Category Archives: Recreation

Portland Trip: Time Lapse and Timed Laps

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It seems like it’s taken forever, but it’s been only (only?) four weeks. Perhaps I took the wrong path, but I wanted to post all the videos in one shot. And here it is.

Deschutes River

The skies were a clear blue for almost the entire float down the river, so if I wanted to do a time lapse I’d have to get creative. Mark suggested that it might be interesting to see the shadows move on the canyon wall, which I thought was worth a try. The challenge was in the timing. I didn’t know if the movement of the shadows of the rocks would be interesting, so I wanted to also get the shadow of the opposite wall climbing to the sky as the sun set. If I started too early, I’d run out of memory on the SD card. If I started too late, I’d only get part of the picture.

I’m pleased with the result. I did have a technical glitch, though. After a while I noticed that the camera was no longer shooting. The display showed Err: 999, whatever that is. I turned it off and back on and kept an eagle eye on it in case it happened again. It did, but the second time I caught it pretty quickly. So there’s only one significant discontinuity.

The Ridge

For some reason, I can’t get DashWare to use the location data for these sessions. It’s in the file but no joy with the software. That had the side effect of making it very difficult to sync with the video. Because I expect to run faster laps at the end of the day, I save my favorite angle for last – topless center mount.

Portland International Raceway

At PIR, when I launched RaceChrono it gave me a message that my demo copy had expired and telemetry would only last five minutes. But DashWare handled the position data this time, so the map is back and it was easy to sync but no RPM or throttle data. At PIR I had a carried a passenger for my final final session. I think I was driving better, finally putting two and three turns together each lap. Not my fastest time, though – the passenger is nearly a ten percent weight disadvantage.

Oregon Raceway Park

Clearly, I have a setup issue. The telemetry from the OBD-II is working but the position isn’t working. Perhaps it’s a metadata issue. I’d have liked to been able to make two videos for the ORP day, one for each direction. Good data and video from the morning. In the afternoon the lap counter wasn’t working for two sessions and I forgot to start the camera on the third. So it’s just the counter-clockwise lap.

I’m trying to figure out how to make DashWare work. I don’t like the green gauges, but I’m sure I’ll try a lot of things I may not like. I’d like to have the RPM gauge indicate the second cam.

Mt. Hood

Nice clouds on this one. Almost looked like the volcano was steaming at one point. Both cameras pretty much had no choice but to film the same thing, and placement problems for the GoPro to boot.

Grand Tetons

I like the way this one came out, in spite of the exposure issues.

Portland Trip: Day 15 – Grand Tetons

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September 6, 2014

As has been standard operating procedure on this trip, I was up early, had breakfast at the motel, and got a sandwich to carry for lunch. I fueled up and was on the road, Idaho route 33, by seven. The first notable terrain feature is the sight of the Grand Tetons from the west side, near Driggs. The range as a whole looks like a giant set of teeth, and one of them looks like a giant shark’s fin. I probably should have stopped and tried to get a picture, but I was looking pretty much directly into the sun so I didn’t figure I’d get one to come out.

ID 33 continues south from Driggs before turning southeast to the foot of Teton pass. Now in Wyoming, the route is designated WY 22, but it’s the same road. This is easily the steepest pass of my trip, and one of the steepest passes I’ve ever crossed. It’s a 10% grade both sides, with many hairpin turns. At the foot of the pass on the eastern side, we cross the Snake River, circle East Gros Ventre Butte, rejoin our old friend US 26 and wind through Jackson, Wyoming.

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Rolling north towards the park, Jackson Hole Airport is on the left. I missed the Fed’s Economic Policy Symposium at Jackson by a couple weeks, but there’s no shortage of expensive hardware operating here. A sleek Gulfstream was landing as I drove past.

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After entering the park (and crossing the Snake again), I stopped at the visitor center. I had been asking for hiking recommendations for some time. One suggestion was Phelps Lake, but I ended up deciding on starting at String Lake and going north past Leigh Lake and Bearpaw Lake to Trapper Lake. I found an idle ranger standing by a large map.

“Any reports of bear activity on the trail to Trapper Lake?”

“I’ve never seen a bear there.”

“Do you suppose I’ll be able to find somebody to hike with at the trailhead?”

“Who knows? Take your bear spray, make lots of noise, sing. If you’re a bad singer, all the better.”

That wasn’t very helpful. He’s never seen a bear there, but is that never on three hikes or never on thirty hikes? As it turns out, that’s a very heavily travelled trail. I don’t think I went 5 minutes without seeing other hikers, and that was before the trail got crowded. By the time I headed back to the car it was pretty much a conga-line hike.

The weather was gorgeous – a clear, cloudless day, calm and not too warm. The trail runs south to north along the shores of String Lake and Leigh Lake, so there’s no vertical component to speak of. I did take one of the trails that head up the valleys to the west hoping to get to an overlook but turned around before long without success. As I got toward the northern end of Leigh Lake I decided to go no further. The views were going from awesome to somewhat less awesome the farther north I went.

The sky was still cloudless but I set up the GoPro anyway. An occasional wisp would form over Mt. St. John and Grand Teton, but they disappeared very quickly. I hung out on the beach here for forty minutes or so, ate my lunch (the sandwich squashed, now resembling flatbread) and watched the boaters and kayakers on the lake.

My original plan was to hang out here most of the day, then head to a motel in Riverton for an easy day’s drive home tomorrow. Sitting on the beach I started pondering my options. If I left by two, I could probably be home by midnight. Or, I could drive through Yellowstone and see the sights. Having lounged by Leigh Lake for a sufficient time, I headed back toward the car.

