Cars and Hiking

Posted on by

Not only was Saturday the first Saturday of the month, it was forecast to be a gorgeous day. I decided it was time for the first hike of the season, so I planned for my umpteenth hike to Emerald Lake. Being the first Saturday, it was also time for Cars & Coffee in Lafayette. As Emerald Lake is a short hike, that left me plenty of time to check out the cars before heading to the Park.

Kent showed up this time in his new BMW i8. It’s a beautiful car and drew quite a crowd. IMG_1455s IMG_1458s

For some time I’ve considered taking the Chrysler instead of the Lotus. That’s sort of a joke, but only sort of. I still think they’re one of the better looking cars produced in the last few decades. But mine is starting to look rough around the edges. The clear coat is starting to peel off one of the repairs. But not a bad looking car for going on 16 years old.

Just after Kent rolled in with the i8, I saw a 300M show up. His is a 2000 (mine’s a 1999). He’s entered it into a number of shows and won some awards. He takes real pride of ownership, in spite of telling me he’s had all sorts of problems with it. As mine is finally starting to exhibit problems other than cosmetic, we chatted a bit about possible solutions to my undiagnosed problems. I may have to see if he’s willing to give me an assist on my repairs. Anyway, it was good to see the 300M represented.

As for the hike, not much to tell. I’ve done that hike dozens of time. Saturday, the wind was fierce at the lake. I was prepared to shoot a time lapse, but it was just too windy to sit there for any length of time. I made my way back to Nymph Lake for my picnic. The Park was quite crowded. From Nymph to Dream, I take the “winter route” while most take the summer route. There is one place where I can see hikers on that trail from below. There were about thirty people in a line, all within arms length of each other.

In spite of the crowds and the wind, it was good to get back on the trail after a few months off.

Last Week’s HPR Video

Posted on by

I’m not the most creative guy when it comes to putting these track videos together. I have three basic types – a lap, a highlights reel, and ‘passing fancy’. This time I opted for the latter – nothing but making passes and getting passed. Every pass from all three sessions.

When I was driving, I never realized I was ever more than fifth car in line. But studying the tape, I see I was 18th in line at one point. That’s a lot of cars on track. I also couldn’t help but notice that every time I make a mistake, it messes me up for three turns. Something to work on.

Obviously, passing cars is more fun than getting passed. I admit to enjoy passing Corvettes and Mustangs, BMWs and Acuras. But for some unknown, irrational reason I really get a kick out of passing Porsches. Boxsters, 911s, 944s, doesn’t matter. I really like passing Porsches.

Eiskhana Images

Posted on by

Got the results of the timed laps. Twelve cars were registered in my class (non-Porsche, non-studded, 2wd). One was a no-show, three ran the course once, and eight ran twice. That’s 19 runs. Mine were 11th and 12th fastest, so mediocre would be an improvement. The video is from the untimed course, my only run with any drama.

I only shot about a dozen pictures on Saturday. Only managed on of Doug, but the lighting was bad. So it’s just white Porsches and an FF.

IMG_1443s IMG_1445s IMG_1450s

 

HPR Customer Appreciation Day

Posted on by

Sunday was High Plains Raceway’s customer appreciation day for 2014. A free track day and no Broncos on television made it an easy decision. Sign me up!

Normally a track day involves getting up early enough to drive for a bit over an hour and still show up for the drivers meeting at 8am. The free days are a bit more relaxed – the track didn’t even open until 9 with the drivers meeting scheduled for 9:40. I was almost a bit too leisurely and barely made it – I got out of the car in time to hear an announcement that the drivers meeting would start in two minutes.

On the way there, though, I had pretty much decided not to participate. Over the holidays, I picked up a new intake from a fellow LoCo member. Michael and I struggled quite a bit to get it installed. I always say “I’m software, not hardware!” when it comes to things mechanical, so when I say “Michael and I installed it” I really mean Michael did the work and I watched supervised.

It sounds really good. I had little expectations that it would provide any performance improvement, but did I mention it sounds really good? The trip Saturday to the Eiskhana was the shakedown cruise, so to speak. Everything seemed to be working well.

