Friday, July 16th -- We woke up at 2:05am. We left my friend's place at 3:00. While driving, We saw a fox, deer, and a rabbit next to the road. We reached the trailhead at 5:30. We arrived at the lake at 9:00. We passed 2men along the trail. As usual, we got our favorite campsite since we arrived on Friday morning. We set up camp, quickly ate some granola bars, and then started fishing. Immediately after starting, my friend spotted, and pointed out to me, a bald eagle. It flew below the treeline along the northwest end of the lake and flew over the trees and out of the valley toward the north. For a change, I caught the first fish. It was on a red-and-white Daredevle. As usual, we took two 1-gallon plastic water containers with us and filled them up with the water from the spring coming out of the mountain (glacier?) that feeds the lake. And as usual, we did not need to purify the water in any way prior to drinking it. At about 5 o'clock, 4 men and a dog arrived at the lake. Also, at 5 o'clock, my friend used his watch to determine that the ambient temperature was 76 degrees and the water temperature was 64 degrees. 64 degrees?! For years, I thought that the lake's water temperature never got out of the 40-degree range. Oh well, another myth busted. Like 2009, it did not rain that day. The barometric pressure, also according to my friend's watch, remained steady. (dramatically shifting gears ...) During the previous year's trip, my friend and I noticed that some of the trees around the lake were dying or dead. Prior to this trip, I printed some photographs that I had taken in 2009 so that I could take them with me and take the same photographs and compare them. To my delight, no more trees appeared to have died since the previous year. You can see the differences with some of the 'Pictures' page that accompanies this page. Like last year, for dinner, we ate smoked salmon with crackers and Ramen. After dark, the sky was clear. So we spent about 15 minutes looking at some constellations. We didn't spend much time because we were exhausted from both the hike and that we didn't have very long naps (only 2 hours -- Ha! Ha!) that afternoon. So we hit the sleeping bags at 10 o'clock. Fish Caught: My friend -- 11 (Chernobyl Ants, Yellow Sallies, and Orange Foam Ants); Me -- 5 (all on red- and-white Daredevles), missed 4 strikes Planes: 54 People: 13 (and 2 dogs) Saturday, July 17th -- We got up at 9 o'clock. (Yes, we slept for 11 hours!) By the way, 3 men, 2 women, and another dog arrived at the lake during mid-afternoon. So there were 9 people and 2 dogs camped overnight in addition to my friend and me. Also, my friend and I saw a group of columbine flowers during our hike. You can see a photograph of them, that I took during our return hike, in the last photograph on the accompanying 'Pictures' page. My friend and I quickly ate oatmeal for breakfast and then went fishing. (We forgot that we had instant cereal. I think that it was because we were so excited about fishing.) While fishing, we noticed that, once again, there were no clouds coming from the West. Like 2009, the weather forecasters that we watched on TV on Thursday night predicted that there would be a high pressure system over Colorado during the weekend. So there would be little to no inclement weather. That can be good and bad. It was more-or-less an uneventful day -- which is great! Let's just fish and listen to the birds, the wind blowing through the trees, and airplanes occasionally flying overhead. At noon, all of the people who had stayed overnight left the lake. Since we got up so late, we didn't eat lunch until about 1:30. As always, we had jerky. Wow, a person could lose a lot of weight regarding how much time it takes to chew through jerky in order to be able to swallow it. At about 5:15, a man, 2 women, and a dog arrived at the lake. (Wow, 3 dogs within 24 hours? That's a new record as far as I can remember.) While fishing, we could hear a large animal making noise in the woods at the south end of the lake, just out of sight. It turns out that we would hear either the same animal -- a bear or a moose? -- the next