Back near the parking lot, where there’s a nice view to the southwest, cloud action had improved over Grand Teton. I decided to sit there for another spell and got both cameras running. Here the trail was about fifteen feet from the shore of String Lake. The SLR clicking off a shot every two seconds caught the attention of most passersby, so I chatted with quite a few hikers. One was a wildlife photographer who had recently retired. We discussed 500mm lenses and I explained my process for shooting time lapse.

Several mentioned that the road to Old Faithful is closed and the traffic in Yellowstone is very bad. I mentally crossed off one of my options. I was wearing my Broncos cap, so another topic of conversation with folks was football. A Seahawks fan gave me grief, and a 49ers fan vowed that the Seahawks wouldn’t win their division. Even with letting the cameras run a good, long time I ended up back at the car a few minutes after two. Having eliminated Yellowstone as an option, I headed toward Riverton.

Portland Trip: Day 10 – Mt. Hood

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September 1, 2014

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Mt. Hood

My normal routine for hiking is to hit the road early and take a bagel with me for breakfast at the trailhead. Today I waited for the Café to open and have a hearty breakfast – eggs, hash browns, bacon, sourdough toast – and get a sack lunch made. I thanked Mark for all his hospitality and bid him adieu.

I think there’s only one gas station in Maupin and when I pulled in I don’t see any premium. “Looking for the good stuff?” asked the proprietor. The premium is the same as fuel at ORP, 92 octane with no ethanol. And like at the track, it’s pumped from an above ground tank. As has become routine, I answered questions about the car.

IMG_6073sFrom Maupin to Timberline Lodge I retrace my steps from day before yesterday. The morning was bright and cloudless and afforded beautiful views of Mt. Hood. It looked to be another wonderful day, much in contrast to my Mt. St. Helens hike.

Once on the trail, I couldn’t help but notice that they mark trails here differently than in RMNP. The signs indicate which trail (by trail number) you’re following rather than telling the hiker what the trail’s destination is. That caused me a bit of confusion. I knew I wanted to go to Paradise Park, but I wasn’t sure what trail led me there. I was fairly certain I needed to take the Pacific Crest Trail but I had a nagging doubt. I soon caught up to another hiker who said he was going to Paradise Park as well. I was happy to have confirmation that I was headed the right direction.

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Mt. Hood from Timberline Lodge

The hike starts at Timberline Lodge, passing under the ski lifts. There were quite a few people in the parking lot with skis or snowboards but I only saw a few actually on the lift. I put boots on the trail at 9:30. It was still quite cool, I wore both a windbreaker and a hoodie. With the sun shining brightly, it wasn’t long before I shed one then the other. The first section of trail had nice views of Hood and Jefferson, but otherwise there’s not much to see. The trail contours around the mountain clockwise, through some scraggly trees, under the chair lifts, and past a communication tower before entering the forest proper.

For the most part, the trail was generally sandy. There were very few big roots and not many rocks except near the lodge. It was easy to maintain a good stride and I moved efficiently. More about this later.

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Mt. Jefferson, over Timberline Lodge

The next notable terrain feature I come to is a V-shaped ravine carved by a small creek. There’s no bridge here. In RMNP I’d expect a couple of logs, at least. But the soil is very sandy and looks like it erodes quite easily. I suppose any sort of minor bridge here would just have its ends undermined in a short time, rendering such a bridge impractical. Not a big deal, it was very easy to cross.

Zigzag Canyon overlook was next. That previous ravine was a miniature version of Zigzag Canyon. (Looking at the USGS topo map, I think it was Little Zigzag Canyon) Here the trail drops about 400’ to the river, then gains most of that back. The summit of Mt. Hood is nicely visible here. The hike down to the river is very lush. The stream itself (Zigzag River?) is much larger than previous stream but nearly as easy to cross. Again, there’s no bridge.

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Zigzag Canyon

The trail climbs consistently from here to the Paradise Park trail junction, then climbs some more. Forest alternates with open meadows filled with daisy-like purple wildflowers. Up close, the ground looks mostly purple, but from a distance these meadows look green. Bees were everywhere. There must be millions of bees – my guess without thinking was 100,000 bees per acre. Every square yard had several bees.

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Wildflower and bee

I soon found myself in a nice meadow with an unobstructed view of the summit. I’m used to hiking where there are lots of rocks and downed trees. Nothing like that here, the meadow was just grass and wildflowers with a trail running through it. So there was no convenient place to set the GoPro. The SLR wasn’t a problem because the tripod was taller than the flora, but the GoPro only sits a few inches off the ground. So I just set the cameras up in the shorter grass along the trail. This was a little spur trail, so not as much traffic as the main trail.

IMG_6095sI let the cameras run for nearly an hour. Although the sky was clear when I set out from Timberline Lodge, some nice clouds were sweeping past the summit. At times it seemed like the clouds were coming out of the mountain itself, which is fitting for a volcano. For most of my hikes in RMNP, I’m at secluded lakes and nobody is around. While I was shooting, a couple of hikers came by. The SLR clicking off every two seconds turns out to be quite the conversation starter.

I got back to the main trail and decided to do the loop rather than return the way I arrived. I met a couple of girls from Laramie and we each took the others’ pictures for them. They were doing the loop, too. I paused to refill water from a nice stream and they left my sight. I tried to follow the trail but kept getting into camp sites, except once at a dead-end overlooking a waterfall. I retraced my steps a couple of times (generally straight up the slope) and ended up going back the way I came.

