Roaming To The Rockies!!!!!!!

“love the pics! can't wait to see it in person!”

“thank yall very much”

“You owe me a blowjob.”

“uh, no.”

“Huh??

Maybe this should be a flaming thread.”

“I guess Roam borrowed Eddie's snowblower?”

“I think Eddie's trip last week must have been to San Francisco!”

“What a drag!”

“What the heck do y'all have goin' on up there?”

“...have breathalyizer installed on next computer.

With sprll check”

“Great pics Roam....TR coming?”

“We met at the parking lot, a little late since TMac stayed out till the wee hours of Sunday morning and didn't pick me up on time. (LOL)

Met up with Adventurist and Tajji, a guy we picked up from myspace that lives in Fort Collins. Said hi to a guy headed up the trail to try some ice climbing at Hidden Falls.

Headed up the trail to Calypso Cascades, but the falls were all buried in snow and frozen over. Beyond Calypso Cascades we went another little ways up to Ouzel Falls, at the top of about 4900 switchbacks.

After catching our breat and watching Adventurist almost fall backwards off the bridge railing, LOLLOLLOL, we went on and climbed up to the crest of the moraine and proceeded to try and find the ever elusive Ouzel Lake.

The trail was hidden, so we just kinda did the best we could aiming in the general direction of the lake. We finally found the trail sign that pointed us to where we should have been going, but it was getting late in the afternoon so we turned back.

We covered about 11.5 miles in all and had a great day!”

“lol... yup!”

“yay! I should be getting some snowshoes soon, so after I get back into town after the holidays, I wanna go!!!”

“did you eat your brea raw, or roast over an open fire?

mmm sounds fun, more DETAILS please”

“So friday night we (me, Diane, Elisia (her daughter 13) and Alex (my son 14)) left Denver and headed for Evergreen, CO and the Camp Rock Campground to head out to Beartrack Lakes for two nights.

We left the trailhead just as the sun was setting planning to "nighthike" about a mile and camp in a meadow and then hike up to the lakes on Saturday. Well, in the dark we completely missed the meadow and wound up going about 3.5 miles before we said "enough" and camped for the night.

Saturday morning we were pleased to find that we only had about 2 miles to go to reach the lakes, but we were almost out of water, so with a little coffee and granola bars, we headed out.

Reaching the lakes we found a couple of guys that were the night before and got some advice about finding the upper lakes (no trails) and set up our own spot and goofed around the lake some taking pics and whatnot. Alex decided to try and get to one of the big rocks out in the lake and we all waited to laugh when he fell in - but he didn't (which is probably a good thing).

Diane and I decided to go find the upper lakes so we took off through the willows (not easy) and followed game trails to reach the trees on the upper end of the lake.

Did I mention this place is called "Beartrack" lakes?? On the way up we spotted the partial remains of an elk skull.

Clambering up the ridge we topped out and waked across the level ridgetop in the general directin we thought the lake should be and pretty soon we saw water through the trees.

At the lake we sat to rest a little and soak our feet in the cold water (awesome) and watched the fish swim around the rocks. This middle lake is LOADED with cutthroat trout!

After some more pics, we thought about heading back but decided to go up and check out the upper lake, so off (and up) we went. This was a little steeper and we made a switchback pattern up the ridge. Reaching the top we headed for where we thought the lake would be, but it wasn't.

Across the way we spotted some people and a dog that were going further up the ridge to the next little plateau area, but we weren't going up that high - we were tired enough for one day and decided that we'd head back down. Luckily we opted to go down a different way than we came up and stumbled into the depression that holds the upper lake. This lake is where all the wildlife goes to play and the shoreline was COVERED with bear and elk tracks! Didn't see any though, but seeing all the tracks was cool.

Back down at the middle lake we scouted around and picked out some places to camp the next time we're in the area.

This wilderness is very close to Denver and thus is a great weekend getaway, but its also pretty popular - not overly crowded though - we had a great trip.”

