I hiked to Pitkin Lake two summers ago. About halfway to the lake, it started raining. After a while, I gave up and turned around. Then it cleared up, and I turned around again. I got to the lake, but didn’t even have time to sit down and relax because I needed to get to the trailhead at a specific time for my ride home.
It deserves another visit.
July 1, 2025
Last time, I had Michael drop me off at the trailhead. This time, I parked in town and took the shuttle. I’ve done that for a few of these Vail hikes, and the parking was always free. No longer: now you have to pay for parking. Naturally, when I got to the trailhead, there was plenty of parking. Should have scouted parking at the trailhead before parking in town.
It was a beautiful day, nary a cloud in the cobalt sky until after noon. The temperature was perfect, the wind was calm. Couldn’t ask for a nicer morning.
The hike is steep, and my pace was slow. It took me three and a half hours to get there, taking only a five-minute plum break. One nice side-effect of a rather steep hike is that Pitkin Creek features some spectacular falls.
When I arrived at the lake, there were four other hikers there; two pairs. I found a nice spot where I could neither see them nor be seen and tucked into my picnic lunch. About halfway through my sandwich, I spotted a mountain goat on the other side of the lake, working her way toward me. Given the topography, I figured there was a good chance she’d want to go right past my picnic spot.
I couldn’t see much of the shore to my right, but these goats love standing on rocks, and she popped up on the rocks about eighty yards away and looked me in the eye. A minute or two later, she looked at me from atop a rock thirty yards away. Yup, she knows I’m here and she’s coming this way anyway.
I was right on the water on a small peninsula, with an eight-foot wall of rock to my left. To the right, I can climb a steepish rocky/grassy slope to the top. So I go up there and a minute later, here she is, ten yards away. I told her to leave me alone and to keep moving. She was standing on the neck of my little peninsula, so I was stuck between her and the water. It would not have been funny for her to push me into the lake.
After I waved at her and shooed her, she kept on her way. I went back down to the water to finish my lunch.
A short while later, I swallowed the last bite of my candy bar disguised as a protein bar and stood up. I startled her. She had come back and stood over me, almost breathing down my neck while I finished my lunch. I had no idea she was there.
Just as I started back, a group of hikers arrived. Three people and a dog. I pointed out the goat and suggested they keep an eye on her as she wasn’t shy. I also said there were quite a few marmots around. She said, “Yeah, I’ve been hearing them, but I haven’t seen any. I had to put the dog on the leash because he was in heaven!” I didn’t point out the obvious that her dog being off the leash was probably why she never saw a marmot.
Over the course of the day, I encountered eighteen other hikers with four dogs. All were off-leash.
On the hike out, when I crossed Pitkin Creek below one of the impressive falls, it started to rain. I little sprinkle doesn’t bother me, but the clouds to the north were looking threatening. Walking through a meadow, I could see the broad leaves of the ground cover shudder when hit by a raindrop. Just here and there at first, but the drops are big. Before I cleared the meadow and got back in the trees, it wasn’t a sprinkle but a shower, raindrops making all the leaves dance. I donned the raincoat. This is pretty much where I got rained on the first time. At least the gods were kind enough to let me relax at the lake for an hour!
A few minutes after putting on the raincoat, the thunder began to rumble. I didn’t see the flash of lightning all day; it was probably in the neighboring valleys. The thunder wasn’t the crack-so-loud-you-jump sort, but the deep, rolling rumble. After each peal, graupel would fall for a minute or two. A few minutes later, another long, slow rumble and another minute of graupel.
At times, it seemed like I was just a few yards from the edge of the storm. For more than a few minutes, I was hiking in a moderate shower in full sunlight. I was being teased. It rained for about an hour and a half. Just before it quit, it threw in a final thunderclap so loud and close it made me jump.
The rest of the afternoon was beautiful.