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Wildflower and bee

After a while I came to two women who were standing next to a trail marker, consulting a map. I told them what I wanted to do and one pointed to a narrow trail heading straight down slope. “That’s the Paradise Park Loop trail”. So I headed that way. After a while it intersected the Pacific Crest Trail and turned left. At another overlook I met a couple who were trying to get to Ramona Falls. They said they went a little farther along the route I was taking but turned around because it got steep. I wonder where they came from then?

I continued and after a fair amount of descent came to the trail junction I’d been at earlier. I was happy to now be on familiar ground. Just a bit more descent to the Zigzag River, then the climb out of the canyon. It took me quite a while longer to ascend than to descend earlier in the day. I kept thinking the ordeal would be over as from the overlook back to the lodge was mostly slight up and down, or at least that’s how I remembered it. Perhaps part of the reason I was moving so efficiently in the morning was that the trail was slightly downhill. To my chagrin in the afternoon, I realized it’s pretty much uphill all the way from the Zigzag overlook to the lodge. I was really feeling it by the end. But once I saw the communications tower, my spirits and my pace picked up.

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Crossing the Zigzag

I didn’t see any wildlife bigger than a squirrel and no interesting birds (e.g. raptors). Not many birds at all. Just lots of bees. The weather was beautiful all day. No clouds visible when I hit the trail, one bank lying behind the mountain from my vantage, just higher than the shoulder of the mountain. By the time I got the cameras running, thin clouds were shrouding the peak. Moving fairly quickly, never really obscuring it until I was done.

One thing that I think made the hike harder than I’m used to is the humidity. I perspired quite a bit, but it didn’t evaporate, so no cooling effect. Elevation was certainly no problem, trailhead starts at about 5800′. Paradise Park is about the same. From the topo map it looks like there’s a total of 1,000’ of elevation change.

After the hike, I had to drive to Tigard for three days in the office. I don’t have much to say about the drive. Most of it was US 26, a repeat (in the opposite direction) of a few days before. This being the Monday of a holiday weekend, however, traffic was bad. The first few miles were at a crawl. Luckily that didn’t last long and I was in Tigard for dinner.

Portland Trip: Day 8 – Mt. St. Helens

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August 30, 2014

For much of this trip I’ve been awake before the alarm. Today was no exception. I was out of the hotel by 6:30. There’s a Subway next to the motel, so I got a sandwich to carry with me for lunch. The drive to Johnston Ridge Observatory (JRO) takes me up I-5 for a short distance, then eastbound on WA 504. I arrived at JRO by 8 and was on the trail by 8:10. Although the forecast was for a sunny and warm day, I couldn’t see the mountain which was well obscured by rain clouds. I was the only one there.

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Not far up the trail it started raining lightly. After a while it the rain was coming down hard enough to get out the poncho. Of course, once I had the poncho on, it stopped. But not for long. Once the rain returned, it got progressively worse and worse. By 9:45 I decided this wasn’t any fun so I turned around. On the way back, the clouds were a bit lighter, but still raining.

I thought the terrain was interesting. For the most part, there is no sign this was ever forest. But in one place on the back side of the ridge, there are tree stumps a few inches tall and some large deadfall, all pointing exactly away from where I assume the mountain is. The ground in places is covered with something not quite like moss, not quite like lichen. There is little ground cover otherwise. There are wildflowers in places, and shrubs in the gullies that coated me with water when the trail passed through them.

IMG_6037sThe trail is free of roots (for obvious reasons) and mostly free of rocks, making the hiking easy. Along the trail are large posts, taller and bigger than signposts and without signs. I thought they were a bit odd, but didn’t pay them much attention until on my way back. Because there is little ground cover, if visibility is degraded it can be difficult to follow the trail. I found the posts very helpful in the near fog conditions on the way back.

This hike is the “No Fun Trifecta”: cold, wet, and miserable.

Back at JRO, I went inside to watch one of their movies and check out the exhibits. At the end of the movie, they open large curtains revealing a wall of windows, presumably facing the mountain. Everybody went “oooh” but it would have been better had it been clear and the volcano was actually visible. No food or drink allowed inside, so I drove down to the Elk Rock overlook and ate lunch at 12:30.

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Rumor has it there’s a volcano around here

I stopped at another viewpoint a little farther down. You get a nice view of a large bridge but it wasn’t as scenic as I’d hoped. Beside the sign with the description of the bridge were other signs detailing how Weyerhauser had planted trees here, how big their investment was, and when each section would be harvested. I’m in the middle of a giant tree farm.

IMG_6048sI shouldn’t complain too much about the weather. This is the first day it was unsuitable for my activities. The silver lining in this cloud is that I was able to take my time on the way back to Maupin, where Mark kindly put me up for the night. He’s only a short distance from Oregon Raceway Park, my next destination.

The route took me south on I-5 and I-205 to Portland where I headed west on I-84. I exited I-84 on suburban streets that eventually lead me to US 26 where I refueled. This route let me scout the location of the trailhead for the Mt. Hood hike, which is planned for two days hence.

At Government Camp, I pulled over to make a phone call. A couple guys pull up and wait for me to finish. The driver gets out, all excited to see the car, particularly in these colors as he’s wearing Oregon gear. He says his 2 year old daughter loves Elises and he wants to get a picture of her in front of it. She couldn’t care less, but he’s pretty psyched.

By now I needed a rest stop and luckily there was one nearby. It’s still a bit on the chilly side and overcast. There I chatted with a guy riding a classic BMW motorcycle, mid-70’s. He’s trying to get warm and not having much luck.

