Post by cweston on Jul 18, 2018 13:03:11 GMT -8
Trip Report: Northern Gore Range, July 11–16, 2018
Day A:
We (my adult son and I) Drive from Manhattan, KS to Heeney, Co where we car camp two nights on Green Mountain Reservoir for acclimation. We stop for burgers and beers at Dillon Dam Brewery. (All backpacking trips in this area traditionally begin and end there for us.)
Day B:
We catch coffee/breakfast at a place in Frisco (amusing people watching), then hike to Mt. Victoria as a warm-up hike. It’s a fairly unremarkable climb of about 2000 ft. over about 2.5 miles to minor summit right at the treeline with views of the Frisco area and the southern Gores.
Day 1 (ca. 7.5 miles, +1000 -1200)
It starts off with a spectacular 5.5 mile ridge walk (not too upsy-downsy) on Elliot Ridge. From the base of Meridian Peak, we take the Cataract Creek Trail down to upper Cataract basin, where we leave the trail for .25 mile or so to the creek and make camp at about 10,800. We nap in the afternoon. We hit the tent a little early in the evening because the mosquitos are pretty thick at this camp. Perfect, relaxed first day except that I’m having trouble eating.
From Elliot Ridge
Dropping to Cataract Creek
From camp in Cataract Creek
Day 2. (Off trail. Don’t know distance or elevation: a lot.)
This day went really well until it all went south in the afternoon. We crossed the creek near our camp and made our way, through a bit of timber but mostly through grassy ramps, to the pass at the head of Cataract Creek. The ridge above Cataract Creek (running west from Mt. Powell) is super-rugged and scenic. It is something like 2 miles and 1,300 feet of gain (off trail) to the pass, with pretty straightforward travel and routefinding. We top the pass at about 9:00. From there, we drop a few hundred feet and then gain it back on the super-steep climb to Knee-Knocker Pass.
Travel down the east side of Knee-Knocker is tedious: steep snow, boulders and talus. But so far, so good. At around 11,000, we should have contoured to the right and up to Bubble Lake. But, somehow, we dropped too far, into the increasingly awful vortex of suckage that is Black Creek: bouldery, brushy, hell. By about 10,600 we figured out that things were not right, and made a critical error in judgment: instead of just turning around and fixing it, we tried to correct the problem by inventing an alternate approach to Bubble Lake from below. (I have always been a little curious about the Black Creek country directly below Bubble, so I got to find out.)
We tried to traverse high, with not much success, and ended up dropping into timber, eventually reaching the branch of Black Creek that flows out of Bubble Lake. By now, it was late afternoon, raining off and on, and it was completely obvious that one CANNOT travel up this branch of Black Creek directly to the lake: the creek drops from the lake the next thing to vertical. So, we made an unplanned camp in a dreadfully dank, almost-flat niche; not quite large enough for the tent, at about 9,700 ft., and planned the next day’s misery.
Upper Cataract Creek basin
Looking up west face of Knee-Knocker
Descending east face of Knee-knocker
Day 3. (Off trial. Don’t know distance or elevation: Not very far, but very awful.)
We took off north, hoping to gain as much elevation as possible before intersecting the Knee-Knocker branch of Black Creek. Unfortunately, we ended up dropping just about all of that elevation in order to reach the nightmare that is the Knee-Knocker branch of Black Creek. From here back up to 11,000 is genuinely terrible travel: the whole creek basin is filled with car-sized boulders and nasty willow brush.
So, to review the Black Creek approaches to Bubble Lake:
1) South Fork Black Creek: Yes, it works. We did it four years ago. Difficult, but not OVERLY torturous.
2) Bubble Lake fork of Black Creek. Impossible, unless you are equipped for what would appear to be a class 5 climb to the lake.
3) Knee-Knocker fork of Black Creek (from below). Well, we did it. But it is a shitshow. Just don’t. Seriously. You could die.
Our total distance couldn’t have been more than 2.5 to 3 miles this day. It took us 5 hours.
We arrived at the glory that is Bubble Lake, and all was forgiven/forgotten. Bubble Lake is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, with Peaks C and D towering spectacularly over the north end of the large lake. I bathed and washed clothing and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon/evening in camp. No rain today.
Bubble Lake
Day 4 (rest day):
My son had a bloody nose during the night and was not feeling too well in the morning. After sleeping in until 6:45, I took off for the upper lake. It’s a not-too-difficult route up the inlet creek, over mostly snow and talus, with just a couple class 3 moves to the upper lake. I encountered four baby marmots on the way—a first for me, I believe. The upper lake sits under Peaks D/E/F and was mostly thawed out with some icebergs. (Apparently it never thaws out some summers.) One of the iceberg cracked dramatically while I was there.