“Nice, Roam!
My niece and her husband just moved to the Cheyenne, Wyoming area a couple of weeks ago.
I was all set up to go visit them till my brother told me about their pet snake this weekend. A big boa they named Pumpkim.
I'm not sleeping in the same house as a snake.
I might still go sometime, but I think I'll be sleeping in my tent out in the yard.”

“Thanks!

If you set your tent up in Cheyenne, be sure the stakes are in good - it gets pretty windy up there.


And stop in to say hi when your out - Cheyenne is only a couple or three hours up the road!
last edited: 6/18/06 11:01:12 PM”

“I intend to holler at the TT folks in the region, Roam. First beer is on me.
Might be next year before I get out there.
last edited: 6/18/06 11:17:33 PM”

“Cool- sounds like I need to go get lost up there”

“I think one of those trees is giving me the finger...

Sounds like a good time with the family. My wife is asking to go backpacking with me in the future. I'm looking forward to it.”

“Cool TR and Pics. Thanks for sharing.

What's everybody doing for the 4th of July weekend?

Hey Eddie, get lost.”

“Awsome Roam. I may have to take my fly rod up there.”

“A fly rod would be a good thing to have! There were a couple of fisher people up there.

Looking for a trip the weekend of the 4th, not sure about how many days just yet though.”

“I was thinking about the weekend of the fourth also, I have a four day weekend. Right now I'm thinking about a loop in the Flat Tops.”

“I'm up for the Fourth. At least four nights.

Just did a loop in Indian Peaks Wilderness on Saturday. From the Fourth of July trailhead up over Caribou Pass, down the High Lonesome Trail, up over Devils Thumb Pass, past Diamond Lake & back to the trailhead. Great hike, I'll put pics up soon.”

“Eddie, its about time you did the Devil's Thumb!

We were thinking about heading up near the Long Draw Reservoir for the weekend of the 4th.”

“Cool Roam! I was up there last fall, but it was incredibly windy, and i didnt get much sleep. I'll have to go back in better weather.

Eddie....how is the snow pack on that devils thumb loop? I was thinking of doing that this weekend.”

“Hey Em

There was some serious snow around Diamond Lake, but it was 11:00 at night & my headlamp didn't let me see too much. It was over 15' where I hiked through, plus a lot covering the trail. Some still up at Jasper Lake, 10' or so in some areas. Patches on the west side of the passes, but no biggie.

Much wet trail on the east side of Devils Thumb, muck on the High Lonesome trail. That's a great weekend trip, where you gonna camp at?

I did it in one day, probably 23 miles or so- & it took about 18 1/2 hrs. The trail up (or down ) Devils Thumb pass is not where it shows on the map, but just south. I needed my ice ax to get down a 20' snow wall, but other than that, didn't really need snowshoes.”

“Hmmm, maybe I should rethink the route. We were going to start at Hessie Trailhead, hike down to King Lake, then up along the continental divide to devils thumb pass, then cut across to Jasper Lake and back to Hessie. From what you said I think there might be a ton of snow still there...

What do you think?”

“"Well, in the dark we completely missed the meadow and wound up going about 3.5 miles before we said "enough" and camped for the night."

I think we finally have pinpointed the cause of missed turns and trails. :) No Em, John, Eddie or TMac with you, yet you missed the trail. bwahaha”

“Cause he's motoring along...zooooooooom.”

“Dude, learn to read! We didn't lose the TRAIL, we just didn't see the meadow.

Actually, on the way out we decided the freaking meadow no longer exists (old map???), the map showed the trail going along the edge, but either the meadow is teeny tiny, or it ain't there, coz the trail is in the trees!

:)”

“

Mt. of the Holy Cross (the big one in the middle), elev. 14,005.

I hiked in just to look around the area in preparation for going back in a few weeks to climb the beast. Cool area, hard to see it, but coming off the headwall at the left of the valley there's a waterfall that's about 150 feet tall. The rock walls that ring that canyon at the head of the thing are pretty darned impressive as well.