Back on the road, I find OR 216 shortly after I pass the turnoff for Timberline Lodge and head east. It runs a pretty straight route, through pleasant pine forest before transitioning to high desert. Pretty quickly I arrive at Mark’s, it’s only 5:30. At the Café I dined on a bacon cheeseburger and a blackberry shake, which is strictly against my low sugar diet but much enjoyed. Afterwards, I visited with Mark over a couple beers.

Portland Trip: Days 3-5 – Deschutes River

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August 25-27, 2014

I spent the night in one of the cabins at the Oasis and had breakfast in the café. We were packed up and ready to go by nine. Before long we were at the river. We put in at Warm Springs. I stood around watching as Mark did all the work. This was to be a recurring theme for the trip.

Mark has been a fishing guide and outfitter on the Deschutes for eighteen years. Everybody on the river knows him and he knows everybody. Although this was a “simple camping trip” where I could relax and enjoy the ride, I think I got a good glimpse into what Mark does for a living. He has all the gear required to provide his clients a fair amount of luxury while they flog the water. For this trip, he brought only a small amount – stove with fuel, three days food and water, chairs, cots, sleeping bags, dry bags with personal items, and a cooler full of beer.

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First picture on the river

I’m not sure what time we put into the river. I powered off my phone before stepping into the boat and didn’t turn it back on for three days. I slathered on the sunscreen, sat back and relaxed as we started our trip. There seemed to me to be quite a few folks fishing. Mark greeted them all: “We’re not fishing. Just floating, having fun.”

IMG_3893sThis was not a white water adventure. We would have only one rapids I’d call whitewater; only that one spot where we had to don our life jackets and put the camera into the dry bag. There were some ripples on the water every so often where we might get splashed a bit, but nothing big.

My attention was drawn first to the geology. The canyon walls are basalt, formed from myriad hexagonal cylinders that stand nearly vertical. The basalt was deposited in several layers. Different layers have different diameters of these “cylinders”. As the walls erode, the cylinders break into rocks that pile up and soil goes on top of the piles. They’re not quite vertical; lean somewhat to the west such that the eastern walls tended to be steeper while the western walls were more sloped. Sometimes the canyon was pretty narrow, other times quite wide.

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Detail of hexagonal construction of the walls. The hexagons are different sizes in different layers.

The geology, once noted, generally didn’t focus much of my attention. The wildlife, however, did. Over the three days, we saw ducks and geese, kingfishers, ravens, and crows. Wild horses on the reservation side, deer on our side (and in camp in the morning). Lizards and snakes. The ubiquitous ground squirrels. And one morning I awoke to find what I thought were raccoon tracks. Mark had neglected to secure the cooler and the trash, but our visitor molested neither.

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Osprey in stationary flight, hunting for fish below.

But it was the ospreys that I spent the most time watching. We didn’t float too long – we probably could have floated the entire distance in a single day – and by early afternoon had pulled into Hobo to make camp. While Mark took a nap, I found a spot in the somewhat limited shade of a dead tree. An osprey would station herself above the river, flying in place, hunting trout below. Then she’d fly to a high branch in an evergreen. I wondered if she was resting or still hunting. Before long I had my answer – she took flight and dove to the water. She aborted this dive, flew low above the river and returned to her perch.

IMG_3889sI must have watched this three hours or so. She did dive into the water once while I watched but came up empty handed (taloned?). It was about this time I regretted not bringing my longer lens. Throughout the trip I saw other ospreys hunt the same way. I saw them dive into the water several times and at least twice I saw birds carrying trout to their nests but never saw the kill itself.

Early on, there was a fair amount of company on the river. We passed several guys fishing and saw their gear being taken ahead of them to their campsite. A number of privateer groups floated by on rafts as well. There were more folks on the river the first day than the second. I enjoyed the solitude.

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This guy is on camp duty. He goes ahead of the guides and sets up camp while the clients fish.

We slept in sleeping bags on cots outside under the stars. Mark had tarps with us should it rain, but with the exception of a couple hours that first afternoon we had beautiful blue cloudless skies. Being a city boy, I rarely get to see the Milky Way. We sat drinking beer watching the stars come out. Saw a few satellites and identified the flight path the airliners took, probably from Seattle to SF or LA.

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Explosives Dangerous

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Private Crossing

I started the second day a bit earlier than I anticipated. I awoke perhaps an hour before dawn and watched the reverse process of the night before – the stars fading one after another as the skies lightened and dawn broke. Once it was light enough to walk, I found my way to the railroad tracks and followed them upstream a bit. In camp, I found a pile of railroad spikes. Here at the tracks, I couldn’t help but notice how many spikes were missing from the ties. I was reassured the next day to find a section of track where the old wooden ties had been replace with new concrete ones.

After Mark cooked a hearty breakfast (and cleaned up and packed up and loaded the boat while I watched), we resumed our float. There’s no shade on the boat and the sun was quite warm. I was just about to ask if we could pull over for some lunch and some shade when we approached a railroad bridge over the river. Above here, the trains ran on the east bank; below us they would run on the west. Just after passing under the bridge, Mark pulled us onto a nice beach. We had arrived at Northern Junction.

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Early morning pano above Hobo camp.

Mark’s original idea was just to grab lunch and shade. We took only a few things out of the boat. If any outfitters arrived, we’d pack up and head to a camp a bit downstream. Today, though, there was very little traffic on the river. One group of privateers asked “Any room at the inn?” but by then inertia had set in and we weren’t about to move. Mark said the other two sites here were available but they continued downstream.

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The Beach at Northern Junction pano

Only three or four trains a day run on these tracks. This afternoon, maintenance teams were out. Two trucks passed north to south, a pickup truck and a larger truck. A short time later they headed back the way they came. I really have no idea what these guys do, but it was interesting seeing them pass by.

