Backpacking & Camping StoriesAmerican Lakes 7/26/03 - 7/27/03
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Day 1 - July 26, 2003
The alarm went off at 5:00, but I snoozed a couple of times and didn't roll out of bed until 5:45. I had all our supplies ready to go the night before. All I needed to do was take a quick shower to wake myself up and grab some water out of the refrigerator. Poudre and I piled into the car and we were on the road by 6:00. Julie was in LA visiting her sister this weekend so Poudre and I were baching it. With Julie gone, we seized the opportunity to do some fishing and some hiking without it cutting into our "at home time." Through SummitPost.org I'd read about Nokhu Crags in the Colorado State Forest and it looked like a cool area. Nokhu Crags and Static Peak looked like mountains I could climb and submit to SummitPost.com and American Lakes nestled below these peaks looked like they might be good fishing.
This early in the morning, there was hardly any traffic and we made good time up and over Cameron Pass. I'd never been further than Blue Lake Trailhead so it was interesting to see what was beyond. It turned out the pass really flattens out on top where Joe Wright Reservoir is and the apex of the pass was pretty anticlimactic. However, just as we got to the top of the pass Nokhu Crags came into view and they were spectacular. Soon after cresting the pass we pulled over to take a photo.
After the photo opportunity it was only another mile or so before our turnoff into Colorado State Forest. At the fee kiosk I had a bit of a dilemma. A one-day pass cost $5 and was good until noon the next day. My only other option was to go further down the road and buy a year pass that cost $50 at the main ranger station. I wasn't sure if I should buy two one-day passes and pretend that I bought the second one on Sunday, or if I should just go with the one-day pass and hope to make it back to the car by noon on Sunday. I decided to go with second option. We paid our five bucks and drove on another mile or so to the trailhead.
We were the only car at the trailhead parking lot and this was a good sign. I'd read an account that complained that American Lakes could be pretty crowded. It didn't appear that there were many other people up there yet. Poudre and I geared up and hit the trail at about 8:00. The trail climbed pretty steeply at the beginning until it crossed Upper Michigan Ditch. One thing that was kind of confusing was that the names of the lakes on the east side of Nokhu Crags were recently changed. They used to be called Michigan Lakes, but now they are called American Lakes. All the signs in Colorado State Forest reflected this, but none of the maps do. Thus I wasn't sure what else had its name changed. Was the ditch still called Upper Michigan Ditch? Was the river still called Michigan River? I just assumed those still had the same names, but who knows? After crossing Upper Michigan Ditch the trail became less steep and gently ascended along Michigan River. The Michigan River Valley opened up a bit into a pretty meadow. All along the trail the wildflowers were really beautiful.
After ascending a ways up the valley the trail crossed Michigan River and began a long series of switchbacks up the west side of the valley. The forest was really nice here, thick in some places, and thin in other places with tons of wildflowers mixed in amongst the trees. Soon the forest began to thin out as Poudre and I approached American Lakes. First, Static Peak showed itself over the ridge, and then Nokhu Crags appeared. Poudre and I were pretty stoked. The area was spectacular.
We crested the last rise and then descended down to Lower American Lake. There was a large party of people on the other side of the lake who looked like they were packing up. We stayed on the north side of the lakes and hiked along the shore. Lower American Lake was really shallow. It couldn't have been much more than 5' deep in the middle. I saw one or two little fish cruising along the bank and one or two rise. We continued along to Upper American Lake. The two lakes were really connected by a narrow neck that might have been 15' across with a big boulder in the middle. Upper American Lake was much bigger and deeper. It looked ideal for fishing because there was about a 10-foot sandy shallow band around the edge and then a ledge where the bottom fell away. It looked this way pretty much all the way around the lake. Poudre and I found a good spot to pitch the tent on top of a little bluff on the north side of Upper American Lake. Somebody had built a little windbreak and it was just the perfect size for our one-man, one-dog tent. I set up the tent and we paused for a snack of trail mix and PowerBones.
