August 2012 - Nobody is ListeningNobody is Listening

The Bowen-Baker trailhead is about eight miles north of the west side entrance station. The small parking lot is just a few yards off the highway. A dirt road crosses the broad, flat valley where there is parking for a dozen or so vehicles. I parked in the paved parking lot; didn’t even consider driving farther. I was here last spring and the gate was closed, the road flooded with 4-6 inches of water.

After less than a mile of hiking, the trail leaves the park and enters the Never Summer Wilderness. The trail initially follows the stream but before long climbs the north side of the valley. Soon you reach a place where the trail was washed out last spring in a flash flood. A small alluvial fan lies a few yards below the trail. It’s not clear to me what caused the flood. There’s a small trickle of water that flows down the mountain here, but it’s not even big enough that when the trail was repaired any culvert or pipe was put in place.

The trail continues up the valley, far enough up the hillside that the stream is out of earshot. The climb is steady, but not steep. In the more forested parts, the trail is often free of roots and rocks, making for very easy walking. The view of the area opens when crossing a tumble of talus. Above you can make out the scar of the Grand Ditch. A view of the south side of the valley is presented. Avalanche zones are obvious – in places, I figure any standing trees to be less than thirty years old, judging by the size of growth in the burned areas on the Ouzel Lake trail in Wild Basin.

After passing through another stretch of forested trail, the trees again thin out. This is an avalanche zone on this side of the valley. Many trees are no longer standing straight up, but are canted at angles downhill. Other trees were recently snapped off about six feet above ground. I’m guessing much of this damage occurred last spring. From the views, it’s obvious that avalanches are a not uncommon occurrence up and down this valley.

The trail continues to climb, perhaps a bit more steeply now, until it reaches the Grand Ditch. The ditch reminds me of the Highline Canal in the Denver suburbs, capable of carrying quite a bit of water with a dirt service road running along side it. The trail continues on the other side of the ditch about a hundred yards to the west. There’s a simple twin log bridge spanning the ditch, but neither this summer nor last spring was there any water in it.

A bit farther up the trail the forest again clears revealing a pretty meadow just to the south and giving a nice view of point 12440 to the west and Bowen Mountain (12,524′) to the southwest with its craggy ridge running to the east. In the distance to the east, Long’s Peak stands like an erect nipple above the surrounding terrain. Here there are two streams to cross. At this time of year, you don’t even run the risk of getting wet feet but in spring at peak runoff they may present a bit more of a challenge. Between the stream crossing is a trail junction. To the left is Parika Lake and the Baker Pass trail to the right.

Point 12440 from first stream crossing

Last spring when I attempted this hike, I stopped here for my picnic and went no further. I had gotten a late start and wasn’t feeling all that well and decided that this was a pleasant place to watch the clouds scroll over the pyramid shaped north eastern flank of the unnamed mountain (point 12,440′) and listen to the rushing of the stream. This day, I didn’t pause here. I saw some moose footprints but didn’t see any of the beasties.

At this point the trail starts getting steep, climbing about four hundred feet in a half mile or so, arriving at another meadow. A nice little pond lies a few yards to the north of the trail. After this respite, the next section of trail makes another four hundred foot climb and the hiker is deposited at the eastern shore of Parika Lake. There’s a sign here saying that fires are not allowed past this point, but that prohibition is clearly ignored.

The trail seems to peter out here. I startled a group of marmots who were grazing here, sending them scurrying off to hide in the rocks. Actually, the trail crosses the outlet and continues up the flank of Fairview Mtn (12,246′) , crossing to the saddle between it and Parika Peak (12,392′). This trail is clearly visible from the shore of the lake where I sat and ate my lunch.

Parika Lake sits in a bit of a bowl at about 11,400′. Unlike most alpine lakes in RMNP which are surrounded by craggy, rocky peaks with often stark vertical faces, Parika Lake lies in the arms of tundra covered, (relatively) gently sloping mountains. It isn’t quite above treeline, but there are only a few small clumps of trees in the area.

After my luncheon, I stood on a rock outcropping and watched the family of marmots grazing where I first encountered them. They kept an eye on me as well. My SLR is in the shop for cleaning, so I didn’t have my telephoto lens. My wife’s little digicam has an optical zoom, but it’s not good for scanning for distant quadrupeds. Whether it was their absence or the camera, I didn’t see any goats or sheep or moose or elk. Just the marmots.

The weather was very nice. It was a bit cool when I started (8:15) but with the sunshine and activity I didn’t need a jacket. As the morning progressed, I wondered a bit if I would get any clouds at all. While picnicking and running the camera for the time lapse, the wind kicked up and the clouds began to darken to the point where I decided I didn’t need to sit there for a full hour. By the time I was back to the Baker Pass trail junction, the vaguely threatening clouds had broken up and the remainder of the day featured ideal weather.

Depending on the source, I’ve seen distances between 10.1 and 10.8 miles for this hike, with a vertical climb of about 2,500′. Being as I was parked close to the road, I’ll go with the longer distance. I hit the trail at 8:15 and took a 40 minute break at the lake and a 20 minute break at the trail junction on the way down. I returned to the car at 3:00pm. Even with the longer drive to and from the trailhead, it wasn’t too taxing a day.

