Last Day:Black Lack and Lock Vale

July 22, 2011  Black Lack and Lock Vale

Miles 11.8                    Total miles …………141.4

This morning we hear on the news that the temps today will approach 100 in the Denver area.  The weather forecaster talks briefly about the heat that is oppressing the entire Midwest.  Seems like there have been lots of extreme weather this year.  The cold hanging on so long, late snow falls, rains that will not move out, floods, and now heat wave.  We look out our window by the kitchen table and see deep blue skies and know we are in for a wonderful last day of hiking in this magnificent land. 

The hike that we are going on today is full of splendor and majesty.   The hike up to Black lake gives hikers a great view of Glacier Basin and sitting at the head of the basin is Longs Peak.  While heading up to Mills Lake you get to hike up past Alberta Falls.  And of course since the snow is still with us, the falls are just ripping and spritzing water mist everywhere! We have the falls pretty much to ourselves so we shoot a couple of pictures.  This is a very popular destination for visitors who what to see something, but not have to hike very far.  With the deep blue sky the view is splendid.  I’m sure it will be crawling with people when we get back.

Alberta Falls

We cross a few bridges that have been replaced this year due to snow, ice or tree damage.  Remember these ‘bridges are usually a log that has been laid across the river bed and flattened on one side.  Sometimes the bridges are high class with a railing on them.  I guess the closer you are to a trailhead the more railing you see.  On the other side of the falls the railings are no more.  Also the large rocks in the trail also increase after we get above the falls.  You can tell when the park service feels that the trails do not need to be ‘groomed’ for the one or two mile hikers.  After this point you just have to step on or over the protruding rocks and roots to move on the trail.  But the park service is usually very good about chain sawing any trees that lay across the trail.

The last bridge to Mills Lake is a log that needs replacing, as it has some damage to it.  But if you walk slowly and don’t get the log bouncing you have a good chance of making it across with hearing a CRACK.

Mill's Lake with branch pointing up to Long's Peak

Mill's Lake

Mill’s is a picture perfect example of what you would want in a hike and a mountain view.  The large looming mountains surrounding a lake; Longs Peak standing at the head of the basin, water falls actively running down the sides of the mountain, making their refreshing falling sound.  The majesty is all around.  We stop and have a good gander, take some pictures, pause to see if our eyes can see anyone going up the trough to summit Long’s.  Of course it is too far away and we must be kidding ourselves to think our eyes are that good!

We continue back past Jewel Lake and then continue out towards Black Lake.  We are wondering if we will be able to get up the trail that runs right next to the waterfalls at the back of Black Lake so we can go hike on up to Green Lake.  As we are wondering about the snow that might exist back there, I am reminded that the hike from Jewel to Black is a very rolling hike.  You need to gain some 800 feet in elevation.  I think you gain it by going up 50 feet then down 75 feet, back up 100 feet and so on until you finally have all 800 gained.  This is all while you are in the woods with an occasional view of the cascading creek just off to your right.

There were about 5 snow fields along the way that we needed to negotiate.  At least this time enough people had tromped through the snow so we did not have to stop and look around to find our way to the next melted out section of trail.  We have a laugh and giggle about how much of this trail we forgot as our last trip through was taken at warp speed due to a very active lightening and thunder storm just above our heads.  We should be safe today as there is at this point, still not a cloud in the sky.  Well at least in the limited view of the sky that we have from the trees.  If you need a good laugh go back and re-read our blog about Black and then Blue Lake from last year.  It was a hike that we learned a lot about lightening and the great outdoors…

When we arrive at the falls coming out of Black Lake we are greeted with a large wall of snow covering part of the falls, along with the entire trail leading up to the Lake.  We know the trail well enough to know that we want to venture way to the left of the water falls.  We watch two guys slip and slide their way up the snow.  Kathi and I put on our ice stabilizers and make a new trail further left than the two guys before us.  There is no sense in taking a chance and being as close as those two guys were to the waterfalls.  No problem we walk right up the snow bank.

Black Lake is all melted out; we walk across the large boulders that lead to the back of the lake.  We take a quick peak up towards were we will need to hike to get to Green Lake.  We see snow.

But is it lunch time, so we sit on a lovely rock and eat ½ a lunch while enjoying the cirque of Black Lake.  We pull out the topo and identify all of the surrounding mountains peaks before taking a closer look at the hike up towards Green.

Upon closer look we decide to go further up would be silly as the trail is right on the bank of the rushing creek and it is all snow filled, but the creek is running full.  There is no guessing if the snow bridge will hold or not.  We decide to take advantage of the blue sky day and hike back to Mills Lake then up to Loch Vale.   The weather is perfect and it is the last day.

