Most Excellent Solar Lights

Mills Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park 9941, north 40 17 29, west 105 38 32 Saturday, September 19, 2010 Rocky Mountain National Park, Larimer County, Colorado Our last planned RV camping trip of 2010 was to Rocky Mountain National Park, for the Elk rut. We backed into Site 044 in the A-Loop of Moraine Park Campground at noon on Friday. Mitch took the day off so we got packed up and on the road at 10 am. It took us two hours to drive there. Mitch had filled up with diesel ($2.94 / gal) on Thursday before work. We drove 6 th Avenue (US-6W) to CO-93, and past Flat Iron Vista Trailhead on CO-93. We thought that might be a good day hike sometime, close to home. We continued on to Boulder s Table Mesa Drive, to Foothills Parkway (CO- 157) to Jay Road, to 28 th Street, or US-36, and headed west from Boulder to Lyons. We drove up the South Saint Vrain Canyon on CO-7 to Mary s Lake Road to US-36 and into the park. On the gate ranger s advice we drove around the C-Loop to get into the right direction on A-Loop to back the Montana in. We did drive around the loop, but it was the A-Loop and we ended up going the same direction as when we came in. We took the C Loop the second time and pulled up to site A44. It was an easy site to get the Montana in just a few minutes later we were getting the trailer ready for the weekend. We still hadn t seen any elk. Our site was mostly shady, but open enough for the sun to shine in too. It was a real nice day, blue skies, hardly any clouds and only a slight breeze. It was actually on the hot side. As soon as we were set up we ate a quick lunch and at about 1:30 drove to Estes Park to get some Laura s caramel and fill up two jugs with beer at the Estes Park Brewery, one with Gold and the other with Trail Ridge Red. We also checked out the operating hours of the acclaimed Donut Haus, right by the brewery. The plan was set; I would drive in at about 6 am on Saturday and get some donuts. We then drove back to camp, taking the scenic route: Riverside Drive to Marys Lake Road. Sharon and Don and Jolene and Bob had not yet arrived. The site was $20 a night with a $9 on-line reservation fee. The sites are fairly close together, maybe 40 feet between each. Our site and Site 42 were situated such that the two picnic tables were no more than 25 feet apart. But our neighbors were a quiet couple, probably retired. Plus they had some cool solar walk lights for their door. We would have to get some of those! Although later in the evening a younger couple joined them. To the rear of our site, to the south, was a small berm. Just over the berm in Loop-C was the Amphitheater. Further south was Moraine Park, home to hundreds of wild elk. And this was the season of the rut. But there were only a few that could be seen. Most years, at just about any time, there are easily hundreds in the Moraine Park meadow. To the north of Site Most Excellent Solar Lights 44, across the street, some folks were setting up a small a- frame RV and a tent. So far the campground was not too full, but a sign at the entrance said it was full. They would come later in the afternoon and evening, to be sure. When we had returned from Estes Park we broke out refreshment. As we sat at the picnic table and refreshed Sharon and Don walked up about 2:30 p.m. They had just set up camp. We gabbed and refreshed for awhile. We would have the campfire that night. Don had not brought any firewood. In fact he had saw that Roosevelt National Forest had a fire ban in effect. But at the Park fires were allowed, as normal, in the fire rings at the campsites. Sharon and Don had Site 54, which was a drive-through. It really hugged the road, so much, in fact, that they couldn t use their canopy. Jolene and Bob had Site 52, which was a nice site. This was a year when Kathy made the reservation and all of Loop B sites were taken so she had to make do in Loop A. 1

