Description: (the arrival and day 1)
Good way to celebrate labor! Fishing and
hiking and painting. We all (except for
pink eyed Elizabeth) went up camping at Jefferson Lake in the Aspen campground
(right next to the toilet so we could meet everyone else at the
campground). Since we made reservations
late, we got a spot next to the very clean vault toilet
(did I mention that) similar to the ones they use in Kansas (I am personally
glad that Colorado Parks and Wildlife has other things to show then our
toilets). Got up there Friday night,
setup the camper and decided just to bum-out.
Had to wake up early to go fishing in the morning. Woke up and had some oatmeal and coffee and
headed off to the lake. Only Katherine
and I fished, Patti and Mandy painted the lake and mountain (not literally,
they painted what they saw on canvas, duh).
About 3 minutes after we were all settled, people started to shiver and
complain that they were cold. Opps, not
complain, express their outdoor comfort level.
After a little while, I had something on my line and I looked over and
so did Katherine. Excitement!!! I hurried getting my fish in to help
Katherine and about 1 millimeter from the shore it broke free, but that was
okay, the baby caught a fish! She
reeled it in and we got it on shore. I
quickly got the hook out and was holding it up and it slipped back into the
lake. Rainbows are slippery. I failed as a dad.
Now the outdoor comfort level
expressions elevated logarithmically.
Shortly we decided to bag it and headed for the warmth of the
camper. Painting, reading and bike
riding all took place followed by the 18 hour single game of Uno. Around 4pm MST, Patti, my lovely wife, made
me dinner and threw me out of the camper (actually she was really nice about me
wanting to go fishing in the evening). I
trotted off in my Toyota Tundra 4.7L V8 4-wheel drive SR5 double cab truck to
the lake. It was packed, so I hiked back
to the inlet and started my search for the monster of the lake. While I was at the north east end of the
lake, I caught about 8 tiny fish (4 to 8 inches) using just a Mepps
spinner. It was fun but they were so
small. I changed to some heavier
Kastmaster lures from Acme Tackle Company (no kidding, look) but
didn’t get anything of size. I changed
to bait, casted out and sat down and had dinner. Just as I finished it started raining but
nothing too bad. It did scare all the
people away so there were only a couple of us on the lake. I started working back down the shore towards
the parking lot and finally caught my first edible fish, a nice 13 inch
rainbow. Eventually I got back to where
we fished in the morning when the sun was going down. At this time, it turned out to be a great
day! Practically every cast I got a
fish. I had to hurry getting the hook
out and putting another sacrificial worm on the hook to cast out. The last three fish I got was in the pitch
black of a clouded night sky. Fishing by
feel! Luckily I brought my headlight so
I could de-hook them and re-bait. It felt
awesome! Finally, I decided I had to get
back, so with the half-moon coming out behind the clouds, the silence of the
lake, and bats flying over the water, I headed for the truck. I ended up catching 7 trouts over 10 inches
and brought four of them back with me.
Upon my return to the dark campground I found everyone in bed
already! I showed my haul and then
cleaned the fish in the camper while singing Fish Heads
by Dr. Demento. Good fishing day!
Day 2
Waking up singing Fish Heads by Dr.
Demento, we made our calorie packed breakfast for our hiking day. A frost was on the ground in the morning,
getting cold out. We decided to hike up
to French Pass to see if we could meet some French people (we didn’t but it did
sound like some guy had an Austrian accent).
French pass is between Georgia and Boras passes in South Park. The pass is basically a double rut wagon road
that is overgrown in many areas.
Starting out on Michigan Creek Road about 2.25 miles past the campground
by the same name, the trailhead begins where the road crosses French Creek (no French people
there either). Just a little ways in,
the trail was gorgeous. Lots of trees,
plants, rocks and other things you find in the mountains. Basically the trail follows the creek about
half way up. At the half way point, the
trail opens into a meadow and you have a good view of the valley, Bald mountain
(not my head, I wore a hat), and Mt. Gugot, and the pass. We crossed the raging creek (one might get
their pinkie wet if they were to fall into it) on some old logs thrown
across. Soon after we ran into a couple
of mountain biking chicks
and a creepy guy how didn’t have his shoes on, tap on his feet, too much sun
screen, ex-boy scout, and compass bearing seeker. We soon vacated the area. Katherine and I started to pull away from the
crowd (crowd: Patti, Mandy, Katherine,
Kirk and I, the dog) and got to a very steep part. It was probably similar to the north face of
El Capitan. We got on top and then
yelled to Patti and Mandy to run. Silly
girls, they did! Then we all had to wait
until the internal comfort levels returned to normal of silly girls who run up
hills at 12,000 feet. Hiking through big
green bushes and then more mountain bikers (that Austrian clan) we started the
ascent to the pass. Saw more mountain
bikers, I asked them where they are coming from and they said Breckinridge, up
over French Pass and then around and over Georgia Pass. Silly people!
Crossing the snow field, Patti was kind enough to put some down my shirt
which was tucked in and I got a high altitude enema, refreshing when it is
about 48 degrees out. Mandy made it to
the top of the pass first so she had to buy ice cream for the rest of us. It was sweet on top, looking toward
Breckenridge. Standing on the border of
Park and Summit County we all felt good.
Coming back down off the windy ridge, we ate lunch (I the dog, was
really hungry, took Kirk’s wrap right out of his hand). After
lunch we came down the way we went up.
A good, beautiful hike (and steak {its
what’s for dinner} when we got back to the camper).
Day 3
Day three we decided to hike around
(not sure why it is called around
since most the time it is not round) Jefferson Lake. We took a nice casual stroll around the lake
and looked at nature including a bunch of mushrooms. Getting back to the campsite we tore down and
headed back to town. But we did stop at Hog
Heaven, only the best BBQ in
Colorado! We ate too much and I got
stung by a bee, my arm hurt and swelled up for days!
It was hot in Denver when we
returned.
The Details:
Date: 9.4.2011
Location: French Pass, Park county
Trail: French Pass Trail
Hiking Partners: Patti, Mandy, Katherine, Inu the dog
Packs: loaded, hydration packs, extra water and snacks
