp and all within fifty feet of 10670’ elevation. I followed it to Big Rainbow Lake, the next lake in the loop. This five-acre lake is arguably the most picturesque of the five. We walked around it, stickin’ occasionally. We found a very nice campsite in full shade of trees overlooking the lake. Maybe next time we would camp there. Big Rainbow has no inlet creek, but drains to the north into Rawah Creek. The loop trail follows the creek’s general direction to another bog where Camp Lake Trail cuts off to the east. We continued on the loop trail for a several hundred yards and returned to the Big Rainbow Lake 10722’ main Rawah Trail on which we had hiked in the day before. We followed it ¾ mile back to Number 1. It was getting close to 5 PM so I decided to return to camp and eat dinner and then try my luck fishing again at Number 1. I had Natural High Classic Beef Stroganoff for dinner. Again, the dehydrated meal was worth carrying in and the foil packages in which you can heat the meal and from which you can eat the meal, make clean up very easy. I also had some applesauce, rolls, cookies, tea, and tang … and of course orange flavored Metamucil. After eating I practiced the art of doing nothing for a bit and then walked the quarter mile to Number 2 to get a picture. I returned to camp, filled up the cooking pans with water and then grabbed the fly rod for some fishing. I caught one more brookie on a mosquito. When I threw him back Titan followed, but not far. He stayed relatively dry, which is a concern at 6 PM when he sleeps in the same tent. I then lost a fly or two in the trees while practicing light accurate casts. Titan and I had walked about 6 or 7 more miles that day. Once again, while fishing, it caught up with me and we abruptly ended the fishing and returned to the tent. The walk that day and the day before had given my boots a chance to develop a good size blister on my left heel. I cleaned it up and got in the sleeping bag. But the blister began to pulse with pain so much that I could not get to sleep, or even get comfortable. I eventually got up again cleaned it up once more, put some neosporin on it, covered it with a bandage, took a couple of ibuprofens and tried to get to sleep. It was then that I decided that I would replace my boots with a pair that fit. These Rocky boots were good boots, but they were definitely too small and were wrecking my feet. We had entered the tent before dusk and my sore heels kept me awake until nearly full dark. But the last I remember was dark dusk. I slept good until about 8 AM Sunday morning. My heel felt pretty good. I had planned to visit more lakes in the morning. But plans are made to change. I was more than a bit leery that another walk uphill would put my heel in bad shape again and I still had to walk out over seven miles with a backpack. I would have liked to walk up the Mc Intyre Lake Trail and see Little Rainbow Lake, Mc Intyre Lake and Sugar Bowl Lake, all within just over a mile of my camp. But all were uphill, and the uphill was blistering. I would have liked to visit Camp Lake and Upper Camp Lake too, but that would all have to wait for another hike in to Rawah Lakes. As it turned out, I had camp packed and started the hike down at 11 AM. I reached the truck at 2:30 PM. On the way down I passed a young couple packing up for four days and an older lady who was day hiking closer to the trailhead. She had endured a gall bladder operation just three weeks earlier. She said she had been hiking in that area for 30 years. The young couple I had passed was her grandson and his girlfriend. I thought about how grateful I will be if I am hiking in this sort of area when I am 78. But I am glad to have hiked in just this one time. It was nearly a perfect weekend.

7 I would like to come back and spend four or five days in the area. This area is the most impressive I have seen in Colorado. This was the best camping I had done in a number of years. Possibly ever. Even the beer in the cooler was still smothered in ice when I got back to the truck. What could be better?!