After gabbing we all turned to getting our dinners ready. Onda and I decided to first check out the Ranger presentation on Elk at the Amphitheater. We waited there for awhile, but no ranger showed up. We later found out that there is another Amphitheater. The presentation was there. We had salmon and cubed potatoes for dinner, most delicious. We brought a bottle of wine but we would have it on Saturday with Spaghetti. After dinner I started the fire. Sharon and Don came over and we sat around the fire and gabbed even more. Jolene and Bob drove in at 8:30 PM, after dark. They came over after they got set up and we all gabbed until about 10 PM. Then we retired for the night. It was still warm for mid-september. Mitch was up at 5:30 and in front of the Donut Haus ten minutes before they opened at 6 am. A half dozen donuts (about $5.50) were brought back to camp for consumption. The Donut Haus had caked donuts for Mitch and a white creme filled and a chocolate frosted donut for Onda. For breakfast we had a French Toast casserole dish, coffee, juice and milk, and, of course, donuts. We saved two donuts for Sunday morning. Don brought over some plum dumplings that Sharon had cooked with plums picked from their tree. They were really good. Sharon also gave us a bag of plums. We had planned to hike up to Mills Lake after breakfast. We had loosely planned to take in the Bird Watching Ranger Walk at 8 am, but we did not finish our breakfast early enough. We drove up to Glacier Gorge Trailhead. The parking lot was full. So we continued up another mile to Bear Lake Trailhead. There was plenty of parking there. We rode a shuttle back down to Glacier Gorge Trailhead and were hiking at 9 am. Mills Lake is a 2.5-mile hike according to the sign at the trailhead. But a sign about halfway up, at the junction with the Boulder Brook trail, indicated 1.7 miles to the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and 1.1 miles to Mills Lake, or 2.7 miles total. Who knows the true distance, but I figure it was 2.3 miles. We soon passed Alberta Falls, which is where a lot of people like to go since its less than a mile hike. We arrived at the Mills Lake outlet at about 10 minutes after 10. There were plenty of people on the trail and plenty of people at the lake. We had thought that we had hiked here before, in the winter with snowshoes. But it must have been The Loch, one valley to the west, but it definitely wasn t Mills. We continued hiking to the inlet of the lake. There were people there too. Only a hundred yards or so from the inlet to Mills Lake was Jewell Lake, which is not named on the RMNP map. Jewell Lake, 9944 Its inlet was pretty shallow, but Mills Lake (9941 ) seems to have some deep areas. Jewel Lake (9944 ) was shallow. From a big boulder at the inlet of Jewel, upon which we ate a snack, we could see the bottom everywhere. There were a few crater-like deep holes. In neither lake could we see fish, or fishermen. After we snacked we climbed off the boulder and explored Glacier Creek, which feeds both lakes. Golden colored rocks lined the calm clear water. In a number of places we could see brook trout. As we explored upstream, we came to the trail again. From Jewel the trail continues about 2 miles to Black Lake (10622 ). We decided check it out. After more exploring and then walking on the trail for a bit we came on a sign that showed that Black Lake was only 1.1 miles further. At that point a trail peeled off to the west to Glacier Gorge Campground, a backcountry site, for which a permit is required for camping. We could not see the campsite. We continued walking toward Black Lake. The scenery was mostly spectacular. To the south we could catch views of Keyboard of the Winds, a collection of rocky spires that peak at over 13000 feet above sea level, and about 2000 higher than Glacier Creek canyon. The trail basically followed a few hundred feet below tree line all the way to Black Lake. We walked on a well-used, moderately difficult trail in mixed shade and sun. Some time before the final hill to the lake we passed group coming down. One young man in the group commented big hill, BIG 2

hill, a memorable phrase for the next half mile. We figured we would be hitting some steep ascents soon. The trail gains most of the elevation from Mills Lake in the last half mile before Black Lake. But the trail is well maintained with a series of steps, built from small boulders, which gains the elevation fairly easily. But we both commented that the hike seemed much longer than 1.1 miles, as shown on the trail sign at the junction to the campsite. In the steep incline we walked past Ribbon Falls a water fall that rolls down a 100 yards of smooth white rock. Black Lake was lined with folks in the area where the trail comes onto it. Onda and I walked through the rocks and bush to a cove on the west side of the small 7- acre lake. Black Lake was deep, and looked inviting. The lake is right at timberline. Only north shoreline has any trees. On the opposite side of the lake is nothing but rugged rock, mostly solid with water squeezing out from the cracks. Tough alpine vegetation, wearing its fall colors, grew in the places where it could get a foothold. We watched ripples from trout as we had another snack, relaxed and took some photos. Keyboard of the Winds is much closer here, but still a hike of maybe 1.5 miles and an elevation gain of close to two thousand feet. Not visible from the lake, but less than a half a mile from the Keyboard is Longs Peak, another thousand feet higher at 14255. We didn t Keyboard of the Winds, 13400 from Black Lake, 10623 go there either. From our vantagepoint on the west shoreline we could see the top of The Spearhead, a sharp peak at 12575,with no slopes or accompanying peaks, The Spearhead seems to come out of nowhere. Quite the spectacular place, as the alpine usually is. The weather was warm with only occasional breezes. The sky was mostly sunny. We stayed at the shoreline for maybe 40 minutes and then made our way back to the trail for the hike back down at about 1:30. The walk back down was easy enough, but it still took us about 2½ hours. The trail was not crowded, but there were certainly plenty of people going up and down the trail. There were many more people on the trail from Mills Lake on down. We moved to the side once to let a group of hikers go by, and saw a guy I had worked with a few years earlier. It took me another half a mile to remember his name. Probably eight to ten years earlier Craig had sold me the five The Spearhead, 12575 in front of Chiefs Head Peak, 13579 3

