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ilanaramaBritt's birthday was August 1. I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday; I shouldn't have been surprised. We planned out a big loop: up the Pine River to Emerald Lake (not the one we went to two weeks ago) and then Moon Lake, a dayhike to peak-bag 13,684 ft. Mount Oso (something I've wanted to do for a long time; Oso is a distinctive mountain visible from much of the wilderness, and we tried to climb it a few years back via a ridge from Middle Mountain and were cliffed out), then a hike over the entertainingly-named Moon Rock Pass (to Rock Lake, of course) and then down Rock Creek to the Vallecito River and out. About 40 miles of hiking, lots of elevation change, fishing out the wazoo, and a shuttle between trailheads which Britt's brother agreed to do if we took him out to breakfast.
Our first day we hiked to the beautiful Emerald Lake (pictured above), which is the second-largest natural lake in Colorado. It is also 11 miles and 2000 vertical feet from the Pine River trailhead. Along the way, we encountered two college girls from Chicago who were working at a dude ranch nearby and who had no real hiking gear or experience (and therefore asked us all sorts of questions about ours, which we were delighted to answer) but nonetheless were determined to make it to Emerald Lake. (They did. I hope they made it back!) We also met Ian and Tad, two seasonal rangers who were cutting trees that had fallen across the trail. And we saw flowers and wildlife, and had trout for dinner. The next day we hiked up the beautiful Lake Creek valley to Moon Lake, where we again had trout for dinner, chilled out at the edge of the lake, then camped in the shadow of Mt. Oso.
(I should point out that Mt. Oso's summit is actually the triangular point to the right of the apparently highest point in that last picture. The high knob is actually a lower but closer point on the ridge. Also, our camp was not nearly so tidy two days later.)
The next morning we set out to climb Mt. Oso. In doing so we got some awesome views of Moon Lake; from above, you can see that it got its name from its crescent shape:
There's no trail up Oso. Instead we grunted up talus slopes and grassy ramps and mixtures of the two until we finally gained the long ridge leading to the summit. (Which we had to ourselves. Yay for cameras with automatic timers!)
From the summit we enjoyed the views of the surrounding mountains and lakes for an hour or so, then headed back down, past waterfalls and marshy meadows.
The following morning we hiked over Moon Rock Pass to Rock Lake. It started raining just after we got to Rock Lake, but I was in an absurdly happy mood and couldn't keep from grinning as we headed down the Rock Creek trail. Incidentally, the mountain behind me in that last picture is the Guardian, another high peak (13,619 ft.) that we climbed in September 1994.
We found a nice campsite along Rock Creek that came complete with its own resident marmot and of course lots of fish for dinner. In the morning we hiked down the creek, with ample fishing stops. [ETA: fixed the duplicate/missing photo, aie!]
Near the confluence with the Vallecito River, a mineral seep entirely changes the character (and the color) of Rock Creek. There's no life in the creek here, nor in the Vallecito for some miles, until enough side streams come in to dilute the minerals. We camped five miles or so down the Vallecito, far enough that there were trout again for Britt to catch. The next morning we had to cross the Vallecito, which has become quite an ordeal since an avalanche in the winter of 04/05 destroyed the bridge. Let me just say that wading through rapid, mid-thigh-deep, icy water does not rank high among my personal list of pleasures.
On our final day, we were the slowest hikers in the world, as we stopped every few yards to eat wild strawberries, huckleberries (kind of like blueberries), thimbleberries (kind of like raspberries), and raspberries. Around us, butterflies chowed down on flower nectar. Eventually we made our way to the trailhead and back to civilization. Alas.
Who needs words? Just show me the photos.
Our first day we hiked to the beautiful Emerald Lake (pictured above), which is the second-largest natural lake in Colorado. It is also 11 miles and 2000 vertical feet from the Pine River trailhead. Along the way, we encountered two college girls from Chicago who were working at a dude ranch nearby and who had no real hiking gear or experience (and therefore asked us all sorts of questions about ours, which we were delighted to answer) but nonetheless were determined to make it to Emerald Lake. (They did. I hope they made it back!) We also met Ian and Tad, two seasonal rangers who were cutting trees that had fallen across the trail. And we saw flowers and wildlife, and had trout for dinner. The next day we hiked up the beautiful Lake Creek valley to Moon Lake, where we again had trout for dinner, chilled out at the edge of the lake, then camped in the shadow of Mt. Oso.
(I should point out that Mt. Oso's summit is actually the triangular point to the right of the apparently highest point in that last picture. The high knob is actually a lower but closer point on the ridge. Also, our camp was not nearly so tidy two days later.)
The next morning we set out to climb Mt. Oso. In doing so we got some awesome views of Moon Lake; from above, you can see that it got its name from its crescent shape:
There's no trail up Oso. Instead we grunted up talus slopes and grassy ramps and mixtures of the two until we finally gained the long ridge leading to the summit. (Which we had to ourselves. Yay for cameras with automatic timers!)
From the summit we enjoyed the views of the surrounding mountains and lakes for an hour or so, then headed back down, past waterfalls and marshy meadows.
The following morning we hiked over Moon Rock Pass to Rock Lake. It started raining just after we got to Rock Lake, but I was in an absurdly happy mood and couldn't keep from grinning as we headed down the Rock Creek trail. Incidentally, the mountain behind me in that last picture is the Guardian, another high peak (13,619 ft.) that we climbed in September 1994.
We found a nice campsite along Rock Creek that came complete with its own resident marmot and of course lots of fish for dinner. In the morning we hiked down the creek, with ample fishing stops. [ETA: fixed the duplicate/missing photo, aie!]
Near the confluence with the Vallecito River, a mineral seep entirely changes the character (and the color) of Rock Creek. There's no life in the creek here, nor in the Vallecito for some miles, until enough side streams come in to dilute the minerals. We camped five miles or so down the Vallecito, far enough that there were trout again for Britt to catch. The next morning we had to cross the Vallecito, which has become quite an ordeal since an avalanche in the winter of 04/05 destroyed the bridge. Let me just say that wading through rapid, mid-thigh-deep, icy water does not rank high among my personal list of pleasures.
On our final day, we were the slowest hikers in the world, as we stopped every few yards to eat wild strawberries, huckleberries (kind of like blueberries), thimbleberries (kind of like raspberries), and raspberries. Around us, butterflies chowed down on flower nectar. Eventually we made our way to the trailhead and back to civilization. Alas.
Who needs words? Just show me the photos.