We are finishing up two days in Rocky Mountain National Park. There is some big Scottish Festival in Estes Park this weekend and it starts today so we thought we would check out the pipers and the drummers before its Hammer time in Colorado Springs where I will gratefully entrust my gullet to the skilled hands of Jodi Hammerstrom for the weekend.
Yesterday we figured out the shuttle system to get up into the heavily travelled Bear Lake area. It was a short hike up along a string of lakes but it started at 9475 feet which we knew would be taxing even after living at 8000 feet in Yellowstone for a week. It was taxing but it seemed to me that as the day progress the heavy breathing eased up. The last lake was Emerald Lake and to get there we added 605 feet. So, the total elevation at the lake was 10,080! Five figures and a comma! Good to be in five figures once again and a wonderful way to end the mountain hiking portion of our trip.
Now on the way down I noticed a couple of folks carrying rods and casting out in the lakes. This is a heavily used trail and it is "smoothed" out and constructed in many parts. Along Dream Lake, The trail runs right up next to the edge of the lake along much of its shore. As we hiked out in the afternoon, I looked over at the water at the head of the lake. FISH! Rising to the surface and visible in the shallow water.
They were green cutthroat trout a sub-speices found in these lakes, all about 6-8 inches. We stopped to watch. They were right there, swimming in a foot of water, rising to all kinds of crap, sticking their lips above the water and gulping or spitting it out. They were mocking me! They were saying , "You fool! Once again an alpine lake, and you have no license or a fly rod! I spit dead caddis pupa in your general direction!"
And I am not kidding, they were right next to shore. If the well groomed trail was a sidewalk, they were in the gutter. I could have taken off my hat and scooped them up (except it was my sacred Mets cap and it was not going into the water). They lazily swam in the shoreline eddies, chased each other off, swam back in, tasted a few more surface items, swam back out. Even as we moved down the shore to new access points, new fish doing the same. I could see them clear as a bell. Green on top, yellow leopard spotted hind quarters, rising, ever rising. It was as if they were saying, "We are Dream Lake fish but the only way you will catch us is in your dreams!"
It was a fine hike and a nice way to end the mountain portion of the trip.
Yesterday we figured out the shuttle system to get up into the heavily travelled Bear Lake area. It was a short hike up along a string of lakes but it started at 9475 feet which we knew would be taxing even after living at 8000 feet in Yellowstone for a week. It was taxing but it seemed to me that as the day progress the heavy breathing eased up. The last lake was Emerald Lake and to get there we added 605 feet. So, the total elevation at the lake was 10,080! Five figures and a comma! Good to be in five figures once again and a wonderful way to end the mountain hiking portion of our trip.
Now on the way down I noticed a couple of folks carrying rods and casting out in the lakes. This is a heavily used trail and it is "smoothed" out and constructed in many parts. Along Dream Lake, The trail runs right up next to the edge of the lake along much of its shore. As we hiked out in the afternoon, I looked over at the water at the head of the lake. FISH! Rising to the surface and visible in the shallow water.
They were green cutthroat trout a sub-speices found in these lakes, all about 6-8 inches. We stopped to watch. They were right there, swimming in a foot of water, rising to all kinds of crap, sticking their lips above the water and gulping or spitting it out. They were mocking me! They were saying , "You fool! Once again an alpine lake, and you have no license or a fly rod! I spit dead caddis pupa in your general direction!"
And I am not kidding, they were right next to shore. If the well groomed trail was a sidewalk, they were in the gutter. I could have taken off my hat and scooped them up (except it was my sacred Mets cap and it was not going into the water). They lazily swam in the shoreline eddies, chased each other off, swam back in, tasted a few more surface items, swam back out. Even as we moved down the shore to new access points, new fish doing the same. I could see them clear as a bell. Green on top, yellow leopard spotted hind quarters, rising, ever rising. It was as if they were saying, "We are Dream Lake fish but the only way you will catch us is in your dreams!"
It was a fine hike and a nice way to end the mountain portion of the trip.
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| Emerald Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, 10,080 feet. |
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