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. 1 Sam’s Choice, Walmart Stores, Bentonville, Arkansas 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.