Jen and I traveled East of Denver for a backpacking trip that we hoped would be better than the first one.  We took I-70 and ended up in a small town North of Breckenridge.  From there it was a short drive to a trailhead for Boulder Lake (which is where we originally wanted to go.  We never found that trail).  We drove back and forth for about an hour trying to understand our map/directions.  It was pouring rain and we kept running into dead ends and private property signs.  The trailhead was nowhere to be found.  

Finally we headed back to town, defeated.  We found a State Park Ranger Station and talked to them about where we should go, trying not to get mad for all the B.S. directions we'd gotten so far.  They directed us to a reservoir and an easy-to-find trailhead for Upper Cataract Lake.  We found it within an hour (after stopping for a delicious lunch at a local diner/dive spot) and headed out on the trail with thunderheads looming in the distance. 

2.5 miles of fairly steep trail left us tired and ready to stop when we hit Surprise Lake.  We were only halfway to Cataract but the rain was starting to come down and we'd already gotten such a late start that we set up camp here.

Surprise Lake had some beautiful lilly-pads, dragon flies and jumping fish.  It was quiet and peaceful.

On our first night we took an evening hike without our packs.

Jen making a couscous, bell pepper and sausage concoction.  It was extra tasty after all the hiking and trail mix.  We also brought along a couple o' boonts for good measure.

Cleaning my pot...

In the morning we got up and decided to hike another 2.5 miles to Upper Cataract Lake.  The hike was mellow and mostly flat.  We wandered through Aspen and Pine groves, over streams and guess what...NO DOWN TREES!!!!  Imagine that.

We made it to Upper Cataract and we were shocked.  This crystal clear lake sat at the bottom of a mountain peak and had abundant, lakeside grassy camping spots in the trees.  We wished we could have made it on the first day to spend the night here!  It was absolutely beautiful.

After spending some time at Upper Cataract we headed back to Surprise Lake to pack up our tent and head home.  When we got back there were some creatures waiting for us.  Two birds, which had actually been curious about us from day 1, kept flying near us, begging for food and craning their necks to watch us pack.

Snuck up on this guy eating a dragonfly.  Unfortunately I didn't have the camera when his buddy was taking a dust bath where we'd had our tent.  He was pulling off some amazing stretching maneuvers.  

 The hike back to the car was easy and the skies were clear.

We got back to the parking lot without getting lost!  The trip had been great.  We would then proceed to sit in 4 hours of Colorado traffic.  Apparently there is really only one main freeway for going East/West between Denver and all the awesome spots (Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge, etc.) and we hit it at the worst possible time!  The road bottlenecks in the mountains and we sat in near stand still traffic for hours!  Yay!

We have paid our dues.  Next time things will go smoothly.

Beartrack Lake Trail

The beginning of the hike from hell...

The poor Honda Accord had to travel an abusive 5 mile high-clearance vehicle service road in order to get us to this trailhead.  We should have understood that this was foreshadowing for the hiking problems we would soon be facing.  

You can see Jen hiking bottom right in this photo.  The beginning of the hike was beautiful.  We ascended through burn areas under blue skies.  A couple we met early on the trail told us we would be seeing a lot of downed trees on the way to the lake, that was an understatement. 

So far so good... 

You can't tell from here but the trail is about to get more difficult.

We started to have to straddle downed trees.  No big deal but annoying with a 40 pound pack on your back.  Some of these trees were green and springy, others were dead and when you stepped on them or grabbed a branch for leverage it crumbled under the weight.  We both started to get scratches on our legs and arms.  

Do you see the trail?  No?  That's because there is no trail.  We just tried to scramble over fallen trees in the right direction...

This sums up the last 4 hours of our hike.  We went about 4 miles in 2 hours on clear trail and the last mile took us almost 4 hours.  It sucked.  We kept thinking, if we just get over this ridge it will be clear.  No, not true.  I am surprised neither of us broke an ankle or got stabbed by all of the sharp branches sticking every which way.  Without a pack this would have been a challenge, with a pack it was downright awful. 

   

We almost gave up completely.  We would have had to go back UPHILL for another 4 or 5 hours in order to find a flat place to put our tent.  We took a break, I took off my pack and scrambled down 100 yards discovering an open meadow.  I went and got Jen and we took a much needed rest in open space.  We tried to continue on, being only a half mile from the lake, but encountered more downed trees and decided we'd had enough.  We camped here.  Luckily it was picturesque and very nice.

At the base of that peak was the lake.  So close... 

We still managed to have fun remembering how much we love being out in nature, far from civilization. 

 We found a little spot with running water and this served as our kitchen.  

Jen made chocolate pudding.

I hoarded the pudding.

Don't touch my pudding.

Four other groups filtered in to the meadow.  None of them could believe how awful the hike had been.  Some of the hikers said they had been hiking Colorado for 20 + years and had never seen anything like that in their life.  A great first experience!  A couple of guys went on to the lake, we assume they made it, hopefully they are not dead.  Everyone else found their own spot in this meadow to camp.

Making breakfast, with purpose! 

We camped one night, and hoped that somehow, we would be able to find our way out in the morning. I had determined that it would be physically impossible to go back the way we came.  It was extremely difficult going downhill amongst the downed trees, going uphill would be unreal.  We agreed that if we followed the creek out we might avoid areas where the downed trees had been abundant.  I didn't get a good photo of it but from the middle of the meadow you could see where we had hiked in and it looked like the hill had been hit by a shockwave from a nuclear weapon.  Apparently small micro storms and bursts of wind were capable of flattening entire sections of forest.

Following the stream downhill and out of the valley we bushwhacked North.  It was slow going but better than what we had been in before.  After about an hour of some moderate hiking we found a trail and began to follow it.  Thank god we quickly met two hikers who informed us that we were headed back to the exact same shitty non-trail we had labored through the previous day.  They also told us that if we turned around, we would be following an easy, beautiful trail back to the trailhead and our cars.  Sigh of relief.  

LOOK, A TRAIL! 

We made it back to our car, relieved, tired and sore.  Next time will be bringing a map.  We will also be calling ahead for trail conditions.