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Service truck and raft

With no clouds, I had nearly resigned myself to not shooting a time lapse on this trip. Mark made the suggestion I try to get the shadows moving on the canyon walls. The rocks directly above us were quite rugged and had lots of shadows. I set the SLR up somewhat before sunset and let it run. I let it go until the shadows from the other side of the canyon walked up the east wall.

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Southbound Train

At dusk, we were visited by some bats. They flew up and down the shoreline, sometimes passing just a foot or three from our heads. When I went river rafting in high school, we would throw pebbles in the air when bats were close. They’d chase the pebble for a couple of instants before deciding they weren’t food. But, as I said, inertia had set in and I wasn’t that interested in messing with the bats.

IMG_3892sOur campsite had quite a bit more shade than the previous night. This was great for daylight but the extra shade limited the star-gazing somewhat. Mark set up his cot near the water while I picked a fairly open place above. I stayed awake as long as I could, watching the sky. A train awoke me sometime in the middle of the night. Mark had “warned” me that the trains put on quite a light show when they come through, but even so I wasn’t fully prepared. I think of locomotives having one headlight. This train had about a dozen, all very bright. As it came around a corner it lit the entire canyon wall before the next bend had it cast a cone of light on our campsite. Very cool.

The next morning I managed to sleep until nearly dawn. I rolled over onto my right side and saw a deer. She looked at me then bounded into the brush. I got dressed and headed upstream on the access road to a ridge with a trail that leads to the rocks high above our camp. I had no intention of going all the way; just far enough to get a nice view.

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Northern Junction early morning pano

From our campsite, we could see a flag flying on these high rocks. Mark tells me the guy who put it there also has a logbook there. Every year he sends Christmas cards to whoever signs the log. Given a couple extra hours of time in camp (and a pair of hiking boots), I’d have considered going up that far.

The highlight of our third morning on the river was White Horse rapids. This was the only time we had to don our life jackets and the only time I had the camera in a dry bag. Mark has been through this on the order of 150 times but he’s not complacent about it. He knows other seasoned outfitters who’ve flipped their boats here. Although he doesn’t need to get out of the boat and scout the rapids from the shore, we did get out so I could see what we were going through. He casually pointed out a couple of rocks: “That one’s ‘Can Opener’ and over there is ‘Oh Shit’.”

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White Horse Rapids

Yesterday we saw a number of maintenance trucks running up and down the tracks. This morning we saw a maintenance train. I’ve lived within a mile of railroad tracks for the last eighteen years or so and never saw one of these.

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Maintenance train

We were off the river by noon or so and quickly back to the Oasis for lunch. After eating, I reloaded the car and hit the road for points north – Shelton, WA and The Ridge Motorsports Park.

I had a fantastic time. Can’t wait for the chance to do it again. Next time I’ll be sure to take the telephoto lens.

I’m still putting together the time lapse video and will post it soon. In the mean time, here are a few more pictures.

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Wild Horses

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Osprey platform with perch

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Geese

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More wild horses

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Canyon wall pano

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Layers

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Portland Trip: Day 2 Diversion – Blue Basin

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August 24, 2014

From Wikipedia:

After road-building made the [John Day] valley more accessible, settlers established farms, ranches, and a few small towns along the river and its tributaries. Paleontologists have been unearthing and studying the fossils in the region since 1864, when Thomas Condon, a missionary and amateur geologist, recognized their importance and made them known globally. Parts of the basin became a National Monument in 1975.

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Sheep Rock from the parking lot of the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center

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Day River valley, looking northwest

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Exhibit and “Fossil”

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Not quite a 360 degree panorama at the end of the trail

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Blue Basin, from Overlook trail

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Dried mud

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I hiked up the Island in Time Trail, which runs 1.3 miles from the parking lot to a cul-de-sac in the center of the Blue Basin. The canyon walls are a pale blue-green and appear to be quite soft. Getting off the trail is a no-no. There are exhibits and fossil replicas along the way, as well as thirteen metal bridges. In about the only shady spot on the hike, there’s a sign low to the ground pointing to the Blue Basin Overlook Trail, the other end being quite at the trailhead. I went about a half mile up this trail to get a higher angle view of the place.

This blue layer of earth is exposed throughout the valley. It’s at the base of Sheep Rock, a few miles south of Blue Basin, and you can see it to the north on the other side of the river. But it’s most striking here.

Box Lake and Eagle Lake

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Saturday I hiked to Box Lake and Eagle Lake.

I was hoping to hit the trail by 7:30, but I got out of the house a few minutes late and had to stop for gas in Lyons. I was late enough I had to show my pass at the entrance and the rangers were directing traffic in the parking lot. Again I was parked in a small end spot right next to the trash cans and bathrooms.

“You were here last week, weren’t you?” No, it was three weeks ago. “Yeah, you were parked at the Finch Lake trailhead.” Turns out he used to own an Elise. A red one – he said everybody asked if it was a Ferrari.

He asked where I was headed and told me the bridge at Ouzel Falls is out. It didn’t matter to me; I take the campground shortcut anyway. He then told me a sow with two cubs has been hanging around Thunder Lake.

I wasn’t much behind schedule; hit the trail at 7:45. To get to Box Lake you must first get to Thunder Lake. The distance is 6.2 miles with a climb of only a tad over two thousand feet. The first stretch of trail follows the North St. Vrain. This part is heavily traveled in the afternoon with folks out to see Calypso Cascades. You arrive at the campground shortcut just before the trail crosses the river. The shortcut meets the Thunder Lake trail above the second river crossing and eliminates Calypso Cascades, Ouzel Falls, and six tenths of a mile.