It was 10:00 when we finished our break and set off for Nokhu Crags. First we had to ascend to Snow Lake. There was a nice waterfall coming down from Snow Lake and we chose to cross this to what looked like dryer, easier terrain. This turned out to be a good choice because the wildflowers were phenomenal on this slope leading up to Snow Lake. I always used to think that Columbines were rare and it was a special treat to find one. Here they were everywhere. We couldn't turn around without seeing bunches of them all over the place. Hanging out near the shore of Snow Lake were a couple of huge marmots. Upon seeing these, I was a little worried about our camp back at Upper American Lake. I'd heard horror stories about marmots chewing through tents and packs to get at food. I hoped we wouldn't have similar problems. Our plan was to swing around Snow Lake and climb directly up the saddle between Static Peak to the south and Nokhu Crags to the north. Once we achieved the saddle we could then traverse the ridge to Nokhu Crags. If we had time, and felt like, we could hopefully come back across the saddle and summit Static Peak too.
We looped around the south end of Snow Lake making use of the snowfields to speed our progress. When we reached the west end of Snow Lake and the end of the snowfield we were presented with a several hundred-foot ascent up a miserable loose talus slope. Slogging up this sucked. I'd take a step, and my foot would slide and slip down as I tried to move up the slope. What was worse was that I kept kicking rocks down the slope and Poudre was behind me. I tried to get him to lead, but he wasn't really into that. I had to be super-careful not to kick anything down onto him. One softball-sized rock to the head would have really put him out of commission, or possibly killed him.
I continued to be super-careful and we finally made it off the talus onto what I thought would be more solid rock. It was better than the talus, but not much. It was totally crumbling and was littered with loose pieces. With every step I had to be careful that my hand and footholds didn't dislodge. On top of that, I had to continue to worry about kicking rock down on Poudre. Right about this point there was an option to climb a steep snow filled couloir. If I'd had the know-how and the gear, this would have been the fastest, easiest way to achieve the saddle. Instead we had to climb up the nasty rock. At first it looked impossibly steep, but with some persistence we were able to find a reasonable path up the rock face. After much arduous climbing we finally obtained the saddle.
When we made it to the saddle my nerves were shot. I'd had to spend so much energy worrying about Poudre and being careful to not kick anything down him that all I wanted to do was get back down to safety. There was a thousand foot drop on either side of the saddle and even though Poudre knew what he was doing, I was still afraid he'd fall. We snacked on trail mix and PowerBones and both of us drank heartily. I snapped a bunch of photos and I was ready to head down.
On the way up, it didn't occur to me that Poudre wouldn't be able to down climb what we'd come up. He couldn't. I ended up down climbing 6 ft, picking him up and setting him at my feet, and then down climbing another 6 ft, picking him up and setting him at my feet etc for most of the upper slopes. When we got down off the upper slopes onto the loose talus Poudre found a better way down. Instead of slipping and sliding down the loose dirt and rock Poudre performed a doggie glissade down a snowfield. It was quite amazing how fast he got the hang of it and quickly looked like an expert. He splayed his rear legs out perpendicular to his body, dragged his butt in the snow, and steered with his front paws. Soon he was several hundred feet below me. To catch up I also had to glissade. I'd never done it before and I didn't have anything to help arrest my descent so I was very careful to keep my speed down. Getting out of control and smashing into the pile of rock below the snowfield was not something I wanted to experience. It was really fun to slide down the steep slope, but there were a couple times where I started to loose control of my speed and I had to try to slow down by digging my fingers into the snow behind me. When I got to the bottom my fingers were pretty sore.
We looped back around the south side of Snow Lake and made it to the eastern shore. There were several people fly-fishing there and I stopped to ask how it was going. They appeared to be a big family with an experienced patriarch-grandfather with his not so experienced daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. The son-in-law and grandson didn't really seem to know what they were doing and hadn't been having any luck. I'd seen a couple of big fish cruising around but there was very little surface action. I thought I'd probably come back up here to give it a shot, but first I had to go back down to our Upper American Lake campsite to get my kit.
