7 days/ 6 nights in the Weminuche
Aug 29, 2020 9:16:41 GMT -8
panatomicx, GaliWalker, and 7 more like this
Post by zeke on Aug 29, 2020 9:16:41 GMT -8
Once the Yellowstone trip canceled, rebeccad asked me if I would be interested in hiking with her in Colorado, essentially during the same time frame. Of course I said yes! She asked me my preferences, and my limitations, then did all of the planning. I was tagging along for the ride. We met up in Boulder, for a meet up dinner with others. Tuesday morning I set out to see some sights and try to acclimate to the elevation a little.
I drove down to Great Sand Dunes NP, but there were no available campsites, so I drove on over to Creede, Co. I could camp in 30 Mile FS CG, and did so for 2 nights. When Rebecca arrived, we set out to start the following day. Early in the am, we parked her van in the lot, and took my car down to the other end of our "horseshoe" route. The 2 ends were only 6 miles apart. We ascended the Ute Creek trail, along Ute Ridge as far as Black Lake the first day, and I was miserable. Sucking air and falling behind, I could only wonder if my days of hiking in the mts were coming to an end.
Black Lake really has nothing to recommend it, other than the big, ginormous, bull moose we saw in the evening, and then R saw him again in the morning. I retired early. I saw a cow moose the following morning while R was in the brush. Our second night was to be spent at Twin Lakes, and I spent a great portion of the day just telling myself all I needed to think about was “just make camp”. We had started the TH at 9000 ft, and Twin Lakes sat at 12,000. I was drained by the time we pulled in there. We donned fresh duds,rinsed out our dirty clothing, hanging the now somewhat clean set on a line while we hung out for a couple of hours before dinner. That night we were serenaded by coyotes.
This day we were all set to climb up to 12,400 and cross the Continental Divide near the Window, an interesting hole in the wall of the rock making up the CD. Just before we crossed the Divide, there was an influence of a higher being that stopped us, and allowed us to back down the last portion of the mountain to a tarn we had been viewing, and we took the opportunity. We arrived just about lunch time, greeting another moose just before camp, and we decided to take a zero day the following day. I needed the break.
Morning of Day 4 began with me resting my legs and R taking a hike out to Rock Lake. She returned about lunchtime, and we did some camp chores and relaxed away the afternoon. Day 5 we re-climbed the route up and over the CD, passing by the Window just as a storm threatened. We had not yet been caught out on a ridge top during an afternoon thunderstorm, and we had no intentions of this being our first. We hustled down the hill a ways before stopping for lunch, continuing on after our meal respite. About 2:30 we settled on a campsite and began to set up our abodes. A doe wandered by. We grabbed our cameras, but there shouldn’t have been a rush. Turned out this particular doe was fond of people. She hung around camp for the entire afternoon, and also the following morning. We soon discovered she liked salt, particularly the kind found in human urine. She’d hang nearby, and walk right over as soon as either of us was walking back into camp, eating the newly wet grass.
I thought she was way too comfortable around people, so I began to throw rocks in her general direction. I was trying to hit her, but was a terrible aim. Rebecca joined me in Not hitting the doe with rocks and sticks. Finally, our arms worn out, we gave up without a single strike between us. The next morning when she followed me off into the brush, I finally managed to hit her in the ribs with a thrown stick, but she never even noticed it. We broke camp assured she would be in someone’s freezer this Fall.
This day, I decided I was not up to the 2000 ft climb out of the valley, so we cut the trip short by heading out Weminuche Pass instead of heading on over to Squaw Lake and out Squaw Creek. We traveled a short ways downhill until we found a decent place to pitch camp. It left us with 2 hours of hiking the following morning. Back at the TH, we retrieved my car from the other end, grabbed a couple of showers, and went into Creede for lunch and some baked goods from the local eateries. Parting ways, we kept in touch via our cell phones until it got late. I drove on to nearly OKC before stopping for the night.
On this trip we saw several moose, heard coyotes more than once, plenty of deer, some chipmunks, and possibly a Pine Marten. If Rebecca’s pictures turn out, we may be able to positively ID that little critter.
