Meanwhile. . . at Agnes Lake

We were excited about our hike for the day, so we were up early and ready to go. We were heading up the narrow dirt road towards the Lake Agnes trail head, hoping that no one was coming back down because there were few places that two vehicles could meet.

We were glad to be early, because we got one of the coveted parking spots at the trail head. At 8:00 in the morning there were eight empty spots, and they would be filled soon after. We were headed to Agnes Lake, a very popular hike in the State Forest State Park of Colorado. As we stepped onto the trail, we already had views of the mountains around us. We knew it was going to be a good hiking day!

It was a fast 1.5-mile hike to our destination, and it was still early enough that the sun wasn't yet peeking over the top of the Craggs--the most recognizable of the surrounding mountains.

But the sun was lighting up the lake behind us. Welcome to Agnes Lake!

Now that we'd been introduced to Agnes, it was time to start the hike around the lake.

We started a counter-clockwise circle, enjoying the lake from every angle. Few people had made the uphill hike to get here this early in the morning, but another couple offered to take our picture together.

Mark hiked ahead to the peninsula, but we found that his rock-colored clothing made him blend into the scenery. The only way Denisa could see him was if he raised his arms and she zoomed in.

Our all-trails app said there was a trail that went all the way around the lake. But all of the most recent reviews stated that the snow, and the creek that empties into the lake, were both too big for that to happen. But Mark really wanted to make that hike all the way around, so he was perched on a rock, checking out his options.

We had both hiked to the point where the shore was lined with large boulders that made continuing very difficult. Then there were the bands of snow that can be very tricky to cross. We couldn't see it from here, but we knew there was a wide creek crossing. Then more trees . . . more rocks . . . more snow . . . 

Denisa has learned her limits, so she was content to accept the fact that hiking all the way around the lake was impossible. But Mark had to give it a try. So Denisa was content to sit on a rock and watch as Mark started through that rocky section. Meanwhile, on the trail, Mark took a picture of the rocky narrow shore line, and the couple that was trying to keep up with him. That was the last time he saw them, as they decided to turn back.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa is trying to take pictures of Mark's progress around the lake. Can you see him?

It's a long ways around, and he was too small to be seen already! But if she zoomed in as far as the camera allowed, Denisa could see Mark and his backpack against the sizable snow bank.

Meanwhile, Mark was taking pictures of the lake, with some of that snow in the foreground.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa can no longer see Mark's progress. So she was entertaining herself by taking pictures of the flowers around her.

Meanwhile, back on the trail, Mark had made it to the heavy willow section of the trail. It's a little tricky to find a way through this boggy section snarled with interlocking willow branches. Obviously, no one has been able to hike this way in a while.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa was taking pictures as the sun crested over the jagged edges of the Craggs.

Meanwhile, back on the trail, Mark had managed to get across the creek--sorry, there are no pictures of that precarious crossing. This was just one more time that he was glad that Denisa hadn't wanted to follow him. He did something akin to the leaping splits to get across, and he had no idea how he could have gotten Denisa across. Now Mark was on the far side of the lake, where people can hike more easily from the opposite direction. He was surprised to find these three hikers carrying their skis, going the opposite direction. Instead of hiking around the lake, they were hiking high over the lake to ski down the patches of snow still remaining on the mountain side.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa is getting artsy. She's taking pictures of the wild columbines in the foreground, with the blurred lake and mountain behind it.

Meanwhile, back on the trail, Mark was taking less artsy pictures of the rock scramble ahead of him as he attempted the area under the Craggs.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa was marveling at the beautiful yellow, blue, and purple bouquets that God had planted on the side of Lake Agnes.

Meanwhile, hiking close to the water's edge, Mark could look down and see the trout in the waters of the perfectly clear lake. Those fish were tempting the fishermen on the shore.

Meanwhile, back on the shore, Denisa was trying to get the best shot possible of Agnes Lake with the Craggs behind it. Now that the sun was above the mountains, the camera could do a better job of showing what a beautiful place this was! While she was taking that picture, she saw some movement on that far rocky shore line. Could that be Mark?!?

All this time, Denisa had been sitting on her rock on the shore, waiting for Mark to return because he couldn't make it through all the obstacles to complete the hike all the way around the lake. Now she had to hustle to get back to their meeting spot at the entrance of the lake because he was already there. 