With the exception of the campground shortcut, the trail is generally wide, seldom steep, and often free of rocks and roots, allowing for a faster pace. The next milestone is the junction with the Lion Lake trail. This is about halfway from the shortcut to Thunder Lake. Next are a couple of stream crossings and finally a short descent to the lake. Rather than the usual hitch rack there’s a corral.

Once at Thunder Lake, the idea is to cross the outlet, contour around the eastern buttress of Tanima Peak and ascend a gully to Box Lake. Foster warns “be careful not to get too high on the steep, cliff-ridden slopes.” From Box Lake, climb to the top of the next bench to reach Eagle Lake.

The streams are running quite high for mid-August, and Thunder Lake was spilling into the meadow on its eastern shore in several places. The water flows through the grass in a great swath. It’s possible to cross without going more than ankle deep, but only just.

Once across the outlet, there’s a faint trail. I didn’t spot it at first so I headed around the slope. I quickly found the trail. Long stretches of it aren’t so faint, but it does fade in and out in the grassier parts. I think that without a trail, I doubt I’d have gotten there. For the most part, the trail took the obvious route. But there were times when I’d have gone a different way if there was no trail.

Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker

The route alternates between forest and meadow. The meadows are vibrantly carpeted with blue, yellow, red, and white wildflowers. It was quite breezy at Thunder Lake, but here in the lee of Tanima Peak it is calm. The sun is shining brightly in a brilliant blue sky punctuated with the small, fast moving clouds so common here along the divide.

The trail dips a bit before reaching the gully. Here we climb through meadows bordered by granite. Water burbles down the slope, feeding the prolific flowers. There is a rich insect life here, as well. The mosquitoes were out in force. Every time I stopped I was swarmed by them.

Box Lake

Box Lake sits just over the top of the gulley. While it’s in a nice setting, the surrounding views are not dramatic. Eagle Lake is the true destination on this hike, and it’s just another quarter mile away. Climb another gully to the top of the next bench. Foster warns about “nasty krummholz” but the path I took it wasn’t a problem. There’s an unnamed pond here, bigger than I was expecting. It has a nice view of the valleys to the east. Continuing on over mostly bare rock, it was a simple matter of following cairns in a straight line to my destination.

Unnamed pond

Eagle Lake is fairly large. I sat on a rock above the lake with views of the Continental Divide over the lake to the west and Mt. Meeker and a sliver of Longs to the South. I set up the cameras then broke out my picnic lunch. It never ceases to amaze me how much better food tastes when I’m sitting by an alpine lake.

Eagle Lake

As is usual in these places, it was a bit breezy. I was looking forward to a breeze thinking it would minimize the mosquito situation. Unfortunately, the damn things managed to buzz around my head the whole time I was there. I don’t think I got bitten, but they sure were annoying.

After about forty minutes I started packing up. The weather was still quite nice. With all the moisture we’ve been having lately I was concerned a thunder shower would brew up, but there was never a threatening cloud.

There wasn’t much traffic on the trail in the morning. Near the trailhead I passed a group of six or eight guys loaded down with gear. Three runners passed me about a half hour apart and I chatted with a solo hiker on the shortcut section. On the way down I ran into people as soon as I returned to Thunder Lake.

Just after I passed the spur to the campsite, I encountered another group of heavily laden hikers. They were going to do Mt. Alice tomorrow, via Lake of Many Winds and Boulder-Grand Pass. It wasn’t until a few after we chatted that I realized this was the same group I passed first thing in the morning. Made me feel sort of good. I made it to Thunder Lake in two and a half hours and it took these guys half my age six. Of course, they had heavy packs, were only going as fast as their slowest guy, and for all I know they took a side trip to Lion Lake.

Pilot Mtn and Mount Alice from Thunder Lake

Shortly after talking to them I met another solo hiker refilling his water from a stream. He had hit the trail at five and spent most of the day above treeline. From Lion Lake he summited Mt Alice, Pilot Mtn, and Tanima Peak. Quite an ambitious hike. He probably beat me back to the parking lot by a half hour.

Timetable

 ThereBack
Trailhead07:45 AM04:25 PM
Shortcut (bottom)08:10 AM03:50 PM
Shortcut (top)08:50 AM03:05 PM
Lion Lake trail jct09:20 AM02:30 PM
Thunder Lake10:15 AM01:25 PM
Box Lake11:15 PM12:30 PM
Eagle Lake11:35 PM12:20 PM

Hutcheson Lakes

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About a week ago I decided it was time to hike to Cony Lake. Last time I tried to hike to Cony I took a break at Pear Lake where I managed to leave my the SLR and tripod. Although the mission was aborted, I enjoyed a long lunch at Pear.

It’s 9.2 miles to Cony. I’d forgotten how long it was until I checked the Foster guide for a refresher. I wasn’t sure I was ready for an eighteen and a half mile hike. I spent a couple days telling myself I could do it. By Friday morning, there was no wavering. All systems go for a 6am departure, boots on the trail by 7:30. Last year it took me three hours to get to Pear. It’s 2.2 miles from Pear to Cony, so that shouldn’t be more than an hour and a half. Two hours tops. Lunch at Cony by 12:30, half hour lunch, back to the car by 6pm.

Saturday dawned cool and cloudless but a bit hazy – smoke from the fires in Washington and Oregon? I hit the road a few minutes behind schedule but traffic was light and I put boots on the trail promptly at 7:30. I brought micro spikes with me, but at the last moment decided not to carry them.