day. Or was it Sasquatch stalking us? We did not take naps because we slept SO long the previous night. At 7 o'clock, we stopped fishing. We had dinner around 7:30 and, like fishing, we heard an animal walking around the woods, located approximately 100 yards from the camp. Like the previous year, the second night had high thin clouds. So we could not do any stargazing. Also like 2009, I pointed out to my friend that I did not lose any lures, flies, bubbles, etc. during the first 2 days of the trip. We "hit the hay" again at about 11 o'clock that night. Fish Caught: My friend -- 10 (Chernobyl Ants, Parachute Adams); Me -- 2 (red-and-white Daredevle, Chernobyl Ant) Note: For the first time in I-don't-know-how-many-years, I fished with a flyrod. That's my excuse for only catching 2 fish. Planes: 35 People: 13 Sunday, July 18th -- My friend and I got up at our more normally time -- 7:30. This time, we ate our more typical oatmeal and instant cereal breakfast and then went fishing. I almost forgot to mention that a couple arrived at the lake late during the previous day. Strangely, my friend and I never heard or saw them leave. So we assume that they took the trail out the back end of the lake and went hiking further into the hills. That might be the first time that I saw people do that. At about 9:30, the people left. For the first time during the trip, my friend was able to see the woodpeckers that were making so much noise that we couldn't help but notice while we were there. At 1:15, a man and a woman arrived at the lake. I briefly spoke with the man and the two of them were going to visit both "my lake", another lake, and then head back down the hill. It's a good thing that they didn't have on 60 lb. backpacks like my friend and I brought with us or they probably wouldn't have been able to make such a trip. Between 1:30 and 1:45, we took naps. Wow, we took pretty long ones because we didn't wake up until 3:00 and had lunch at 3:15. At 5:00, a storm passed by to the north of us. We got some heavy sprinkles and then the sky cleared up. We fished from 5:45 until 7:30. At camp, my friend used his iPhone to examine several things related to our trip. In particular, the elevation, the hiking information, music, and a star chart. And a very good star chart it was! And once again while fishing, my friend and I could hear a large animal moving around in the woods. After dinner, the sky was clear so, we used my friend's binoculars to look at some astronomical objects. We saw the Hercules Cluster (M13) and Mizar -- Ursa Major's binary star, among other objects. We hit the sleeping bags at 10:30. Fish Caught: My friend -- 12 (Chernobyl Ants, Parachute Adams, and Grasshoppers); Me -- 5 (Chernobyl Ants and Parachute Adams) Planes: 49 People: 2 Monday, July 19th -- width=100%> My friend and I got up at 7:10. As usual, we quickly ate breakfast and then went fishing for the last time during the trip. Between 9 o'clock and 9:25, it sprinkled heavily. (Refer to the picture on the 'Pictures' page. My friend stopped fishing at 11:30 but I continued because I hadn't caught anything. It was one of those fishing situations where the fish were quite finicky. So, it was difficult to catch any. As a matter of fact, I didn't catch any. The closest that I came was watching a fish follow my red-and-white Daredevle right up to the belly boat. But I did have 4 hits. Similarly, my friend only caught one fish. After I finally stopped fishing around 11:50, we ate lunch, packed everything up, and began hiking down the hill at 1:30. We arrived at the truck at 4 o'clock and didn't see any people along the way. (It was great!) One funny/strange thing that happened during the trip was that, like in 2009, I lost only one fly and one lure. But the truly strange part is that I had my line break twice and still found the flies. That's because they are Chernobyl Ants made of foam, will float to the surface, and were bright enough for me to find. Funny! Finally, we arrived at my friend's place at 6:15 that night. Fish Caught: My friend -- 1 (Grasshopper); Me -- 0 Planes: Approximately 37 People: 0 of Page Return to Picture Page.