Back in camp, I did a full-immersion swim in Bubble Lake (unbelievably cold) and we napped and relaxed. We ended the day taking a short hike to the outlet, and watching the sunlight fade and the stars appear. Life is good. No rain today.
Baby Marmots!
Iceberg in upper lake
Peaks D, E, and F reflected in upper lake.
Iceberg in upper lake
Peaks C and D reflected in Bubble Lake
Outlet of Bubble Lake (Bubble Lake fork of Black Creek)
Peaks C and D reflected in Bubble Lake
Day 5 (Off trail. Don’t know distance or elevation)
Day 5 reverses what Day 2 was supposed to be. The east side of Knee-Knocker is a difficult ascent through a lot of talus and snow. It’s an odd morning: overcast and drizzly, and we’re a little anxious because in the Rockies, a high-country day that starts with bad weather usually ends up with very bad weather. But that actually never happened. We topped Knee-Knocker at about 10:30. On the way down the west side (steep, loose, tedious), the rain started increasing to more than drizzle. As we headed up the pass to Cataract Creek, the rain reached its maximum and morale was plunging, as we figured it’d be a full-on monsoon storm soon and we still had at least couple miles to camp. But, mercifully, as we topped the pass at about 12:15, the rain stopped. The flowery, brushy route down to Cataract Creek was extremely wet, but all things considered, no complaints. We made camp on the creek (same place as night 1) at about 2:00. The rain helped abate the mosquitos a little, and we had a very pleasant (but chilly) evening in camp.
Sunrise alpenglow
Sunrise over Bubble Lake
Evening alpenglow
Day 6 (ca. 7.5 miles, +1200 -1000):
It’s our only cold morning of the trip, as it dropped to around 35 overnight. We travel about 100 yards to the trail, and reverse day one’s travel: up to Elliot Ridge and out to the car. It’s a spectacular day. We hike at “shower and beers are in our immediate future” pace, and make it to the car a couple minutes after 11:00. From there it is a long, tedious drive back down to highway 9, which takes us to said showers (Silverthorne Community Center) and beers (Dillon Dam Brewery). Then we drive home.
The Gores are spectacularly beautiful, and Bubble Lake is arguably the most beautiful place in the Gores. (Upper Slate Creek would be another contender.) Do go there. But you’ve got to want it.
Day A:
We (my adult son and I) Drive from Manhattan, KS to Heeney, Co where we car camp two nights on Green Mountain Reservoir for acclimation. We stop for burgers and beers at Dillon Dam Brewery. (All backpacking trips in this area traditionally begin and end there for us.)
Day B:
We catch coffee/breakfast at a place in Frisco (amusing people watching), then hike to Mt. Victoria as a warm-up hike. It’s a fairly unremarkable climb of about 2000 ft. over about 2.5 miles to minor summit right at the treeline with views of the Frisco area and the southern Gores.
Day 1 (ca. 7.5 miles, +1000 -1200)
It starts off with a spectacular 5.5 mile ridge walk (not too upsy-downsy) on Elliot Ridge. From the base of Meridian Peak, we take the Cataract Creek Trail down to upper Cataract basin, where we leave the trail for .25 mile or so to the creek and make camp at about 10,800. We nap in the afternoon. We hit the tent a little early in the evening because the mosquitos are pretty thick at this camp. Perfect, relaxed first day except that I’m having trouble eating.
From Elliot Ridge
Dropping to Cataract Creek
From camp in Cataract Creek
Day 2. (Off trail. Don’t know distance or elevation: a lot.)
This day went really well until it all went south in the afternoon. We crossed the creek near our camp and made our way, through a bit of timber but mostly through grassy ramps, to the pass at the head of Cataract Creek. The ridge above Cataract Creek (running west from Mt. Powell) is super-rugged and scenic. It is something like 2 miles and 1,300 feet of gain (off trail) to the pass, with pretty straightforward travel and routefinding. We top the pass at about 9:00. From there, we drop a few hundred feet and then gain it back on the super-steep climb to Knee-Knocker Pass.
Travel down the east side of Knee-Knocker is tedious: steep snow, boulders and talus. But so far, so good. At around 11,000, we should have contoured to the right and up to Bubble Lake. But, somehow, we dropped too far, into the increasingly awful vortex of suckage that is Black Creek: bouldery, brushy, hell. By about 10,600 we figured out that things were not right, and made a critical error in judgment: instead of just turning around and fixing it, we tried to correct the problem by inventing an alternate approach to Bubble Lake from below. (I have always been a little curious about the Black Creek country directly below Bubble, so I got to find out.)