On the way to HPR, however, my check engine light came on. Being not very mechanical, I have no idea why it came on, and I wasn’t inclined to push the car too hard. So I attended the meeting but didn’t register. I figured I’d chat with the guys, watch, and beg a ride or three. After talking to a few of the guys, they assured me there wasn’t any reason for the new intake to throw the CEL. It must be something else.

Jeremy said he had an OBDC reader and could check the code and clear it. So we plugged his device in and he fired up his iPhone app. I forget what the code was, but he said it wasn’t anything serious. So we cleared it. If it came back on, I would stop. That done, I went and registered for the slow group.

Before I signed up, they said they had 113 cars registered. Just prior to the meeting, they said about half hadn’t shown up yet, but I found myself at the end of a still lengthy line. We may not have topped 100 cars, but it was the most cars I’ve seen for a track day yet. We ran two groups – fast and slow, slow group at the top of the hour, fast at 30 after. I sat out the first slow session and watched. For that first hour, there was always at least one string of eight or more cars. Obviously, nobody would be getting much of a chance for an unobstructed lap.

We had a nice turnout of Lotuses. Jeremy and Zach in their Exiges, and Mark and Greg in Elises. Greg was there just to spectate – didn’t even bring a helmet to get a ride. At first, I was the only Lotus in the slow group. Jeremy and Zach dropped down to the slow group after a couple sessions. There were quite a few very fast cars running. And I have to say, it was a bit disheartening watching an old Honda Civic passing the Exiges.

When we were all running in the same group, we decided to try to run together and compare each others lines. I volunteered to lead, expecting to be the slowest of the three. They could watch me for a couple laps, then I’d let them by and see if I could get them on camera. Unfortunately, there were so many cars out this just didn’t work. I’d catch traffic and make a pass, but they couldn’t get around until a few turns later. I’d wait, but by the time they caught up, I’d have caught another slower car. After a couple laps of this, I started pushing through traffic.

Open lapping days are different than club days. On club days, there are only two or three places we’re allowed to pass – the two straights and the short chute between turns 6 and 7. And you need a point-by. On open lapping days, it’s open season. The idea is, the slower car sticks to his line and the faster car figures out where it’s safe to pass. This was the case for the most part, but a few of the really slow guys were always getting off the line. That can make things a bit dicey.

I ran two sessions in the morning, then took an hour off. The food truck wasn’t open, so I ate the fruit I brought and wandered around looking at the cars. Then I ran one session in the afternoon. I didn’t bring any extra fuel, and the pumps at the track weren’t operational. I’ve already run out of gas twice there and didn’t want to do it again, so I only ran three.

The track was dry all morning but by my third session, some of the snow close to the track was melting and water ran across the track in a couple places – a small river that crossed the track just after turn 8 and a puddle on the outside of 10. These made for an entertaining time. I found I couldn’t push very hard in that sector. There’s a slight right turn after the first one, and clearly my tires were still wet as the car would slide a bit. The second wet spot wasn’t as bad, as I could generally avoid most of the water. But to take that turn at speed, I’d hit the puddle and the car would go sideways.

About half way through that session, one of the many race cars was coming up behind me on the pit straight. I was paying more attention to my entry to turn 1 than to my mirror at that point, but I did see a silver flash in my mirrors as he went sideways off the track. He got stuck in the mud – they had to get the tow truck out to get him moving again. He wasn’t the only one who had an off – several cars had mud splattered all over them. I got sideways a few times, but managed to keep it on the track.

It was a very nice day, sunny and warm, in the low 60’s. I met some new friends, got to run a few sessions, and all it cost me was a tank of gas. Tough to beat a day like that.

I’ll post a video soon.

Eiskhana again

Posted on by

Last year I said I’d skip Eiskhana for a year. I changed my mind. I figured I didn’t have anything better to do on a Saturday in January than deal with ski traffic to stand around on a frozen lake for five or six hours so I could drive around on ice with bald tires.