In the meantime, Mark was a bit of a celebrity, as some of the people at the entrance didn't expect to see a hiker coming from that direction. Wow! What a hiker and what a view as we left Lake Agnes.

We made the 1.5-mile hike back down the mountain, agreeing with another hiker we had met that day. He said that Lake Agnes was "the best bang for the buck" hike in the area. For just three miles and 456 feet in elevation gain, a hiker gets to see one of the prettiest alpine lakes around. If hikers go early, they even get that alpine lake almost to themselves. When we left, the parking lot was jammed full with more people trying to park on that narrow road. Others had to park at the overflow parking lot at the bottom of the hill, adding another two miles to their hike that would now include walking up that narrow dusty road meeting cars.

As we got back to the highway, we turned into the scenic overlook for one more look at the top of the Craggs. Mark got out his binoculars, and managed to spot the skiers he had met, making a ski run down one of the patches of snow at the top.

We both had a good time at Lake Agnes, doing our own thing. Mark enjoyed the challenge of a hard hike (without having to worry about Denisa getting over the trickiest parts).  Meanwhile, Denisa enjoyed nature's beauty at its floral finest while resting on a rock. Meanwhile, we both got to wander more of God's wonders at Agnes Lake.

A Successful Drive and Looking for Moose

This was a travel day that was short on miles but long on elevation change. We couldn’t leave too early because we couldn’t arrive at our next campground until after noon, so we stayed at our no-hook-up site at Stove Prairie until noon. Then we left our 6,000-foot elevation campground to head 47 miles down the road through the beautiful Poudre River Canyon.

This road is officially called Cache la Poudre River. But for those of us that like numbers and locations, it is Highway 14 from Fort Collins all the way to Walden, Colorado. 

Denisa hung out the side window of the pickup taking pictures of the tall rock walls and the rushing Poudre River. We were driving through more of God’s wonders!

The high point of the drive--literally--was Cameron Pass Summit at an elevation of 10,276 feet. We were glad to start soaking in the cool temperature that comes with that kind of elevation.

This was the biggest test of our Chevrolet Colorado’s ability to pull our trailer so far. Over the 47 miles, we would gain over 4,000 feet in elevation. The pickup and the experienced driver did a great job handling the winding road and the elevation gain. Today's drive took us from the bottom of the canyon beside the river, to the top of the mountains as we topped the pass.

Then the road sign warned us about a steep downhill section immediately after topping the pass. That’s another new test for the pickup—handling going down the mountains with the weight of the trailer pushing it. Just a few miles after the pass, we pulled into our new home for four nights, State Forest State Park. At 9,300 feet in elevation, it was a pleasantly cool temperature in the 60s when we arrived in the afternoon.

Our second Colorado state park so far, we got to use that annual pass we purchased. Without it, we would have to pay $10 per day in addition to $40 for our site in the Ranger Lake Campground. Once again, we have absolutely no cell phone service. So after setting up the trailer, we headed two miles down the road to the state park's Moose Visitor Center and its free wifi. Right outside is a life-size statue of a moose with a unique texture. Can you guess what he is made out of?

It’s made of barbed wire . . .

with a little smooth wire to fashion the ears and antlers. It was a work or art!

After two days with no internet, we were glad to find out the visitor's center had free wifi. So we used one of their outdoor picnic tables as an office to catch up on some correspondence. That's not a bad view from an office, huh?

Our view was a field of wildflowers in the foreground, with mountain peaks in the background.

The ranger gave us information on hiking and kayaking in the state park. We also got the pre-printed list of the best places to see moose. That’s obviously a question they are asked often. We’re pretty pumped to see moose, as we were greeted with this warning sign when we pulled into our campground. We were excited to see that there were moose in our area!

According to our ranger’s list, one of the best places to see moose was the Ranger Lake Nature Trail. Just a short walk from our trailer, we headed that way at the recommended time the first evening. We were ready to find moose! We walked right by the first lake, with the trees and mountains reflected in the lake.

We hiked all the way around the handful of lakes on the Ranger Lake trail—but still no moose sightings.

So we headed down the Gould Trail, also on the ranger’s list.