We made it back down to our campsite and I got my fishing stuff out and gave Poudre a Greenie. While Poudre was snacking on his Greenie I started fishing Upper American Lake. I had the same little beadhead zugbug tied onto the end of my line that I'd last used at Bench Lake. Instead of cutting it off and tying something else on, I tossed it out there. Within a few minutes I'd caught a nice big 11-inch cutthroat. I continued with this same fly and continued to pull fish out of the lake on a regular basis. Almost every one of them was over 10 inches.
While I fished and Poudre worked on his Greenie, storm clouds began to form behind Static Peak. Within an hour or so of the time I started fishing there was booming thunder and the clouds were looking ominous indeed. I didn't want to go back up to Snow Lake for fear that I'd get caught in a downpour. I was also having so much success down at Upper American Lake that there wasn't much of an incentive to climb up to Snow Lake. After another 45 minutes or so it began to rain pretty heavily so Poudre and I made a dash for the tent. I shed all my clothing, got in my sleeping bag, and Poudre curled up beside me. I was asleep almost instantly. I guess I was more tired than I realized, and the relaxing sound of the raindrops on the tent was really soothing.
I awoke about two hours later feeling refreshed and ready for some more fishing. I threw on some clothes and headed back down to the lake. The rain had stopped, but the sky looked like it could start raining again at any moment and the thunder continued to boom to the south. I soon had caught my limit, and had them all on the stinger. Whenever I pulled in another fish I had to compare its size to the fish already on the stringer and decide if I should let it go or switch it out with one I already had on the stringer. This was a fun problem to have. There were now several other fisherpersons spread out around Upper American Lake. Some were using dry flies and there were some on spinning setups. Almost everybody seemed to be catching fish. After another hour or so the family that had been fishing Snow Lake made their way down to Upper American Lake. The patriarch-grandfather stopped by to chat. He said he'd been coming up to this area for many, many years and had caught 17 and 18-inch cutthroats in Snow Lake in the past. This day however, he and his whole family had been skunked. He said he'd tried just about every dry fly pattern in his fly box. I wondered if he would have had any luck if he'd tried a wet fly but I didn't say anything. I was glad I stayed down at American Lakes were I was having a lot of fun. He and his family left and I continued to fish. About this time it started to sprinkle again. The rain wasn't very hard, but Poudre was beginning to get wet so I made a makeshift shelter for him out of my jacket. He seemed to like it and stayed put.
After a while the rain increased and Poudre and I retreated to the tent once more. This time I wasn't sleepy so I read from the book I brought. Andy McNab was my new hero and I was in the process of reading all his books. During this trip I was reading his autobiography entitled Immediate Action. After 45 minutes the rain let up enough for me to cook dinner. I had teriyaki chicken and some hot cocoa while Poudre had his dinner. While we were having dinner, I noticed that throughout the afternoon several groups of people had arrived in the American Lakes Basin. There were now five groups of campers spread out around American Lakes that I was aware of. Apparently American Lakes were as popular as I'd read. Luckily none of these groups was obnoxiously loud or inconsiderate. When dinner was finished I straightened up camp, filtered some water, and cleaned the fish I'd caught.
When I was done with those chores I figured we had about 45 more minutes of daylight remaining. Up to this point, I'd been fishing from exactly the same spot. Now all the other fisherpersons had left and I had the lake to myself. I walked around to the west end of the lake where the waterfall coming from Snow Lake flowed into Upper American Lake. I fished this spot until it got dark, catching several more fish.
When it got dark, Poudre and I packed it in and went to sleep. Although the climb up Nokhu Crags had been a drag, the fishing had surpassed all expectations. All in all it had been a great day.
Day 2 - July 27, 2003
Poudre and I slept in for what seemed like a really long time. However, when I rolled out of bed and looked at my watch it was only 7:00. We packed up camp and had a light breakfast. To wash the taste of defeat out of our mouths, I decided that Poudre and I should climb Lulu Mountain. Lulu Mountain sat on the east end of the American Lakes basin and looked like any easy hike from the top of Thunder Pass. We hiked down to the east end of American Lakes and I ditched my pack behind a bush. I put on my little hydration pack, grabbed some snacks for Poudre and me, and we set out toward Thunder Pass.