I picked up Jerry at the park and ride at I-70 and Morrison road at 6:30. From there to Georgetown Lake in normal traffic it’s about a forty minute drive. It took us an hour and a half. That was about the same as last year, except this time there was actually some snow and ice on the road adding to the degree of difficulty. As we went farther west, the cloud cover increased, and when we arrived the wind was gusting fiercely, throwing a brilliant white cloud of snow off the lake and over the highway.

Unlike last year, we anticipated the traffic and managed to arrive on time. We were followed in by a Ferrari FF. Ferrari of Denver had a trailer there, with two more FF’s and a 458 parked next to it. They also had a Bentley, but I didn’t see that until later.

With the Ferrari trailer in the parking lot, they had to park the registration trailer on the ice. They had a big space heater running and were setting out pastries and doughnuts on tables. I registered, grabbed a tasty treat and we retreated to the car to get out of the wind. They had the drivers meeting at nine. We’d be broken into two groups. One would start with two runs on the timed course and the other would be on a second, untimed course. After the meeting, we all lined up and drove the course slowly. First time they’ve done that.

They put us on the timed course first. I managed both runs without spinning, but I wasn’t particularly fast. The course wasn’t very interesting. The one two years ago was best, but they used the entire area. This way, people got more time on the ice, so I guess it’s a fair trade-off. I ran the untimed course twice. We could do it as often as we liked, but two was enough for me.

Getting off the lake was entertaining. I was a bit concerned when driving on to the lake, which is downhill. There was quite a bit of snow there, deep enough I plowed it with the nose of my car. When driving it out, I couldn’t get enough space to make a run at it. About half way up, I was beached. How hard is it to push a car out of a snowbank when everybody is standing on a frozen lake? It must not have been too bad, it only took three or four guys.

Once off the lake, we parked and then ogled the Ferraris. “Want a ride? You guys are next, back in a few minutes.”

To me, the FF looks a lot like the BMW M Coupe. Sort of like a shoe. A “stupid money” car, made of unobtanium. They weigh about two tons, crank out 650 or so horses, and have steering wheels worthy of an F1 car. The one we were in could be yours, for a bit over 300 large but you can have one made for 230 or so. Evidently, you now get an unlimited mileage seven year service plan in the bargain. A very nice car, certainly. And fast. Even where it was slippery. On dry pavement he had us up to 107 in a heartbeat.

Then we sat and had lunch and watched the cars going sideways and backwards and spinning round. Jerry’s mom made the sandwiches. Made me feel like a little kid for a minute. The weather had cleared up nicely. The sky was a deep cloudless blue unmarred by jetliner vapor trails – the trails disappeared only a short distance behind the planes. The wind had died down and it was quite pleasant sitting on a rock in the sun.

It was a fun time.

I took a few pictures with the long lens, haven’t looked at them yet. I’ll see if any are worth sharing and post them when I get the video done.

Twin Lakes and Sandbeach Lake

Posted on by

Sunday, October 26

A couple weeks ago I met Gale on the trail to Lawn Lake and we exchanged emails. This week, she asked if she could tag along, if I was planning on a hike on Sunday. Well, I had no plans when she asked but that was easy to remedy.

A couple years ago I followed Foster’s directions in an attempt to find Twin Lakes in Wild Basin. She says “finding these lakes is a bit of an orienteering challenge”. I fell short of that challenge and figured it was about time I made a second attempt. I studied the map for a while, finally suggesting that Gale accompany me on my second assault. Over three or four days, my plan evolved a few times with my final idea being after we visit Twin Lakes, we cross the ridge, bushwhack up to Sandbeach Lake and hike out on that trail.

We met at the Sandbeach Lake trailhead shortly after eight. I left my car there and she drove us to the Thunder Lake trailhead. We put boots on the trail before eight thirty. It was sunny and mostly clear; the only clouds were hanging over the Divide. It was also windy. I think I used the phrase “a bit breezy.” What I really meant was more like “it was savagely windy.” But the hike would be through forest the whole way; the only time I expected to deal with the wind was when we were hanging out at the lakes.