Saturday, July 17th -- We got up at 9 o'clock. (Yes, we slept for 11 hours!) By the way, 3 men, 2 women, and another dog arrived at the lake during mid-afternoon. So there were 9 people and 2 dogs camped overnight in addition to my friend and me. Also, my friend and I saw a group of columbine flowers during our hike. You can see a photograph of them, that I took during our return hike, in the last photograph on the accompanying 'Pictures' page. My friend and I quickly ate oatmeal for breakfast and then went fishing. (We forgot that we had instant cereal. I think that it was because we were so excited about fishing.) While fishing, we noticed that, once again, there were no clouds coming from the West. Like 2009, the weather forecasters that we watched on TV on Thursday night predicted that there would be a high pressure system over Colorado during the weekend. So there would be little to no inclement weather. That can be good and bad. It was more-or-less an uneventful day -- which is great! Let's just fish and listen to the birds, the wind blowing through the trees, and airplanes occasionally flying overhead. At noon, all of the people who had stayed overnight left the lake. Since we got up so late, we didn't eat lunch until about 1:30. As always, we had jerky. Wow, a person could lose a lot of weight regarding how much time it takes to chew through jerky in order to be able to swallow it. At about 5:15, a man, 2 women, and a dog arrived at the lake. (Wow, 3 dogs within 24 hours? That's a new record as far as I can remember.) While fishing, we could hear a large animal making noise in the woods at the south end of the lake, just out of sight. It turns out that we would hear either the same animal -- a bear or a moose? -- the next day. Or was it Sasquatch stalking us? We did not take naps because we slept SO long the previous night. At 7 o'clock, we stopped fishing. We had dinner around 7:30 and, like fishing, we heard an animal walking around the woods, located approximately 100 yards from the camp. Like the previous year, the second night had high thin clouds. So we could not do any stargazing. Also like 2009, I pointed out to my friend that I did not lose any lures, flies, bubbles, etc. during the first 2 days of the trip. We "hit the hay" again at about 11 o'clock that night. Fish Caught: My friend -- 10 (Chernobyl Ants, Parachute Adams); Me -- 2 (red-and-white Daredevle, Chernobyl Ant) Note: For the first time in I-don't-know-how-many-years, I fished with a flyrod. That's my excuse for only catching 2 fish. Planes: 35 People: 13
Sunday, July 18th -- My friend and I got up at our more normally time -- 7:30. This time, we ate our more typical oatmeal and instant cereal breakfast and then went fishing. I almost forgot to mention that a couple arrived at the lake late during the previous day. Strangely, my friend and I never heard or saw them leave. So we assume that they took the trail out the back end of the lake and went hiking further into the hills. That might be the first time that I saw people do that. At about 9:30, the people left. For the first time during the trip, my friend was able to see the woodpeckers that were making so much noise that we couldn't help but notice while we were there. At 1:15, a man and a woman arrived at the lake. I briefly spoke with the man and the two of them were going to visit both "my lake", another lake, and then head back down the hill. It's a good thing that they didn't have on 60 lb. backpacks like my friend and I brought with us or they probably wouldn't have been able to make such a trip. Between 1:30 and 1:45, we took naps. Wow, we took pretty long ones because we didn't wake up until 3:00 and had lunch at 3:15. At 5:00, a storm passed by to the north of us. We got some heavy sprinkles and then the sky cleared up. We fished from 5:45 until 7:30. At camp, my friend used his iPhone to examine several things related to our trip. In particular, the elevation, the hiking information, music, and a star chart. And a very good star chart it was! And once again while fishing, my friend and I could hear a large animal moving around in the woods. After dinner, the sky was clear so, we used my friend's binoculars to look at some astronomical objects. We saw the Hercules Cluster (M13) and Mizar -- Ursa Major's binary star, among other objects. We hit the sleeping bags at 10:30. Fish Caught: My friend -- 12 (Chernobyl Ants, Parachute Adams, and Grasshoppers); Me -- 5 (Chernobyl Ants and Parachute Adams) Planes: 49 People: 2
Monday, July 19th -- width=100%> My friend and I got up at 7:10. As usual, we quickly ate breakfast and then went fishing for the last time during the trip. Between 9 o'clock and 9:25, it sprinkled heavily. (Refer to the picture on the 'Pictures' page. My friend stopped fishing at 11:30 but I continued because I hadn't caught anything. It was one of those fishing situations where the fish were quite finicky. So, it was difficult to catch any. As a matter of fact, I didn't catch any. The closest that I came was watching a fish follow my red-and-white Daredevle right up to the belly boat. But I did have 4 hits. Similarly, my friend only caught one fish. After I finally stopped fishing around 11:50, we ate lunch, packed everything up, and began hiking down the hill at 1:30. We arrived at the truck at 4 o'clock and didn't see any people along the way. (It was great!) One funny/strange thing that happened during the trip was that, like in 2009, I lost only one fly and one lure. But the truly strange part is that I had my line break twice and still found the flies. That's because they are Chernobyl Ants made of foam, will float to the surface, and were bright enough for me to find. Funny! Finally, we arrived at my friend's place at 6:15 that night. Fish Caught: My friend -- 1 (Grasshopper); Me -- 0 Planes: Approximately 37 People: 0