I decided to hike starting out from the Hessie trailhead outside of Eldora, a quaint little mountain town with many old western buildings. When I arrived at the trailhead, there was a team of “Hot Shots”(firefighters). Speaking with them, they told me they were brought in from Oregon not to fight the recent wildfires, but to help in downing many dead trees along the trail. I found this to be a bit odd, but who was I to question the Forest Service logic.
I decided that I would head up towards Jasper Lake and go as far as I felt my knees would handle without too much pain, keeping in mind it was the downhill that would be hardest on them. Going all the way to Jasper meant a ten mile round trip. It was Tuesday and except for the “Hot Shots”, I only saw three people. Two young ladies in a hurry to get back down the trail and a nice gentleman whom I met up with just below Jasper. He said that he had only recently discovered this area. I spoke with him for quite awhile, passed on my knowledge of the areas features and places he should visit if given the chance and then continued on the trail arriving at Jasper Lake at about noon.
It has been such a dry year here that areas that are normally marshy were now completely dry. It was very windy but not too cold so I took my time taking some shots of the small waterfall just below the lake and then found a nice spot on the shore to hang out and have a bite to eat before heading back down.
When I got back down to the Hessie valley, I could hear there were several groups of “Hot Shots” with their chainsaws at work. I tried to bypass them using a little known shortcut trail, but the trail ended up merging with the main trail with one more group to pass. They held me up for a few minutes as they radioed to make sure it was safe for me to pass. As I made my way the last mile or so to the trailhead, I could see they had been hard at work with many trees down along the trail. I suppose they do this for hiker safety, but I’d just prefer to see mother nature take care of it.
The next post should be of some fall color throughout Colorado as I will be heading for the central mountains and then on to the San Juans.