The trail climbs steeply from the parking lot to the top of the first ridge, about six hundred feet in a bit over a half mile. The climb ends with a hairpin; turning west the trail borders a meadow then enters an aspen grove. At the junction with Allenspark trail, another long climb begins – six hundred more feet in a half mile. Shortly after the junction we enter the eastern end of the burn area from 1978. Nice views of Meeker, Longs, Pagoda, and Chiefs Head can still be had, but the trees are getting big enough the view will not be do open for long. From this vantage point, it’s clear how Chiefs Head got its name.

From here the trail flattens out again before a short descent to Finch Lake. We are five miles and 1400 vertical feet from the car in a shade under two hours. Finch Lake isn’t much to my taste – what it lacks in a nice view it makes up for with an abundance of mosquitoes. To now I’d only encountered a few hikers. Here I met a large family. They spent the night here and asked me about the trail to Pear.

From Finch to Pear is two miles and seven hundred vertical feet. Two short steep parts with an interlude in between. The east buttress of Mt. Copeland rises from the forest on the right as we pass a small pond on the left.

Pear Lake was a reservoir for most of the 20th century. There’s still a visible bathtub ring, but the vegetation is slowly overcoming that. Even another thirty years won’t erase all evidence; a large boulder on the northwest shore will be two toned for some time to come. I made it in three hours almost on the dot.

Last year I went around Pear lake to the right. I followed Foster’s route and took the vague trail on the left side. This petered out pretty quickly and by the time I started climbing I was on my own. A short distance away were some folks getting situated on a large rock overlooking Pear Lake. By now I’d seen only about a dozen people.

A small stream feeds Pear here, not a large amount of water, but in several small courses braided up the hillside. I went up the east side, far enough away to avoid the marshy spots. There are a couple of unnamed ponds showing on the map here, and perhaps a couple more that aren’t on the map. After passing one of these I came to the top of the ridge and saw Middle Hutcheson Lake below me.

I headed down the hill a bit to Cony Creek. According to the map in Foster’s guide, I should cross to the south side of the creek about here. It runs in two or three major channels and I could cross it fairly easily. But after having a good look around I decide to stay on the north side. After climbing a hundred feet or so, I saw another hiker on an outcropping below me, on the south side. I don’t know that he saw me; it didn’t look like he was climbing any further.

I didn’t want to deal with the krummholz and willow, so I tended to be higher on the slope. Just below Upper Hutcheson Lake I saw an older couple headed the other way. The were a bit upslope of me and said that was the better route. A few minutes later I arrived at the ponds immediately below Upper Hutcheson and saw another couple. They had been to Cony before and thought it was too early in the season to continue to Cony. There was too much snow. I followed them through a couple patches of willow and to the shore of the lake.

It was 12:15. From here, I’d have to cross the talus slopes above Upper Hutcheson to the inlet, then up two hundred feet to the ledge that hold Cony. I quickly decided to stop here and put Cony on the to-do list for some August or September. Even had I brought the spikes, I was still at least a half hour from Cony. Next time I try this, I think I can save at least fifteen minutes between Pear and Upper Hutcheson having now scouted the route.

I set up the cameras and ate my lunch. The clouds building over the divide were darkening and at 12:40 it started to sprinkle. I packed up and started down. The couple were fishing and decided to wait out the squall. It took me an hour and a half to hike up from Pear but only an hour down. I considered stopping here for a fruit break. The few sprinkles had stopped pretty quickly, but now it was starting up again with bigger raindrops.

By the Pear Creek campsite the sun was shinning again. Here I met a back country ranger. We chatted for five or ten minutes. I learned that much of the park is designated wilderness. I thought it was just a park, but everything a mile from any trail is wilderness. I refilled the water bottle from the creek and headed to Finch. To my chagrin, my knees started getting a bit sore on the steeper downhill sections.

I polished off half my remaining fruit but didn’t dally long. The mosquitoes made a snack of me. I carry some mosquito repellant wipes in the pack, but the seal had broken and they were dried out. Oh well.

On the uphill section immediately after Finch Lake, I came across a couple who had spent the night at Pear Creek. As it was mid afternoon by now, I asked what they did all morning. They had hiked to Cony Lake. Somehow I didn’t see them, but they must have passed me while I was eating lunch. They described their route and said it wasn’t difficult even with the snow.

After this point, my progress slowed considerably. Every downhill stretch gave me a fair amount of pain in the knees. This sometimes happens, but not often. In my ignorance, I will blame it on taking such a long hike without getting in proper hiking shape. I don’t normally tackle the longer hikes until I’ve done a few intermediate length ones first.

By the last mile, fatigue had set in as well. Too tired to properly pick my feet up, I was now stumbling over roots and rocks. This added to the discomfort. The first couple times I rested, my knees felt better for a while, but for the last couple of miles rest did not aid. I made it to the car promptly at six; were it not for the pain I would have finished 30 or 45 minutes earlier. So it goes.

Timetable

Up Down
Trailhead 07:30 AM 06:00 PM
Allenspark Trail Jct 08:05 AM 04:55 PM
Calypso Trail Jct 08:30 AM 04:25 PM
Finch Lake 09:25 AM 03:05 PM
Pear Lake 10:35 AM 01:45 PM
Upper Hutcheson Lake 12:10 PM 12:50 PM

Twin Sisters

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The first time I hiked Twin Sisters was roughly thirty years ago. Saturday I hiked it for the second time.