Getting to Holy Cross is a bit of an adventure, not to mention what it'll be like climbing the couloir :) gotta get back before the snow melts out!”

“cool Roam....you planning a solo climb? Good luck ;)”

“What? I was there yesterday!

Also climbed Huron yesterday btw.
last edited: 7/03/06 10:29:11 AM”

“I would like to go back next weekend to climb the Angelica couloir. Anybody interested? Probably only one or maybe two weeks left before too much snow has melted out of the couloirs.”

“Bison - you were in holy cross?

#&%!$ we shoulda carpooled!”

“I was planning on doing La Plata on Saturday, but if you wanna do Holy Cross I'm in.

What was going on while you we're up there Roam? Were you up there Sat. or yesterday?

I had planned to hike in and camp at the creek crossing and hike up Holy Cross today. But After I climbed Huron and then drove to the TH for Holy Cross I sat there and watched lightening going off for an hour and the torrential rain come down so I ended up heading home.

Any possibility of hiking in Friday night?
last edited: 7/03/06 10:37:43 AM”

“I'm gonna be up in mt zirkel wilderness this weekend.”

“I'm in NM for the next two weeks after this one, I'm gonna try to get up Handies, Sunshine, and Redcloud on my way home.

What time we're you out of there? By the time I got to the TH all hell was breaking loose.
last edited: 7/03/06 10:43:21 AM”

“I was up there sunday - had planned on holy cross - but didnt get outta bed until around 8:30 :)

So instead I just drove up and figured I'd look around the area and check out the route and snow condition in the couloir.

I got there around noon and made Half Moon pass about 30 minutes later - it started to sleet and then rain a little, but not too much. There was thunder well to the south so I continued on down to the valley.

I found the climbers trail that heads up to Lake Patricia pretty easily but when I got higher on the ridge the rain had started again and the thunder was still going, but still well to the south. The rock was all wet though so I figured i had enough info to go back and not have to search too much for the route.

By the time I was back in Minturn though it poured a flood and the thunder was directly overhead. I got off the pass just in time it seemed. I was back at my car by around 4:00.

Hiking in friday night would def be the way to go, i can probably pull that off - pack a daypack or somthing for the summit climb.

You interested in doin the snow climb up the couloir or the standard route?
last edited: 7/03/06 10:47:01 AM”

“Ha ha, we must have passed right by each other I got there right around 4:30 or so.

Huron took a lot longer than I thought it would and I didn't get back down til 2:30, then I stopped in Leadville for lunch, and then headed up to Holy Cross.

Would I need crampons for the coulior you think?

I have an ice axe but not crampons. I could go for either route, just a question of if the coulior is doable.”

“I'm gonna carry crampons, but they probably aren't an absolute - there'll be steps kicked in and the snow is not rock solid any longer either (according to some folks I talked to in the parking area yesterday).

You would be ok with the ice axe alone I think.”

“Might as well give it a try then. If I die I'm blaming you for suggesting this route though :)

Maybe I'll drop into REI this week and see about crampons just in case.

Did you see any good campsites down by the creek? Looks like Lake Patricia might be a good place to camp.”

“be sure to read the route description on summitpost for the Angelica - as well as Roach's guide.

Its a cool snow climb - looks steeper than it is. The steepest section is about 40 degrees, with a few dozen feet at the top around 45, but its an 'easy' snow climb.

I explored the approach route pretty well and we won't have much of a struggle with route finding to get to the base of the couloir - this seems to be what causes so many people trouble, there is a 'trail' sort of, its just not very prominent and it goes up a very steep slope and crosses bare rock in sections. My goal for yesterday was to find that approach so I know where to go next time.”

“there TONS of good campsites down by the creek.

Lake Patricia would be a great place to camp, but I'd prefer to be by the creek i think.

We can ascend the couloir but then take the standard route for a descent and pick up our overnight gear on the way out.

Don't wanna carry an overnight pack up the couloir and I'd rather not go back up to Lake Patricia to collect gear. trust me on that one.”