Day one moose
Rebecca catching me after she stopped for a bush break. This sort of stop was the only time I could get out in front of her.
The little water below the big granite in the middle was our 2 night stay.
Day 3 moose, a little smaller than Day 1's.
The Window.
New growth on a spruce.
A possible afternoon storm, that never reached us.
Rebecca photographing the reflections on the water.
I drove down to Great Sand Dunes NP, but there were no available campsites, so I drove on over to Creede, Co. I could camp in 30 Mile FS CG, and did so for 2 nights. When Rebecca arrived, we set out to start the following day. Early in the am, we parked her van in the lot, and took my car down to the other end of our "horseshoe" route. The 2 ends were only 6 miles apart. We ascended the Ute Creek trail, along Ute Ridge as far as Black Lake the first day, and I was miserable. Sucking air and falling behind, I could only wonder if my days of hiking in the mts were coming to an end.
Black Lake really has nothing to recommend it, other than the big, ginormous, bull moose we saw in the evening, and then R saw him again in the morning. I retired early. I saw a cow moose the following morning while R was in the brush. Our second night was to be spent at Twin Lakes, and I spent a great portion of the day just telling myself all I needed to think about was “just make camp”. We had started the TH at 9000 ft, and Twin Lakes sat at 12,000. I was drained by the time we pulled in there. We donned fresh duds,rinsed out our dirty clothing, hanging the now somewhat clean set on a line while we hung out for a couple of hours before dinner. That night we were serenaded by coyotes.
This day we were all set to climb up to 12,400 and cross the Continental Divide near the Window, an interesting hole in the wall of the rock making up the CD. Just before we crossed the Divide, there was an influence of a higher being that stopped us, and allowed us to back down the last portion of the mountain to a tarn we had been viewing, and we took the opportunity. We arrived just about lunch time, greeting another moose just before camp, and we decided to take a zero day the following day. I needed the break.
Morning of Day 4 began with me resting my legs and R taking a hike out to Rock Lake. She returned about lunchtime, and we did some camp chores and relaxed away the afternoon. Day 5 we re-climbed the route up and over the CD, passing by the Window just as a storm threatened. We had not yet been caught out on a ridge top during an afternoon thunderstorm, and we had no intentions of this being our first. We hustled down the hill a ways before stopping for lunch, continuing on after our meal respite. About 2:30 we settled on a campsite and began to set up our abodes. A doe wandered by. We grabbed our cameras, but there shouldn’t have been a rush. Turned out this particular doe was fond of people. She hung around camp for the entire afternoon, and also the following morning. We soon discovered she liked salt, particularly the kind found in human urine. She’d hang nearby, and walk right over as soon as either of us was walking back into camp, eating the newly wet grass.
I thought she was way too comfortable around people, so I began to throw rocks in her general direction. I was trying to hit her, but was a terrible aim. Rebecca joined me in Not hitting the doe with rocks and sticks. Finally, our arms worn out, we gave up without a single strike between us. The next morning when she followed me off into the brush, I finally managed to hit her in the ribs with a thrown stick, but she never even noticed it. We broke camp assured she would be in someone’s freezer this Fall.
This day, I decided I was not up to the 2000 ft climb out of the valley, so we cut the trip short by heading out Weminuche Pass instead of heading on over to Squaw Lake and out Squaw Creek. We traveled a short ways downhill until we found a decent place to pitch camp. It left us with 2 hours of hiking the following morning. Back at the TH, we retrieved my car from the other end, grabbed a couple of showers, and went into Creede for lunch and some baked goods from the local eateries. Parting ways, we kept in touch via our cell phones until it got late. I drove on to nearly OKC before stopping for the night.
On this trip we saw several moose, heard coyotes more than once, plenty of deer, some chipmunks, and possibly a Pine Marten. If Rebecca’s pictures turn out, we may be able to positively ID that little critter.
Day one moose
Rebecca catching me after she stopped for a bush break. This sort of stop was the only time I could get out in front of her.
The little water below the big granite in the middle was our 2 night stay.
Day 3 moose, a little smaller than Day 1's.
The Window.
New growth on a spruce.
A possible afternoon storm, that never reached us.
Rebecca photographing the reflections on the water.