From the Denver area, I took I-70 and Berthoud pass on the way there and Trail Ridge Road and US 36 on the way back. A bit over 2 hours in the morning, but given typical Sunday afternoon traffic on I-70 didn’t want to go home that way. By the way, some aspen are already turning on the east side of TRR. Maybe I’ve never paid that much attention, but I don’t recall seing them turn in August. I guess this is one sign of the current drought conditions. Not many are turning, but it’s not limited to a particular area, it’s happening all along the road.

The time lapse:

Entries were limited to forty cars. I don’t think the day was fully subscribed, but there might have been thirty or thirty five cars there – three Elises, two red 911s, three or four Miatas, a Mini, a Subaru WRX, the old Mustang that’s on all the CECA flyers, a blue AMX, a handful of Corvettes, a few BMWs, a Sunbeam Tiger, several recent Mustangs (including a 660 hp Cobra) and a supercharged Chrysler 300 (580 hp?), a first gen Viper, and a few others.

As is usual with CECA, we were broken into three groups – Green (novice), Blue (experienced, but new to this track) and Red (experienced). This was my first time here, so I was in the Blue group. According to the schedule, I’d get two morning sessions and an afternoon session. In addition, two open sessions were scheduled for the end of the day. Also as usual, each driver had to volunteer to work a corner, thus missing a session. I signed up for the second session.

The track is 1.4 miles long and shaped a bit like a wire coat hanger – roughly triangular with the access road as the part that hangs on the rod. The long side, though, isn’t straight – it has a chicane to the inside of the track. The facility isn’t really a race track, it’s there for training. The road surface is more like a regular two lane road with a painted center line and is slightly crowned. There are a lot of nasty rocks hidden in the weeds that could cause serious damage if you hit them. Although there aren’t really any elevation changes, there are a few rather extreme humps.

There were four police cars parked near the “tower” where we stood for the drivers meeting. These cars had big steel bumpers attached both front and rear, obviously so the troopers could learn how to do the “PIT maneuver”. The universal feeling was it would be fun to take those cars out and practice that ourselves.

Michael rode with me on my first session. I took the first lap fairly slowly, but even so the humps made me say “Oh shit!” when I went over them. Like bunny hops on a roller coaster, you stomach let you know you were going up and down. In fact, before the session was over Michael said “Dad, I’m not feeling too good” and I had me stop to let him out.

For working the corners, there are no corner stations like at a real track. You just stand by the turn with a couple flags, a fire extinguisher, and a radio. I was at “corner 3” which isn’t really the third turn. It’s a double apex left hander where the access road meets the track. We were positioned at the outside of the turn, which initially made me a bit nervous. I moved us a few feet farther from the track. I was stationed there with Jake, the driver of the yellow Viper. We took turns – one of us held the yellow flag while the other worked the radio.

It was instructive to watch the cars go through this turn. I couldn’t tell where they were braking, as they were coming toward us, but I could tell where they were back on the gas. There is a line painted across the track here, and I noted where each car accelerated in relation to this line. The earliest on the gas every time in this session was the Chrysler. When I went back out, I found I could get on the gas even before he did. I may have been fastest through this turn by the end of the day.

We were stationed there for each group – Red, Blue, Green. During the green session, the blue Elise spun in the middle of the turn. I was working the radio at the time. I told Jake to wave the flag while I called it in – “Control, corner three. The blue Elise spun. Lots of gravel on the track.” It took us a while to decide to suspend the session. I probably should have been quicker about it, but it took me a bit to realize both how big the “gravel” was and how much of it was on the track.

It wasn’t so much gravel as stones, and the stones were those gray angular ones common beside roads. And they were big, maybe as much as a half inch on a side. It was probably three more laps before we had everybody stop. I started sweeping the track while Jake called for more manpower. It took quite a while to clear it all up, even with three other helpers. By lunch time, I had blisters on each hand. Oops.

While I was working the corner, I saw Jerry arrive at the track. If he’d gotten there a minute earlier, he’d have been allowed in but another group of cars was on the track. There was still another group due when he got through. As he passed, I told him to find Michael and that I’d be in after the next session.

In the afternoon, Jerry got to ride twice and Michael had another go. This was the afternoon Blue session and the first open session. The second open session was cancelled, but everybody seemed to get all the time they wanted. As usual, we tended to hang out with the Miata guys. I don’t plan it that way, that’s just how it works out. Also in our little group where the Porsche guys, including Scott whom I met back in December at HPR.

I chatted briefly with the guy in the Chrysler, but he wasn’t too friendly. I should probably say “busy” rather than unfriendly. During one session I ran close to a Mustang. When we got back to the paddock I tracked him down. We nearly said “That was fun!” in unison.

To my pleasant surprise, I was one of the faster cars on the track. The guy in the red Elise was faster, and a white Corvette and the 660 hp Mustang. Somebody else may have passed me, but that was about it. Of course, there were cars I wasn’t on the track with, but still.

Soon I hope to put together a short video of the cars I passed, along with some shots that show cars going over the humps and how their suspensions are working. It won’t be in great detail, but you should get an idea of the suspension movement. I was going over one bump at full throttle in fourth gear. The car was light enough that the revs would go up noticably at the crest. As the day went on, I decided to let off the throttle there, as I sometimes went into the next turn too hot.

All in all, I had a great time and will gladly drive there again next year if it’s on the schedule. I think both Jerry and Michael enjoyed the day.