Rather than follow Foster’s directions this time, my plan was to hike up the Thunder Lake trail until we reached about 9800′ elevation, then contour east along the slope to the lakes. I’m generally low tech when I’m hiking. I don’t carry a GPS unit with me. I do carry a smart phone, though. I use a speedometer app when I’m in the car because the car can’t be trusted to tell me how fast I’m going. This app also shows the elevation, which can be handy in cases like this.

Shortly after regaining the main trail after the campground shortcut, we arrived at a couple of switchbacks. The eastern end of one of these was conveniently close to our target elevation so we headed off trail there. As is usual when off trail, we couldn’t go in a straight line. I kept thinking we were going downhill, but every time I checked our elevation we were still on target. It was in here I saw the only wildlife on the hike: I spooked a very large rabbit who made very good speed in spite of his girth.

We weren’t making great time, what with finding the best route past rock outcrops or through dense pockets of trees. But it didn’t take too long to arrive at the larger of the Twin Lakes. This is the westernmost, larger one. These lakes are snow fed, neither has an inlet or outlet stream. They’re pretty shallow and, again, I’ve been to larger unnamed ponds in the park. But the view to the west from this lake was very nice. As expected, the wind was quite strong here. At times the wind gusts were so strong they kicked spray up ten or fifteen feet above the water.

We found a place more or less out of the wind and I set up the SLR to do the time lapse. We sat and ate part of our lunches and watched the world go by for about a half hour. Upon retrieving the camera I saw that I neglected to use my usual settings. There are a number of things I have to change from my usual shooting – turn off auto-focus, turn off stability, set it on full manual and set the proper exposure, configure the timer. And change it from storing raw images with large, fine JPG to a smaller image. This is the first time I’ve managed to forget this part. So I filled the memory card pretty quickly. Oops. I’ve been meaning to buy a bigger card; perhaps this error will be the impetus for me to get it done.

After getting our gear together, we headed the short distance to the other Twin Lake. It’s just a few yards away, and up a few feet of elevation. We passed through a little aspen grove. This one turned out to be perhaps the most interesting aspen grove I’ve walked through. Some beaver had been busy here, gnawing through dozens of trees. Some had been downed, chewed through completely. Others were still works in progress. The wood chips looked fairly fresh; I doubt this work was abandoned, but what do I know?

I didn’t see anything like a beaver lodge in either lake, and there are no streams here. The beaver must be in one of the lakes, though. These were pretty big trees; there was no other possible body of water this lumber could be taken to, unless that beaver has access to a helicopter or something. Which probably means I wouldn’t recognize a beaver lodge if I was standing on it.

There is almost no view at the smaller of the two lakes, so we didn’t dally there long. From here, we headed almost straight up slope. We only needed to gain about two hundred feet to top the ridge. We passed a couple of cairns and came across what I think is a wildlife trail. After topping the ridge, a small unnamed pond was next, just below us. The pond sits, as is common, surrounded by marshy grass. Being nearly November, it was mostly dried out.

Sandbeach Creek feeds this pond. The map also shows a gully a bit to the west of the creek. We found ourselves ascending this gully rather than the creek. The gully is clearly a flowing stream during spring and summer; now it’s dry but verdant, filled with moss covered rocks, darkly green in the shade of the forest. In places, it looks like there is dried mud covering some of the rocks. It’s not mud, but a dried fibrous sheet a couple millimeters thick.

The gully opened into a clearing where we hopped up a pile of rocks about thirty feet high before returning to another mossy section. Here I decided we needed to head a bit more towards the east. “Just over this next rise we’ll find the lake.” It wasn’t the first time I said it, but I was finally correct. We emerged on the shore of Sandbeach Lake just a few yards to the west of the outlet stream.

It was calm here on the lee shore. It was also mostly devoid of an interesting view, so we circled counter clockwise toward the trail. The wind was quite intense on the east side of the lake. And because this used to be a reservoir like Lawn Lake, there aren’t any trees along the shore to provide shelter. We retreated into the forest, found a nice rock to sit on, and ate more of our lunches. I decided not to set up either camera as I figured neither would be able to sit still in this wind. So it goes. It’s unlikely I have enough footage to bother with a video this time.