I barely remember the trail. Relentlessly uphill, but not very steep. No streams or lakes, so you have to carry all your water. Not a long hike, and not much higher than many lakes I’ve visited. The only real thing Twin Sisters has to offer is the view of Long’s. That’s about all I remember of it. Lately, I’ve been thinking it might be fun to make this hike and try a time lapse of the sunrise on Long’s. When I saw the hillside after the floods I wondered if it affected the trail. I really had no idea where the trail was. So before I could consider doing the hike in the dark, I’d better know where I’m going.

I wasn’t too worried about getting an early start. Even if the parking lot at the trailhead was full, I could park at the East Lily Lake lot and add an extra four tenths of a mile each way. When I got there at nine I wasn’t surprised to see people parking on the roadside, so I didn’t bother going any farther and parked as well. I walked past about a dozen cars to see that the road is closed at the hairpin. The road above here severely damaged, passable only by four wheel drive.

At the trailhead, a notice about the flood damage included a map. The lower section of the switchbacks had been erased. About a half hour into the hike I arrived at the slide area. It’s flood damage, but considerably different than the Lawn Lake flood.

Change is constant. Although we think of geologic change being slow, it’s made up of short bursts of transformation. In the last few years, I’ve been able to see the effects of these dramatic events. I was on the trail to Bluebird Lake a few weeks after an avalanche tore through a section of forest. I hiked through burned forest a few weeks after the fires. I hiked to Lawn Lake shortly after that flood. I hiked from Mills Lake to Black Lake on both winter and summer routes shortly after the microburst there. And now this one. Is it a flood or a landslide or a little bit of both? In any event, nature’s power revealed.

The trail crosses the slide only once. The trail rises to a switchback and when it reaches the slide area again, a temporary trail climbs more or less straight up the hillside to the next section of trail. Repeat two or three times. Looking on the bright side, there are now nice open views here.

After the switchbacks the trail circles around to the north slope, giving a nice view of Carriage Hills and Lake Estes. If I’d have brought my long lens, I’d have looked for the house on Ramshorn. My pace slowed considerably here. To this point I’d only been passed by two pairs of hikers while passing quite a few people. A couple I had passed earlier looked like they might catch back up, but they slowed down when we timberline.

Technically, I didn’t actually summit. I went to the right of the antenna and found a spot to set up the cameras, eat my lunch and relax. There were quite a few people here, and perhaps an equal number on the near summit. I saw only a few hikers on the other summit.

The day was beautiful. I had to put the windbreaker on while having lunch, it was pleasantly cool with gusting winds. There was no handy ballast to secure the tripod for the SLR, but the GoPro sat low enough to the rocks to not be too affected. I sat there for about an hour watching rain clouds scud in from the northwest. I packed up and left before they arrived and only got sprinkled on for the last few minutes of the hike.

Lake Helene

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Last Saturday Jerry and I hiked to Lake Helene. This was Plan B. Plan A was to hike from Bear Lake to Tourmaline Lake. I hiked to Tourmaline last year, from the Fern Lake trailhead. That’s the longer route, but I wanted to walk through the fire area. I wanted to return because the weather that day wasn’t very good for photography.

US 36 was closed for construction the last two times I headed to the park so this was my first look at any road repairs. For the time being, this is not a good route for the fun car. Both canyon sections are dirt. They’ve done a lot of blasting and it looks like there will either be very wide shoulders or an extra lane. I’ll be surprised if they don’t put in a left turn lane just before where the first passing lane starts.

My park pass expired in April so we didn’t get to use the express lane. By this late hour, the lower parking lot was full and the Bear Lake lot was about two-thirds full. We hit the trail a few minutes before nine.

We made fairly good time on the lower section of the trail. A half hour to the Flattop/Odessa trail junction. Up to here, there was little snow on the ground. From about a quarter mile past the trail junction all the way to Lake Helene there was quite a bit of snow. We brought microspikes with us, but I wasn’t expecting to install them so soon. By the end of the day, we’d passed dozens of other hikers but none had spikes. A few wore sneakers without socks, but at least I didn’t see anybody in sandals.

Following the trail was a pretty straight-forward exercise, for the most part. The snow lay on the ground in big ridges, sometimes across the trail but sometimes also along the trail, big drifts four feet deep or more. Seldom did the snow obscure the trail more than twenty yards, and in these areas there were blazes on the trees.

By the time we got to where the trail makes the hairpin turn and descends to Odessa Lake, the blazes led us up the slopes of Joe Mills Mountain. We ran into a couple who intended hiking to the Fern Lake trailhead. I knew we were no longer on the trail, but they didn’t. After taking in the view of Odessa Lake below, I got us down to the trail, showed them where it goes, and Jerry and I headed to Helene. The snow was slowing us down; we wouldn’t make it to Tourmaline by noon and Jerry was getting pretty tired. So Plan B it was, and we headed to Helene and searched for someplace not covered in snow to have our lunches.

We spent about an hour and a half relaxing over lunch. The day had started off quite reminiscent of last year – a solid, undifferentiated bank of clouds. For a while on the trail it seemed we’d end up with bright, sunny skies. In the end, it was more cloudy than not, and by the time we decided to head back things were looking decidedly threatening. We never did get rained on, but it was probably a close thing. There was a bit of lightning a short distance to the north.

When we got back to the car we ran in to the couple we ran into on the trail. They didn’t make it much past where I put them back on the trail. The snow was too deep for them so they turned around.

By now the parking lot was full. To keep folks from clogging up the parking lot, they have several rangers directing traffic. “No, you can’t wait for them to leave. There are spots on the other side. If you don’t find one, go around again. Keep moving.” I think I chatted briefly with each ranger. “People sure take a lot of pictures of your car!”