piece backpacking fly rod that I still use. Alberta Falls was packed with people taking photos and generally hanging out. About a thousand feet below the path at Alberta Falls is the Alva B. Adams Tunnel. This underground aqueduct carries water from Grand Lake on the western slope, to Marys Lake. We walked to the junction of the trail that goes to the Glacier Gorge Trailhead and the Bear Lake Trailhead. Bear Lake Trailhead was 0.2 miles further. Glacier Gorge required another shuttle ride back to Bear Lake parking lot. We decided to hike the extra two tenths of a mile, directly to the truck. It was up hill all the way, but relatively moderate. We Alberta Falls, 9431 arrived at the truck at about 4:10. We broke out refreshment for each of us and started down toward camp, rockin to Rodrigo y Gabriela. The road was more crowded than the trip up that morning. We pulled into the campground, drove around the C-Loop and saw Don and Sharon at their site. We stopped for a bit to talk. Jolene & Bob came by and we all agreed to meet at their site for another bit of gabbing. The picnic table at their site was in the shade of the trees. It was 4:30. The weather was still shorts and short sleeve. One thing we gabbed about is why there were not as many elk to be viewed as normal. We settled on our theory that the warm weather was keeping them in the trees. It sounded good. At least as good as the many elk hunting trips when I used that reason. But there were not as many elk to be seen. Elk were in the parks but not very many. And the bugling was about non-existent, particularly least from our camps in the A- Loop, which were at least two berms away from Moraine Park. The spaghetti we had for dinner was good, as was the wine and other fixins. We dined inside the Montana at dusk. By the time we finish and cleaned up it was well after dark. I had put two new Interstate 6v deep cycle batteries in the Montana. The twelve-volt lights were still as bright as could be. In the trip we took two weeks earlier to Turquoise Lake, the lights would go dim if we used them over an hour or so. The old batteries, two twelve-volt marine batteries, were in the trailer when we bought it. They were six years old. Old enough to replace, I guess. The new batteries had powered the lights on Friday evening, the heater on Saturday morning, and the lights on Saturday night, and they still showed no sign of weakness. So far I was happy with that $230 battery purchase. Onda took a shower before we went over to the campfire at Bob s and Jolene s site. We arrived well after the fire had been started. We took a few pictures of the group around the campfire. I was still sipping the Estes Park beer, in a plastic cup. It was still good. Onda was sipping a vanilla rum & Diet Coke, and it was good too. Life was good. We still were not hearing any elk though. We gabbed for a couple of hours and then retired. I took a shower before I went to bed. It always feels good going to bed clean. Life was good. I was up a little later than Sunday morning, but still at dawn. It was 54 in the Montana so I turned the heater on again. The battery worked great. I made coffee. Onda got up just after the coffee was ready. I started the oven and she heated up the remaining French Toast casserole. It was still good too. Of course the coffee, orange juice and remaining donuts were good too. Life was good. After breakfast we decided to walk up to the Moraine Park Museum. We would have to hurry because checkout time was at noon and it was already after 10. We had only an hour and a half to walk the ¾ mile to the museum, look around and then walk back. We got to the museum a little before 11. We checked the place out for probably 20 minutes. In the sitting room overlooking Moraine Park were two nice rocking 4

chairs made out of willow branches and reeds. The view was pretty great. It would be nice to have a place with a view like that, but of course if it had the chairs too. We started back about 10 after 11. We would have to hurry. We still had to walk back and then pack up the trailer. All before the noon checkout time. One year when we were here, and we were a little late checking out, the rangers came by about five minutes after noon and gave us a little bit of a hard time. We made it back to the site at about 11:35 and packed up the trailer. We finally pulled out of the site at 12:25. From now on we would have to plan on an hour to pack and get moving. Sharon and Don left before us. Jolene and Bob checked out of their campsite but were staying in the park to spend time with Michael, April and the kids, who had drove up for the day. We had said our good byes while we were packing the Montana. We had a couple of plans for dumping the trailer holding tanks. We would likely stop in Lyons. But when we saw that the sanitary dump at the Park was empty, we pulled in and got the Montana sanitized. We then drove out of the park. We saw Bob and Jolene driving back through the gate. They had parked the Wanderer on the side of the road, just outside the gate. Since we were not going to Lyons for the RV dump, we had a lot of options open for the route home. We took St. Mary s Road to CO-7, turned right and followed it to CO-72. Normally we would have continued on CO-7 to Lyons, but this year we turned on CO-72 and went through Nederland. The town was very busy with people and traffic. Nothin like living in the peaceful mountains of Colorado near Denver. We had been on the Peak to Peak Highway since Marys Lake. This 55-mile road was originally designated to be a Scenic Byway in 1918 and now runs from Estes Park, through Nederland, Central City and ends up at US-6 in Clear Creek Canyon. In 2004 the Central City Parkway, a short cut, was built, without State or Federal funds, from Central City, through Blackhawk to I-70, just east of Idaho Springs. Onda and I had never been on that road and we would not take it this day. In Nederland CO-72 joins C0-119 at Nederland s big roundabout. Instead of following the Peak to Peak Highway to US-6 or I-70, we turned a few miles out of Nederland, where CO-72 leaves the Peak to Peak and follows Coal Creek Canyon east through Pinecliff, and finally drops down to the great plains at CO-93. The road was slow going with way too many curves and switchbacks for the big Montana, much like Cottonwood Pass. But it wasn t busy, so it was a nice, albeit slow, drive. We decided not to take it with the 5 th wheel that way again. We turned right on CO-93 and drove south through Golden. We got home at 2:50 p.m. 5