I was not going to push hard today. I “slept in” until 6:00am. Well, not really slept in. I was awake at 5:30am and instead of getting moving I wrote in my blog for about 40 minutes, then ate, packed and was taking down my tent when I heard voices coming down the trail. They sounded familiar and soon Raider and Pitch came into view among the blowdowns. I hailed them from my position 20 feet off the trail wedged between blowdowns and the beaver pond. They stopped to chat for a minute, then they were gone.
I finished with my tent and headed down the trail. It took a little more than a mile for my foot to either stretch out or numb up, not sure which. This is the lowest elevation hiking I have been in a month, about 9700’ and decreasing. It felt nice to have air of some density on the uphill portions. Of course, at this lower elevation I was in forest for the whole day, wandering in and out of meadows, always on the lookout for moose. I want to see a moose!
Uncharacteristically, it started raining about 8:30am and continued unabated until nearly 11:00am. I hiked with my Frog Togg raingear on and it kept me dry. The new pack cover I bought in Silverthorne did a good job on my pack.
At one point the trail intersected a dirt road at right angles. I dug under my rain pants into my pants pocket to pull out my phone to see what direction I was to go, left or right. I suspected right and started drifting up the road in that direction while I brought up FarOut. I realized I needed to go left instead of right and turned around. There he was. Following me up the trail? A bull moose. Not 30’ away. I have no experience with moose, but I hear they can be mean so I edged close to some trees I could use as protection if he charged or something. He just slowly wandered toward me turning his head back and forth as if sizing me up. If moose have facial expressions, his was not a happy countenance. I already had my phone out so I snapped four photos while we eyed each other. He was right in the road right where I needed to go. How do you make a moose move out of your way without pissing him off? After a minute or two he slowly moved to the shoulder and started grazing some grass. I began to approach him, wondering what his reaction would be, fight or flight. I banged my trekking poles together and he skittered a few steps into the underbrush away from me. Flight. I banged a few more times and he wandered quickly off. Yeah!! A moose encounter of the first kind!
I followed the road to a parking lot and then started from there on another trail that reentered the woods in the general direction I had come from. Sure enough, within 100 yards there was my moose again. This time he was done with me and scampered? Galloped? Loped? Ran? into the woods. That was cool.
Soon the rain quit, the sun peeked out a bit and I took off my rain gear. Now the trail dropped another 1500’ over the next few miles to 8300’ at Monarch Lake. This is a popular destination for day hikers and I saw maybe 20 people walking around the lake. The rain had made for a very muddy trail. Many had nice sneakers on that were now caked and splattered with mud.
At the end of the lake is the access road and parking lot. Just before reaching the road I saw a man and a woman sitting at a picnic table eating and drying their gear. I stopped and introduced myself. This was Petr and Kafka from the Czech Republic. We got to talking. Soon the rain started falling again and they were quick to gather their drying things.
We walked together to the end of the road and found an outhouse (!) and garbage cans (!). We stopped to empty the trash from our packs and use the facilities. Then the rain started in earnest. We hung on the porch for a few minutes watching it fall, them stepped out into it and kept going. We still had about 7.5 miles to go to a reportedly good camping spot on Lake Granby.
Turns out Petr (Daydreamer) is a solid liberal
In the Czeck Republic so we had lots discuss. The 7 miles went quickly even though the trail climbed 600 vertical feet up over a hill next to the lake.
We crossed a creek 0.3 miles before the camping site. We stopped to fill our bottles for the night (2 liters each). I saw an opportunity to ice my foot. I slipped of my left shoe and spent 15 minutes soaking it while Petr and Kafka continued to the campsite.
The site was right on the shore of the lake. Kafka and Petr went skinny dipping while I set up my tent, then it was my turn. The water was surprisingly not freezing, though still very chilly.
I retired to my tent to cook, eat cleanup and go to bed. They did the same. We agreed
To start hiking at 6/00am. This allows us to get to town early, turning a nero into an almost zero.
This moose is standing on the trail I just left. Was he following me?
He just kept staring at me. An old man in a blue Frog Tog rain suit must be interesting.
See how unhappy he looks. I was hiding behind a tree hoping I could use it as protection if he got angry.
You can see the progression of lakes we hiked past by looking up the valley.
This is the Colorado Blue Columbine. Stunningly gorgeous!
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