It was a pleasant walk through the American Lakes basin up to Thunder Pass. Thunder Pass marked the boundary between Colorado State Forest on the north and Rocky Mountain National Park on the south. The north face of Lulu Mountain was in Colorado State Forest and the south face was in Rocky Mountain National Park. Dogs were not allowed into Rocky Mountain National Park so if a park ranger busted us we were going to try to argue that we stayed on the Colorado State Forest side. Down close to the pass there were even fence posts depicting the boundary, though there was no fence between the posts. The fence posts only went a couple of hundred yards up the slopes of Lulu Mountain before they petered out. The slopes of Lulu Mountain were mostly grassy with some scattered talus. The grade was pretty steep and steady and Poudre and I ground it out to the top in about 45 minutes. We conquered the last hundred yards of loose talus and we were on the summit.
The summit was large and flat with a windbreak in the middle. I thought if there was a human made windbreak on the summit there might also be a summit log. However, a thorough search came up empty. Poudre had some water and PowerBones on the summit and I ate a little trail mix. The views to the west were great. We had an excellent vantage point for viewing the Never Summer Range and Mount Richthofen (the tallest peak in the Never Summer Range). We also had a great view of the American Lakes basin with Static Peak and Nokhu Crags towering over Snow Lake and American Lakes. To the north we could see the Medicine Bow Range and I could pick out Diamond Peaks, Clark Peak, and Cameron Peak. We also had great views of Iron Mountain and Thunder Mountain, which were very close. If we had time, and we were fresh, it would have been very easy to nab Thunder Mountain. All it would have required was descending several hundred feet down the eastern slope of Lulu Mountain and ascending a similar grassy slope to the summit of Thunder Mountain. However, I could tell Poudre was getting tired and we had to get back to the car by noon because we'd only bought the one-day pass. We also had a five-mile hike ahead of us to get back down to the car and I knew by the time I got to the trailhead I would be pretty beat.
Poudre and I descend back down to Thunder Pass and into the American Lakes basin. As in cycling, what took us 45 minutes to ascend took us 10 minutes to descend. Soon we were back to Lower American Lake were I had ditched my pack. I emptied out my little hydration pack and got everything repacked and squared away. Poudre and I had one last snack and drink before we set out for the car.
I continued to marvel at the wildflowers on the way down. In the drier areas of the forest there were tons of Indian Paintbrush and the yellow flowers that I couldn't identify. The Indian Paintbrush were also so much brighter red than I'd ever seen. In the wetter areas of the forest there were different kinds of flowers that were bright blue and purple. Everywhere I looked was so incredibly beautiful.
While we were descending the switchbacks we ran into a group of hikers coming up the trail. One of them had a spinning rod attached to his pack. He asked me how the fishing was and I told him it was fabulous. He asked if there were greenbacks in the lakes and I told him that I hadn't think so. I'm pretty sure the ones I caught weren't greenbacks, but I didn't know what kind they were. I'm pretty sure the one Larry caught at Rockhole Lake was a greenback and that looked quite a bit different than the ones I caught at American Lakes. I wished the guy luck, and Poudre and I soldiered on.
The remainder of the hike was uneventful and we made it back down to the car at 11:30 without seeing anybody else. It took us about the same amount of time to go down the trail as it did to come up it. There were two other cars in the parking lot when we got there. I packed Poudre into the car, exchanged my boots for Tevas, and we set off for home. After turning onto Highway 14 I pulled over into the shoulder and snapped a couple more photos of Nokhu Crags. They certainly were cool looking. The traffic on the way back was predictably bad and we got stuck behind several campers. We got home around 14:00, I sorted out our gear, and took a nice shower. Poudre was totally wasted and he curled up and took a nap while I enjoyed the cool of the house and watched TV until Julie to got back. |
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