RMNP - Seven Lakes (success)

It is now late July.  I decided that it was time to try again the Seven Lakes loop in RMNP.  My Seven Lakes Loop starts at Hollowell Park, loops counter clockwise to Cub Lake, Fern Lake, Odessa Lake, Lake Helene, Two Rivers Lake, Bear Lake, and Bierstadt Lake.  The last time I tried this, on June 4, I was turned back by snow cover and avalanche concerns just past Odessa Lake.  I thought for sure I could get through now.  I knew it would be a long day, so got started pretty early.  The day was bright and sunny... Beautiful!!!

Beautiful start to the day

This would be the fourth or fifth time I would use Hollowell Park for a starting point.  The trail is pretty moderate with a good, steady climb to Mills Basin.  A more strenuous climb awaited from Mills Basin to the top of the ridge overlooking Cub Lake, then a steep rocky descent from the ridge top, to Cub Lake, then on to the Pool on the Big Thompson.  All was well to the top of the ridge then I began my careful descent to Cub Lake.  As always the trail was steep and rocky, but this time there was a lot of high growth vegetation.  Most of the vegetation was young aspen trees and mountain grass.

Burn & Wildflowers near Cub Lake

 As I am carefully making my way down a steep area, I sense some movement off to my left.  I stop and look over and there, about 30 feet away in the brush I see a Bear!  I see his head and shoulder, but not much else.  We look at each other for a while trying to decide what to do.  I reach down to check that I can get to my bear spray quickly.  I decided we were too close together to try and get my camera out and take a picture, so I slowly began to move on down trail keeping an eye on where the bear was.  That was cool and exciting!

The rest of the descent to the Pool was uneventful but I was able to snap a picture of a neat waterfall and Cub Lake.

Waterfall

Cub Lake

Now came the long climb to Fern Falls, Fern Lake, and Odessa Lake.  There were a few more people on this part of the trail.  I quickly reached Fern Lake.

Fern Lake

And then Odessa Lake.

Odessa Lake

 You see a change in the picture format.  Unfortunately my camera ran out of battery on this picture of a wildflower, so I had to use my iPhone instead.

Camera battery ran out!

This was the first time I had take the trail down directly to Odessa Lake.  The Little Matterhorn and surrounding peaks look much more imposing from the lake than from the mid-mountain trail side.

Little Matterhorn

I returned to the main trail and began the ascent to the west turn toward Bear Lake.  I've included a few pictures from my aborted hike and this one to show the difference six weeks can make.

Avalanche area when there was snow!

Then

Now

Now

Then

After seeing what the trail looked like without snow, I am very thankful that I did not try and continue the last time around.

Lake Helene

I soon reached Lake Helene and made the turn for Bear Lake.

It was getting close to lunch time so I decided to get off the trail and have a bite of lunch.  I was sitting on a rock enjoying the view when a chipmunk skittered up on a rock near me.  It didn't take him long to figure out I was there and come looking for scraps.  I shooed him off and continued munching.  The chipmunk went back and gathered up a friend and came again.  Soon two chipmunks went flying by me on my right.  I was amused to watch them split up.  Pretty soon though I was being flanked, one chipmunk on my right sneaking up, one on my left sneaking up.  Hmm, I felt a little bit like Donald Duck in the Chip and Dale cartoon!  However, I was done with lunch and was ready to get back on the trail.  Next stop was Two Rivers Lake.

Unfortunately, I was not able to find an easy social path to Two Rivers Lake, so didn't get any pictures and had to settle for Marigold Pond and Mt Wuh.

Marigold Pond

Mt Wuh

Supposedly you can leave the trail and bushwack your way to the summit of Mt Wuh.  Maybe another day.  I began the long slow descent to Bear Lake meeting a lot of people on the way up.  I'm not used to seeing so many people on the trail.  The trail was beautiful though.  I didn't actually make the turn to Bear Lake mainly because I've been there a bunch of time.  I continued on to Bierstadt Lake, meeting many people on the way.  Several asked if I had been on that trail before and when I said, "yes", they asked many questions about how long it was, how to get off it, and how hard it was. Hmm...

Bierstadt Lake

I was on the home stretch!  I exited the trail into Hollowell Park and was met with one of the best photo opportunities of the day!

Longs Peak from Hollowell Park

It had been a long, but very enjoyable day.  I will do it again someday.

 Overall Track Statistics for track RMNP - Seven Lakes (success)

 Length 15.652 miles

 Start Elevation - 8089.27 feet

 Maximum Elevation - 10648.43 feet

 Minimum Elevation - 8089.27 feet

 Date of Hike - Jul 22, 2015

 Start Time - 06:57 AM

 End Time - 01:49 PM

 Total Duration -     6:51 hours:min

 Total Ascent - 3990.52 feet

 Total Descent - 3739.17 feet

 Net Ascent - 251.35 feet

 Maximum Grade - 28.29%

 Average Speed -  2.28 mph

 Maximum Ascent over Mile - 669.32 feet

 Maximum Speed over Mile -  3.26 mph

 Maximum Gain over Mile (%) - 12.50%