There were a few other hikers there. We talked to two guys who spent the night there. They had heard there was an alternate route back to the trailhead. I got my map out and showed them a route I considered for this hike. And, as we no longer needed it, I gave them the map.

The hike out was uneventful. The wind seemed to be dying down a bit, and the skies remained clear overhead. Crossing Hunters Creek, I wondered if there was a bridge there that was washed away last September. There are just sawn logs there now. Perhaps I’m just misremembering. We arrived at my car a few minutes before three, still feeling fresh and in agreement that it was a fun hike. The off trail excursion was pleasant and the beaver activity at the lakes was unusual and quite interesting.

On a final note… I regularly wonder how often my car shows up on Instagram or Facebook. People are always taking pictures when I’m at stop lights or in parking lots. This evening, my son found my car on Facebook. It’s a picture taken today, at the trailhead. Too funny.

Lawn Lake Time Lapse

Posted on by

As I suspected, the SLR was moved around by the wind. But it turns out not to be that big of a loss, as I had it facing too far east. Most of the clouds were dissipated before making it much past the left side of the image. In spite of these difficulties, I included a few seconds of that view anyway.

Having put the Lawn Lake time lapse to bed, I must be ready to take another hike.

Lawn Lake

Posted on by

October 11

Wednesday I started thinking about where to hike next. At first I was thinking it might be a good time to try Spectacle Lakes. You either climb steep slabs or climb straight up the stream. This late in the season, that stream will be as dry as ever. Then I searched the message boards for trip reports. The consensus is you should have a hiking partner. So Spectacle Lakes is a no go, for now. Still, I haven’t been up towards Ypsilon Lake in a while so I decided Fay Lakes would be a good destination. I could bag three more lakes on one shot, and it’s not a terribly long hike.

The forecast for Denver was good weather, with a high in the low seventies. It rained Thursday night, snowed above nine thousand feet, or so the weather wonks said. Should be a gorgeous day for a hike.

I arrived at the Lawn Lake trailhead about eight and was kitted up and on the trail a few minutes later. It was a brisk, clear morning. Lots of tourists were already in the park, lining the roads watching the herds of elk. Only a few cars were at the trailhead, though.

About thirty five minutes into the hike, I reached the Ypsilon trail junction. I met the two hikers who hit the trail as I was putting my boots on. “You probably already know the bridge is out.” I didn’t. I scouted it out anyway. There were a couple of logs laid across the water. Old, gray, dead logs. I put a foot on them and they moved under my partial weight. And they were covered with frost. I decided Lawn Lake would be a nice enough place for a picnic, so back I went to the main trail.

IMG_0206sThe trail was undercut in a few places by the flooding last September. A few more short stretches of trail have disappeared into the abyss. Other than that, and the bridge, there really isn’t much damage from last year’s floods.

I caught Gail and Glen a bit farther up the trail. We hiked together for a while, chatting. Before long we started seeing traces of snow on the ground. They stopped for a break and I continued. The snow was deeper after a while; not more than an inch, and not entirely covering the trail. There were some boot prints and after a bit I saw the first animal print.

At first I thought it might be a mountain lion. There was just the one print. A few yards along there were a couple more. Claws prominent with each print, so not a cat. Dogs are not allowed in the park and I don’t think we have wolves. These prints followed the trail for two miles or so, never short cutting the switchbacks, never stepping off the trail.IMG_0209fIt struck me as odd until I thought about it. I’ve run into all sorts of animals using the trails. I met a lame moose on the trail near Verna Lake. He wouldn’t get off the trail, I had so shoo him along. Last spring I met that bear sitting in the middle of the trail. And I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen various sorts of animal pooh. Obviously, animals use the trails too. Trails make travel easier, why wouldn’t animals use them?

Having spotted these nice tracks I began to wonder when the beastie put them down. It had to have been Friday evening. The snow was fairly soft when the prints were made. Many of them were quite well formed. Even at nine thirty the snow on the trail was still quite solid, refrozen overnight. So they had to be put down some time late afternoon or early evening.

