Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Crystal Lakes Road Hike on Tuesday

Yes, we walked a road--a very nice, smooth, scenic road. But it tested our lungs and legs with it's long ups and downs. High in the watersheds of Beaver Creek and its Race Creek, Two pretty lakes called Crystal attracted six of us. We lunched at one and watched ice and rain dance on its surface. Then headed back through splendid, soaring scenery. The noon-time rain let up; rain coats and pants came off. We discussed the difficulty of scaling these peaks and the still-vigorous young spruce-fir forests, where our friend John Graeser once felled timber and roughed in the roads which we followed. The 4.75 miles seemed quicker on the return trip.
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The ladies spent the refreshment time debating next Tuesday's starting time.The goal--another try at Handies Peak, weather permitting. The vote--leave the S. Fork Visitor Center at 6:00 a.m. Tuesday for Lake City and American Basin. We'll pause for Creede folks to join us at 6:25 on the Deep Creek cutoff if they will leave a message at 719-873-5239. The hike is only 3 miles and the trail is good, and all upward. If the weather's bad, we'll adjust Handies to a later date and probably do Del Norte Peak for those who missed it earlier.
--Doug Knudson
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Happy Hikers,Linda M., Marilyn, Wayne M., Linda T. Barbara, Doug photographer.

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Ups, We’ll be walkin’ around that mountain.

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‘n downs, Crystal Lake Road

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Fir trees, (cone cores)

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Upper Beaver Cr. Crystal L. Rd.

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Rain at Crystal Lake

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Grass at Crystal Lake

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Multi hued hikers scared off the rain.

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