A LONG day of hiking. I started at the Long Lake Trailhead (no pun intended…) at about 6:45am and finished at the Mitchell Lake Trailhead at around 3pm.
The start of the hike was relatively even – it is amazing how close Long Lake is to the trailhead parking lot (about 0.2mi) It is also mostly flat until the far side of the lake, where Pawnee Pass trail meets up with the Jean Lunning trail. As usual, there were posted signs warning about mountain lion activity, so I was a bit jumpy. (Even a squirrel crossing the trail pumped me with adrenaline…)
The good news was that there was a lot more sun on the hike than anticipated. The weather report for the area last night indicated that there could be very early thunderstorms. Although they didn’t materialize – except for a single thunderclap at around 1pm – I did end up getting sunburned (in spite of applying sun screen at the trailhead.) The areas that I missed are quite apparent (or RED!)
After the junction with Jean Lunning trail, the Pawnee Pass trail begins to climb. At first, it isn’t too much, but by the time that it reaches Lake Isabelle, it is climbing in earnest. There were three snow field crossings on the trail, the first of which spooked a couple and their dog. The second one wasn’t too bad, although it was pretty long. Fortunately, the third one was pretty easy to bypass – although I blindly started across the snow before realizing that I didn’t need to…
I arrived at the Continental Divide (for the first time as a hiker!) with a fair amount of energy. This was good, because the climb up to Pawnee Peak, although not technical, was roughly 500 more feet of climbing. I’ve got to say that the whole area – particularly the views from Pawnee Peak – were the most beautiful that I have seen hiking so far this year. Calendar gorgeous – I hope that some of the pictures that I took come out!
At the top of Pawnee Peak, a young couple caught up with me – man, were they fit! They said, “Hello,” took a few pictures, and then boogied off to Mt Toll. Oh well, I am really enjoying my beer as I type!
From Pawnee Peak, it was a fairly steep descent through talus fields to the saddle between Pawnee and Toll. Sadly, I lost about 500 feet in the process, and had to make my way back up more talus. The views at the top of Mt Toll were incredible, although threatening clouds were beginning to make their way in from the west side of the divide. As a result, I chose to bomb down the talus field to the Mitchell trail, rather than climbing back up and over Pawnee Peak to the Pawnee Pass trail. Not a great decision, but all turned out well in the end…
The downside of the decision was that I hadn’t really planned a backup route, so I ended up on the southern side of Blue and Upper Blue Lakes. This resulted in crossing several fairly wide snowfields, each
time causing me to worry about covered streams that could have thinned the snow to unsafe levels. I also ran into several cliffs and very loose scree, mixed with dirt, that simply wouldn’t support me. In the end, I had to traverse higher up, which cost time. With the threatening storms, this was not a good thing.
Fortunately, I was able to bushwhack through some vegetation (since there typically isn’t a lot of foot traffic on that side of the lakes, there was a LOT of scat – mostly from elk, moose and deer, but possibly bear as well; fortunately, I was able to use my bear bell and make a LOT of noise as I worked through the vegetation.) Again, things fortunately turned out well.
After a fairly uneventful stream crossing (at the widest part that I could find with a LOT of rocks), I met up with the Blue Lake trail, and made my way back down to the Mitchell Lake trailhead. Other than a couple minutes of light hail (thank goodness!) the storm seemed to move on to better locales…
From the Mitchell Lake trailhead, I hiked along the road down to the junction with the Long Lake trailhead road, and was able to get back to my car, remove my wet shoes and get out of Dodge!
The key things that I learned from this trip were:
1) Always have a planned escape route from peaks, lakes and other points of interest. If I had worked to the southern end of Upper Blue Lake, I would have met the trail MUCH sooner, using a much safer route (assuming that the snowfields were safe – which is one of the reasons I chose the north-facing route.)
2) Carry bear spray. I really don’t like the idea of running into a bear or a mountain lion with only hiking poles – especially after tromping through bushes with a LOT of indeterminate scat.
3) Bring more emergency food. I had a quart sized bag of trail mix, 2 1/2 quarts of water, and an apple and orange. I was pretty hungry when I got back to the car…!
4) Get down from the peaks at the first threat of bad weather. I ignored a couple friendly clouds, as thunderheads started to form off to the east. This led to my unwise scramble to a different trail than I had planned. If I had been hurt or incapacitated, it would have taken search and rescue a LOT longer to find me – even after telling Mary what trails and peaks I was planning to visit today. While they probably would have checked the southern side of Blue and Upper Blue lakes, it might have been a lot later.
5) Find a hiking buddy or two. While I have the skills and experience to hike on my own, it really does make sense to enjoy it with someone else – for safety and for the experience.
PEAKS: Pawnee Peak (12,943) and Mt. Toll (12,979)
TOTALS: 7.63mi, 9,372ft, 8:12
YEAR TO DATE: 225.57mi, 62,770ft, 143:12
One of the most beautiful trail segments in Boulder County. The trail begins to climb in earnest after leaving Lake Isabelle. Shortly down the path, it crosses a very large snowfield diagonally, working along its east side to get to the ridge line above. The trail works up to a local summit, and then follows the ridge line on up to the pass.
In this trail segment, the trees really begin to thin out. From the junction with the Jean Lunning trail, it is mostly uphill, switching back over a fairly large stream on fairly stable log bridges. As the trail nears Lake Isabelle, it crosses over a fairly large snowfield, with amazing views in almost every direction. Shortly after reaching the lake, it meets the junction with the Isabelle Glacier trail.
This trail segment completes a loop around Long Lake in conjunction with the Jean Lunning trail. It is relatively flat, consisting mostly of small rollers, with only a minor hill at its western end. For the most part, the trail stays within the sub-alpine forest, with occasional views of Long Lake and the mountains that form the southern edge of the upper South St. Vrain Creek drainage. Even so, being at the base of south-facing slopes, it dries much sooner in the season than the Jean Lunning trail on the other side of the lake.
A short, pleasant, and relatively flat stretch of trail that takes hikers from the Long Lake Trailhead to the northeastern corner of Long Lake. The trail is very well maintained and is fairly wide throughout this segment. For the most part, it ambles through an open forest of conifers.