I made it to Lawn Lake shortly after eleven. It is clearly no longer summer here at 11,000′. It is clear directly overhead, and to the east. Some gray clouds are sitting on the divide. The wind is shredding the clouds, tearing chunks off and sending them eastward and evaporating them. It happens with such ferocity It doesn’t take a time lapse video to see it.

With it so windy a couple thousand feet overhead, it’s no surprise it’s windy at the lake as well. And there are no trees within a hundred yards of the water. The lake covered a much larger area when it was dammed and even in thirty two years, no trees have filled the void.

Mummy Mtn

I set the cameras up and took refuge on the southeast side of the only large boulder near the outlet. I put the GoPro nearly in the water, right up against the bank and as far out of the wind as possible. I put the SLR on the tripod to the lee side of a rock, but none of the rocks were that big. The camera was still in the breeze. I haven’t looked at the pictures yet, so I don’t know how much the camera moved.

It has always been the case until now that I sat on my rock or log and watched the same sky the cameras were filming. My wind sheltering boulder blocked my sight of everything north and west so I watched mostly to the south. The only gray cloud in the sky was behind me, sitting over the Saddle. Although it was clear overhead, I occasionally had snow fall on me. Not flakes, little pellets. But not quite graupel.

Lawn Lake

It was a bit on the cool side but not bad if you stayed both out of the wind and in the sun. I sat there about forty five minutes, which was long enough for me to be ready to get moving again. Before leaving, I wandered over to the breach in the dam and checked things out. At the other reclaimed reservoirs, there really isn’t much sign that they were ever dammed. At Pear and Bluebird there’s the obvious bathtub ring, but that’s it. Same for Sandbeach. I guess the earthen berm here is too large to bother with.

Heading down the trail I started running into people. I didn’t see Gail and Glen again, but chatted with a couple who said “Are you Dave? We just met Gail and Glen.” The next hikers were headed to Crystal Lakes. I said it was a bit breezy. “Breezy or windy?” They said they didn’t want to fight the wind. I wished them luck; they might get weather in addition to wind.

IMG_1184sOn the way down I couldn’t help but notice how quickly the snow was melting. I’m guessing the snow line raised a thousand feet or so between nine and one. The coyote prints were still there, mixed in with several times as many boot prints as before. I’d been wearing my windbreaker the whole day, finally took it off half way back to the car.

I stopped for a fruit break where I had a nice view of Longs Peak and considered shooting a few more minutes of time lapse, but I didn’t have enough free memory to make it worthwhile. I just need to go out and get a bigger memory card and be done with it.

I made it back to the car before three and headed home. Before leaving the park, I stopped at one of the many overlooks and got a picture of the clouds over the Bear Lake area. When I got back in the car, there was an older guy there admiring it. I said hello, but he just nodded and smiled. I’m guessing he didn’t speak much English.

I keep falling farther behind in putting the videos together. I’d hoped to have the one for Tourmaline Lake done by now. I’m real close, really. So now I “owe” two videos. Stay tuned!

Timetable

 

Up Down
Trailhead 08:08 AM 02:46 PM
Lawn Lake 11:10 AM 11:55 AM

Tourmaline Lake

Posted on by

September 27, 2014

This is the second time I hike to Tourmaline Lake. Last year I hiked here from the Fern Lake trailhead. This time I started at Bear Lake. It’s a bit shorter this way, and downhill a bit as well between Lake Helene and Odessa Lake.

As seems to be the general case, I got a bit of a late start. It was another free day in the park, and traffic was a bit worse than I was expecting. By the time I got to Bear Lake road, the signs indicated the parking lot was full and visitors should use the park and ride. It’s been a while since I used the shuttle and while the route hasn’t changed, there are more stops than I was used to. It was a few minutes after nine before I hit the trail.

A calm, clear morning

The morning was calm and clear. Expecting a touch of fall in the air, I wore jeans rather than shorts. I wasn’t uncomfortable in jeans, but would have been happier in shorts. So it goes. Getting a bit of a late start, I made an effort to make some good time. It’s about four miles to Odessa Lake and I felt I should be able to cover that ground in two hours and arrive by 11:07. Well, let’s just round that down and target Odessa Lake by 11:00.