We tried to traverse high, with not much success, and ended up dropping into timber, eventually reaching the branch of Black Creek that flows out of Bubble Lake. By now, it was late afternoon, raining off and on, and it was completely obvious that one CANNOT travel up this branch of Black Creek directly to the lake: the creek drops from the lake the next thing to vertical. So, we made an unplanned camp in a dreadfully dank, almost-flat niche; not quite large enough for the tent, at about 9,700 ft., and planned the next day’s misery.
Upper Cataract Creek basin
Looking up west face of Knee-Knocker
Descending east face of Knee-knocker
Day 3. (Off trial. Don’t know distance or elevation: Not very far, but very awful.)
We took off north, hoping to gain as much elevation as possible before intersecting the Knee-Knocker branch of Black Creek. Unfortunately, we ended up dropping just about all of that elevation in order to reach the nightmare that is the Knee-Knocker branch of Black Creek. From here back up to 11,000 is genuinely terrible travel: the whole creek basin is filled with car-sized boulders and nasty willow brush.
So, to review the Black Creek approaches to Bubble Lake:
1) South Fork Black Creek: Yes, it works. We did it four years ago. Difficult, but not OVERLY torturous.
2) Bubble Lake fork of Black Creek. Impossible, unless you are equipped for what would appear to be a class 5 climb to the lake.
3) Knee-Knocker fork of Black Creek (from below). Well, we did it. But it is a shitshow. Just don’t. Seriously. You could die.
Our total distance couldn’t have been more than 2.5 to 3 miles this day. It took us 5 hours.
We arrived at the glory that is Bubble Lake, and all was forgiven/forgotten. Bubble Lake is quite possibly the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, with Peaks C and D towering spectacularly over the north end of the large lake. I bathed and washed clothing and we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon/evening in camp. No rain today.
Bubble Lake
Day 4 (rest day):
My son had a bloody nose during the night and was not feeling too well in the morning. After sleeping in until 6:45, I took off for the upper lake. It’s a not-too-difficult route up the inlet creek, over mostly snow and talus, with just a couple class 3 moves to the upper lake. I encountered four baby marmots on the way—a first for me, I believe. The upper lake sits under Peaks D/E/F and was mostly thawed out with some icebergs. (Apparently it never thaws out some summers.) One of the iceberg cracked dramatically while I was there.
Back in camp, I did a full-immersion swim in Bubble Lake (unbelievably cold) and we napped and relaxed. We ended the day taking a short hike to the outlet, and watching the sunlight fade and the stars appear. Life is good. No rain today.
Baby Marmots!
Iceberg in upper lake
Peaks D, E, and F reflected in upper lake.
Iceberg in upper lake
Peaks C and D reflected in Bubble Lake
Outlet of Bubble Lake (Bubble Lake fork of Black Creek)
Peaks C and D reflected in Bubble Lake
Day 5 (Off trail. Don’t know distance or elevation)
Day 5 reverses what Day 2 was supposed to be. The east side of Knee-Knocker is a difficult ascent through a lot of talus and snow. It’s an odd morning: overcast and drizzly, and we’re a little anxious because in the Rockies, a high-country day that starts with bad weather usually ends up with very bad weather. But that actually never happened. We topped Knee-Knocker at about 10:30. On the way down the west side (steep, loose, tedious), the rain started increasing to more than drizzle. As we headed up the pass to Cataract Creek, the rain reached its maximum and morale was plunging, as we figured it’d be a full-on monsoon storm soon and we still had at least couple miles to camp. But, mercifully, as we topped the pass at about 12:15, the rain stopped. The flowery, brushy route down to Cataract Creek was extremely wet, but all things considered, no complaints. We made camp on the creek (same place as night 1) at about 2:00. The rain helped abate the mosquitos a little, and we had a very pleasant (but chilly) evening in camp.
Sunrise alpenglow
Sunrise over Bubble Lake
Evening alpenglow
Day 6 (ca. 7.5 miles, +1200 -1000):
It’s our only cold morning of the trip, as it dropped to around 35 overnight. We travel about 100 yards to the trail, and reverse day one’s travel: up to Elliot Ridge and out to the car. It’s a spectacular day. We hike at “shower and beers are in our immediate future” pace, and make it to the car a couple minutes after 11:00. From there it is a long, tedious drive back down to highway 9, which takes us to said showers (Silverthorne Community Center) and beers (Dillon Dam Brewery). Then we drive home.
The Gores are spectacularly beautiful, and Bubble Lake is arguably the most beautiful place in the Gores. (Upper Slate Creek would be another contender.) Do go there. But you’ve got to want it.
