8/4 Pirika Lake to Baker's Pass

Kathi and I have considered hiking to Baker's Pass a few other times on our trips to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We have usually stayed on the Estes Park side of RMNP, which makes the drive to the trailhead really long on Trail Ridee Road which makes this a major stopper for hiking this pass.  Since we are up at Parika Lake, Baker's Pass is just a short day hike away.

We sleep in a bit as we know the hike is not very far.  We have a nice warm cup of coffee and warm breakfast before heading off.  As we are getting our breakfast ready, Pat has already scanned the area and found three bull moose up over the knoll we are camped below.  We walk up and watch them graze the meadow grasses for a while before returning to our breakfast.

Everyone else is going to hang around camp and rest up after yesterdays' hike.  Kathi and I review the maps with Pat and set off.  Pat's parting words were if we are not back by 10 pm, she would know something happened.  We laughed, knowing if we are not back by 2 pm, they would know something had happened.  From Parika Lake to Bakers Pass it is a short hike on a pretty level shelf.  A round trip of just under five miles.

Our biggest challenge was to find the trail.  Although clearly marked on the topo map and trail book, the trail is not maintained and relies on the tromping of hiking boots to etch it into the ground.  Several cairns mark the path, but some of the carins have grown into the hillside landscape over the years.  A hiker with a decerning eye can find the markers, however, it is a good idea to carry a topo map, compass, and altimeter just to be safe.  I did read somewhere that the trail is scheduled for "maintenance" during the summer of 2017.  I did not see anyone working yet.

On the way to Baker's Pass, we found several patches of wild flowers, remnants of old mica and quartz mines.  We also schlepped around an old corral that had become wet and boggy with all of the rain.  The old timbers lay in a decaying pile, and one corner of the corral is slowing aging with time creating a great photo op.

The Pass was not much farther down from the mines.  Here we sat and looked at the map and identified all of the mountains of the Never Summer Mountain range.  (FYI:  Asics running shoes have several shoes with names of the Never summer mountains - Stratus, Cumulus, Nimbus.)  Soon the clouds started changing as the temps were dropping.  We needed to head back to camp.

We arrived back a Parika Lake by noon.  We tried to eat lunch by the lake but could not find a place out of the wind.  We walked back up to the flat where were we were camped and found the others had been watching "Moose TV".  They spent their day around camp and watching the moose graze.  They also had found that a stand of krummholz trees just up the way offered a pretty good place to set up a shower.  Kathi and I gathered our clean clothes, the sun warmed water bag, and headed to "natural krummholz" shower.

I did learn a thing or two about taking an "o'de'natural" shower in the great outdoors during a windy day.  Wash your hair last.  Once your head is wet, your body gets too cold to even think about wanting to wash any other part.

After showers, we all sat as low to the ground as we could behind a big rock by our kitchen to sit out of the wind and chat.  Claudia brought over one of her brain puzzles and we all worked on thinking how many words we could make up from the provided letters.  Average was 15 words.  Together we could only think of 13.  We tried very hard to dream up two more words...

We played a few group games until the weather finally chased us into our tents for another rain event.

Taken from inside of the mining location.