The trail was pretty busy. I had a trail runner pass me before I arrived at the junction with the Bierstadt trail. At the Flattop junction, I passed a group of five or six hikers headed to the Fern Lake trailhead. A bit later on, it was a guy with fishing gear and his companion who where headed to Fern Lake. I met many others as well, and most people were going from Bear Lake to Fern Lake trailhead.

Just before reaching Odessa Lake, I ran into the trail runner again. He had made it to Fern Lake and was on his way back. I asked how quick a pace he was able to maintain and he said he was doing eight and a half or nine minute miles. Not bad on a rocky and root crossed trail.

I arrived at Odessa Lake ahead of schedule. By now the sky was no longer cloudless – small puffy white clouds were in action, and contrary to normal were moving roughly east to west. I didn’t even pause at Odessa and headed straight up Tourmaline Creek. At the risk of repeating myself, the route from here is more or less straight up the creek. It’s pretty steep at first, mellows out a bit in the middle, then gets steep again. For the top half of the climb, the creek is mostly invisible but burbling vibrantly under rocks and boulders. With no sign of trail or cairns, just rock hop up the creek. It took me about fifty minutes to get from Odessa to Tourmaline, a climb of 560′ in six tenths of a mile.

Knobtop Mountain and Tourmaline Lake

Tourmaline Lake isn’t much of a lake. I’ve been to several unnamed ponds in the park that are bigger. What it lacks in size it more than makes up in setting. It is surrounded by dramatic rock walls, some with interesting spires. Although it wasn’t windy, it’s clear that high winds are a normal aspect of the place. All the trees around my picnic spot were one-sided, having no branches on their west sides.

While I was eating my lunch I heard somebody yell out. I think whoever it was just wanted to hear their voice echo. I responded with my own yell. A short while later I thought I heard voices quite a bit nearer to me but I never did see anybody. On these off trail hikes in solitude I often think I hear people talking. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a trick of the imagination.

It was a very pleasant day and I enjoyed sitting there by this small lake for the better part of an hour. Ate my sandwich and a plum, and a cookie that was in several pieces, chocolate chips beginning to melt slightly. There was never more than a slight breeze, and no pesky insects. The clouds, unusually, went from east to west.

The outlet stream is fairly flat exiting the cirque, going northeast before making a right turn and tumbling steeply downhill. The flank of Flattop is to the right, with Joe Mills Mtn directly in front. I can’t help but think it wasn’t this steep on the way up, but everything looks steeper to me on the way down. There is much less water flowing now than when I hiked in late June, making for easier hiking.

Before returning to Odessa I refill the water bottle and ponder which way to return. I didn’t give it any thought when I decided to go to Tourmaline, I guess my assumption was that I’d hike back to Bear Lake. I got to thinking that because I was parked at the park and ride rather than Bear Lake, I could hike out to the Fern Lake bus stop instead. Of course, I could have done that even had I parked at Bear Lake. Sure, it’s something like 1.7 miles farther, but it’s all downhill.

I decided to make the one way trip. This would be the third time I’ve done it, but the first adding the spur to Tourmaline. And this time, even with the late start and the extra lake, I’d probably get to the car at about the same time as the other times.

At Fern Lake I chatted again with the fisherman and his wife/girlfriend. They were heading back to Bear Lake. Near Fern Falls I ran into the group I met at the Flattop trail junction. Nearer the Pool, I felt the fire damage wasn’t as dramatic as it was last spring, but there’s a good sized landslide there now as well.

Hiking out from the Pool always seems like drudgery to me, I’m tired, it’s usually warm, the trail is crowded. It always seems to take forever. This time, though, it was over quicker than I expected. I covered the eight tenths of a mile from the trailhead to the bus stop in thirteen minutes, which nearly equals the pace of my walks around home. I felt real good.  Then I nearly dozed off on the (36 minute!) bus ride back to the car.

All in all, a very satisfying hike.

I’m still working on the time lapse. Seems each one takes longer than the previous one.