We found valleys of willows, with streams running throughout. That’s the perfect moose habitat—but still no moose sightings.

We were amazed at God’s wonders around us--as well as the cool temperatures and the green valleys. We were blessed!

We saw the mountains that surrounded us—but still no moose sightings.

We found out from the visitor center that moose had pretty well disappeared from Colorado. So in the 1970s they re-introduced moose to this special part of Colorado that is full of the good things they love—willows and water. The Colorado legislature deemed that this is the moose capital of the state—but still we had no moose sightings.

We hiked 3.4 miles at a very slow pace in the areas recommended at the recommended time this evening—but still no moose sightings.

It was a successful drive to a great new camp site with deliciously cool July weather. But it was an unsuccessful day for moose hunting. Maybe we’ll find moose tomorrow?!?

Living off the Grid Like Pioneers

We were up with the sunrise since our windows were open on this hot night camped in Colorado. We stayed comfortable overnight with our battery-powered fans and a breeze. But we certainly weren’t expecting 100-degree weather in the mountains in a no hook-up camp site! It was cool by morning, so we headed out on a hike down Hewlett Gulch. With no cell phone signal, we couldn’t download the all-trails app information like we usually do. We certainly have become dependent on our phones to provide directions to the trail head and directions for the trail! If we hadn’t done some research a couple days ago, we wouldn’t know what hikes were available in this neighborhood. We're living like pioneers!

Mark took a sun-rise picture at 6:00, as the sun was peeking over the canyon wall in our campground. 

We ate a fast breakfast, and were on the trail by 7:10. We were glad to have the tall walls of the gulch providing shade for the first couple miles.

Doesn't Mark look good in his new backpack? That was a Father's Day present, and he plans to put lots of miles on it during this trip.

This is what we call a “lollipop trail.” That means that we first hike the “stick” of the lollipop, and then hike the loop at the top. That kind of looks like a lollipop, right? Then we'll have to hike back down the stick to get back to the pickup. According to the map at the trailhead (with the dotted black lines outlining the hike), this is what the Hewlett Gulch hike looks like:

The “stick” is three miles long and is flat and easy as we go down the gulch formed by Hewlett Creek. We were grateful for the log bridges the US Forest Service laid over the creek crossings to keep our feet dry.

We saw that the bridges were numbered with an insignia of the forest service.

We also saw that many of the bridges weren’t needed now, as the creek was dry most of the way. It looked like northern Colorado was in a bit of a drought. When the creek was dry, the logs made for a nice bench to rest on.

Things got rockier, and sunnier, as we headed uphill once we got to the sucker head of this lollipop. We started gaining elevation on switchbacks with different views. We commented that these views looked more like cow pastures than mountains.

We were glad for some cloud cover, as this hike could be really hot in July. We saw record-breaking heat yesterday, and today’s high is predicted in the 80’s. We’re only at 6,000 feet in elevation, so it gets hot on this eastern end of Highway 14, known as the Cache de Poudre River.

We would have had some shade, but a fire swept through this gulch in 2012. The grass and wildflowers have bounced back nicely, and Denisa kept busy taking wildflower pictures.

The charred trees were still standing, and we didn’t see any evidence that new young trees were going to take their place.

That lollipop top hike was more challenging, and longer than we had expected. If we had more information on this hike, we might not have chosen it as our first hike of this trip.

When we got back to our pickup, Mark’s phone recorded that we had been hiking for 3.5 hours, and we went 8.7 miles with  2,323 feet in elevation gain. That would be a challenging hike for seasoned hikers, and we feel like a couple of newbies right now. Now that we had our exercise for the day, it was time to relax in our backyard river. Just a few steps from our trailer, we can sit in the rushing water of the Poudre River to get cool, just like the pioneers.

When we needed more water in the trailer, this forest service campground had it available from the community pump. We just have to pump and carry it in a bucket--just like pioneers.

Then we realized that we weren’t prepared with a system to get that water into our RV tank. So we manufactured a funnel out of a water bottle and a piece of hose. It wasn’t perfectly efficient, but it got the job done.

We don’t have a phone signal here, but Mark remembered that AT&T added satellite texting to our phone plan recently. We thought we should practice in case we need to make emergency contact while we were in remote areas like this. 

