Okay, I'm back - a busy couple of months but had to come back and finish this blog. This place is amazing and here in the dead of winter, sub-zero outside, all I need to do is think about those few days along the river and I feel warm all over again. Continuing with the first day there at the Cache campsite we hiked up the valley a second time with a difference. We hike up valley further then the last hike. We see more ridges as if the valley is built from lateral ridges, one on top of the other. At one point I catch a view up valley which is relatively flat, and can see probably a mile up-river. Distance such as this looks so cool when it's wilderness. You get a sense of something huge, yet deceivingly close.
We decide to at this point to hike into the forest towards Specimen Mountain. This area is closed to camping; deemed a research natural area. We joke the place is used for government, bizarre experiments and head uphill. We walk along game trails, remaining along a slightly uphill contour. In here trees are very much alive; noticing more sub-alpine trees, shade and lots of cool looking ground cover like kinnicknick. After a while of this peaceful hiking we break-out into a meadow separating our ridge from the next. We climb uphill in this field to a saddle with a continuing meadow downward, away from the Poudre valley. We cross the meadow into the forest to head back to camp. More game trails, highways actually, are followed; we get to camp as we move through bunches of dead lodgepole.
Later towards evening we hike to the confluence of the Poudre and Chapin Creek. It's a nice area, rolling moraine covered in grass and mini boulders. It's here we catch a glimpse of a wider Poudre River downstream. As dusk approaches the Moon rises over the Desolation Peaks. We're high and dry looking at sunlight from the sunset light up the high points. Back at camp I watch Venus setting over a faraway ridge and observe it winking in and out as it cross just above the ridge, filtered by the forests. Then it disappears for the night; something I've never seen before. While this is happening, two bull elk come out to feed in the meadow. As dark approaches, I setup my sleeping bag under the stars, look at the bright, nearly full Moon, listening to the babble of the river nearby. A nice way to finish off the day. Next entry will discuss the moving to the next campsite, Flatiron.
We decide to at this point to hike into the forest towards Specimen Mountain. This area is closed to camping; deemed a research natural area. We joke the place is used for government, bizarre experiments and head uphill. We walk along game trails, remaining along a slightly uphill contour. In here trees are very much alive; noticing more sub-alpine trees, shade and lots of cool looking ground cover like kinnicknick. After a while of this peaceful hiking we break-out into a meadow separating our ridge from the next. We climb uphill in this field to a saddle with a continuing meadow downward, away from the Poudre valley. We cross the meadow into the forest to head back to camp. More game trails, highways actually, are followed; we get to camp as we move through bunches of dead lodgepole.
Later towards evening we hike to the confluence of the Poudre and Chapin Creek. It's a nice area, rolling moraine covered in grass and mini boulders. It's here we catch a glimpse of a wider Poudre River downstream. As dusk approaches the Moon rises over the Desolation Peaks. We're high and dry looking at sunlight from the sunset light up the high points. Back at camp I watch Venus setting over a faraway ridge and observe it winking in and out as it cross just above the ridge, filtered by the forests. Then it disappears for the night; something I've never seen before. While this is happening, two bull elk come out to feed in the meadow. As dark approaches, I setup my sleeping bag under the stars, look at the bright, nearly full Moon, listening to the babble of the river nearby. A nice way to finish off the day. Next entry will discuss the moving to the next campsite, Flatiron.
Here is where we see the sunset light shine on the mountains next to us:
A view down river, where we'll go tomorrow (Saturday, July 24, 2010):
This here is some of the Rolling Moraine we encountered from time to time:
Goodbye to this place, a new camp awaits us next.....
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