Black Lake

When we get back to the stepping boulders that lead out of Black Lake we meet up with a group of 7 ladies.  They are all members of the Colorado Hiking Club.  They go hiking every Thursday or Friday whichever works best for the most people.  We take turns taking pictures of each others groups.  Then we head on out as a group of 9.  Since Kathi and I had our ice stabilizers we were able to kick some very nice switchback steps into the snow for the other ladies.  They enjoyed that very much and were very grateful. 

We came to a point where the trail is a small bottleneck scramble down a very large wet slippery boulder.  Our group of 9 is waiting for a group of 2 to come up. We are suddenly over taken by a rude man who just barges through our group of 9 to get to the bottle neck spot. He skips to the front of the line even though everyone else is playing nice. As a teacher of over 500 elementary kids, I just love natural consequences for poor choices.  It makes my job much easier… Skipper Man slipped and landed very hard on his rear end!  It looked to me like he will be visiting the chiropractor to adjust his tailbone.  The 2 people on the bottom of the bottle neck gave Skipper Man a 9.8 on the landing.  Our group just gave him a wave as he picked himself up and watched him scamper off into the wooded trail.  His rear end was all wet and I am sure after he got deeper back into the wooded trail he must have stopped to rub his rear…that had to hurt!

Kathi and I stopped back at Mills Lake out on a huge rock that was right on the shore.  Here we had the other half of our lunch.  Kathi took a cat nap and I futzed with my boots and put away my ice stabilizers which were hanging off of the outside of my pack.  I’m not much for a nap in the middle of the day.  The sky is still blue and no clouds in sight.  We never lounge like this but it is the last day and we are trying to soak in enough beauty to last for another year.

After a good amount of napping and lounging, Kathi is ready to resume the trip up to the Loch.  The loch trail is only .8 of a mile away from the junction, but first you have to hike down to the junction and then hike up the .8 while gaining in elevation to the loch.  Along the way we pass two very large groups of teenagers who must be part of some summer camp adventure.  There were two hikers about twenty feet behind the two groups.  They said we will be able to enjoy the lake now as it must have been rollicking with the over exuberance of teenagers.  I think good thing Kathi took that cat nap or we would not have enjoyed the teenage rollicking on our sit and soak up the beauty of our last day in the mountains. 

Arriving at the Loch we have to once again go up and over a very large snow field.  I can’t imagine how long it will take for that to melt out even with the heat wave.  I’m thinking the snow had to be twenty feet deep yet in this snow field.  We sit on a rock that has a great view of Andrews Glacier and Timberline Falls.  Timberline Falls and Andrews Glacier are favorite places of ours, but the snow will not allow safe travel to either place.  We sit and soak up the view.  There is a fly fisherman working the small inlet to our left. It is the first time ever, for all of the fisherman we have seen cast their line in hopes of catching a fish in these mountain lakes, to actually catch one.  We saw him land it, but he never held it up for us.  We asked how big it was and he said about a 12 incher.  He said it was his fourth catch of the day. 

Loch Vale with Andrews Glacier in the back. Trail back there is still fence post snow.

Loch Vale with Timberline Falls in the background also closed due to snow

Ahh, what a vacation!  Some people go to the beach and lie around, some drive the USA and see the sites of Route 66, some travel to Europe, and I suppose some people do not vacation. Kathi and I walk the hills, mountains, and valley’s looking at the beauty, smelling the freshness, and touching Earths greatness.  We said our good byes and turned our back on a magnificent view to head back down the mountain, back to the cabin, and back to our home.

Truck parked in front of our cabin

Another two weeks of adventure is over.  We have seen much and stretched ourselves to greater limits.  We have completed the Long’s Peak adventure so that can be removed from the bucket list.  I wonder what will replace that item in the bucket list…

REI new purchases:

Ice stabilizers…used them

Water purifier…used it

Headlamp…used it

Sock liners for boots…used them

Quick dry pack towel…used it

New GORTEX hiking boots…used them

Water proofing for boots…used it twice

Tying up loose ends: the truck and its change oil dinger continued to ring the entire vacation.  Upon returning to National Car rental we told them about it.  Told  them we had to add a quart of oil as it was also low. We tried to mention that we had put 1200 miles on since the dinger had started.  The lady with the electronic check-in gadget asked if we still had the receipt for the oil.  I said no I did not have it.  No worries, she just gave us a $15 credit and said she hoped we had had a good trip.          Well, yes, I guess we did.