So we learned how to track and then tie to passing communication satellites. The phone app helped to first locate a satellite by giving you messages like "turn to the left" or "satellite is low in the sky." Once you lock onto a satellite, it tells you to keep pointing your phone that direction, and you can see a picture of you (the green dot on earth) linking to the satellite overhead. We successfully sent several text messages. That was pretty interesting technology! Okay, so maybe the pioneers didn't have that technology to help them communicate.

We also don’t have any television signal, so we found other sources of entertainment just like the pioneers. Just like a television set, the Poudre River brings paddlers right to our backyard. We watched as one boatload regrouped after tipping over in the rapids.

Then they headed back through the next set of riffles.

We watched as more than a dozen rafts passed by, waving to the old couple sitting in the water.

It looks like the paddling companies pass Stove Prairie Campground around 2:00 most afternoons. Many companies start their floats just a mile up-river from us, as they make their way through the class II to class IV rapids of the Poudre River.

This is the only National Scenic River in Colorado. Even though the water level seems low with lots of rocks showing, we saw that many travelers were still floating it in July. 

We also saw kayakers heading down the river. We knew that this was more rapids than we could handle, so we didn’t even consider inflating our kayak. This was further confirmed as we watched these experts doing some difficult maneuvers when they got caught in the powerful current near the boulder closest to our camp site.

When we tired of the "water sports channel" on our pioneer television, we switched channels. Our other source of entertainment was the milkweed plants behind our trailer. Imagine this as our television set, as we stared at it much like we do the TV in our living room. The first channel available on Milkweed TV shows the normal programming—a monarch butterfly. We knew that people are encouraged to plant milkweed for these migrating orange butterflies. We found that the picture was a little fuzzy on this channel, as the monarchs flitted away without posing for long.

While trying to take a picture of the monarch butterfly on the flowers, we accidentally changed channels on our “television.” We were surprised that a hummingbird flew right in to get a sip of nectar too.

We found that if we stood very still about a foot way from the plants, the hummingbirds would occasionally return. 

We tried different camera settings, trying to slow down those tiny wings. But they were usually a blur. What great nature channels we have available in this remote campground! 

Denisa had already taken pictures yesterday of the yellow swallowtail butterflies. They were easiest to photograph since they were calmer and like to sit and sip the nectar. Today we flipped to a new channel and noticed one of those beautiful yellow butterflies hanging from the bottom of one of the milkweed leaves. 

Of course we tried to take pictures, and it looked like we were witnessing a National Geographic moment. It looked like this butterfly was laying a giant white egg on the underside of that leaf.

We would have googled this amazing event if we just had a phone signal! We took more pictures, as the butterfly didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave. That’s when this family show of new beginnings changed to a sinister drama.

Only by looking at the close-ups of our pictures, we discovered that the big white egg—had legs! What?!? Later we found out that this was a crab spider. They don't spin webs, and can change color to match different flowers to catch unsuspecting prey. The crab spider had caught the butterfly, and was now eating it. What we thought was a happy channel about a mother laying eggs for a new generation of beautiful butterflies, suddenly became a horrific tale of murder and intrigue. These channels can change quickly!

We switched channels again to take a picture of one of the many bumblebees in flight around the milkweed blooms that look like 4th of July fireworks.

We made one more channel change to find an unusual red bee among the blooms. We must say that our milkweed television has more interesting programming than the 43 channels available in our living room TV back home.

We fixed a nice meal this afternoon, and discovered that our solar panels can provide enough electricity to power our electric induction plate. We assumed we would be cooking only on our gas stove, but now we know that we have electric cooking options too. Even with cloudy weather, our solar panels cranked out 70 amp hours today, keeping us at 100% battery charge. We were learning that while camped without any shade, we can run the inverter to power the induction plate to cook a meal, occasionally use the water pump, and run the roof fan to keep a breeze inside. Maybe we have some new-fangled electric gizmos that the pioneers didn't have.

Even though the sun was fueling our solar power, we were glad when it got cooler when the sun set in the west. Our lights are very efficient LEDs, but we didn't want to use our battery power to light up the inside of the trailer after dark. Besides, our outdoor "television" was finished for the evening. So just like pioneers, we went to sleep when it got dark. It's fun living like pioneers!