Big Blue Creek

We decided to try a back pack trip again and kept our fingers crossed that my feet would hold up! The choice this weekend was Big Blue Creek. It's in the Uncompahgre Wilderness near Lake City, Colorado. about 60 miles from Crested Butte. Fishing was the main draw, though we had never been to the area either and had been told it was lovely. It seemed like a good loop for us to do for 3 days too at 23.5 miles (oh boy, were we wrong!!!).

We had a late start on the Friday as Nick was trying to remember how to use the video so he could tape the Tour De France while we were gone...never did manage to figure it out though and we finally left around 12. We had to stop in Gunni to pick some stuff up and then drive 15 miles on a doubtful forest road that took us an hour! We finally started hiking around 3 - a bit later than we wanted! The hike started nice and gently and we were able to enjoy the creek as we hiked. We had to cross it at one point...good job we brought our water shoes...if only we had known how true that would turn out to be!

We stayed the first night at Slide Lake, about 5 miles in, though I think Slide Pond would have been a more apt name. It didn't take too long, but we wanted to get set up and have a hot meal before we lost the light. There was a great fire ring and plenty of wood around, so we built a fire to try and keep the mosquitoes away!

The next morning we decided to keep going down the loop rather than walking back to a site we had seen near the river (on the left) which would have meant we could hang out and relax rather than walking further...hindsight is a wonderful thing...maybe we should have taken it easy! So we began the haul up the river valley thinking (hoping) it wouldn't get too "strenuous" (our guide said it was "moderate - strenuous") and saying we would turn back if it did....

The trail soon started to climb and we came into view of Uncompahgre Peak (on the left), a fourteener (a mountain over 14,000 feet) which we want to climb one day. It kept getting steeper...and we kept having to cross the creek...at one point, we put on our water shoes, crossed it, dried off our freezing feet (this snow melt water is seriously cold!), put our boots back on, walked around the corner...and had to cross it again! Nick was not amused!!!

And we kept climbing...By now, typically for us, it was also getting stormy. The clouds had blown in and the wind was blowing. we saw the only other people we had seen all day come over the pass...the storm must have been blowing in from their side as they were bundled up with all their rain gear and we were still in shorts.
Hmmm, looks like we are heading in that direction....Hmmm...is that snow up there still? oh well, at least we're going to the pass on the right and not through the snow...



We did see a ton of Elk while we were up here. The photos aren't very close, but if you enlarge the photo and strain your eyes, you can see little brown blobs running across the mountainside!




Did I say we didn't have to worry about snow? On the other side of the pass we ran into it...and began to wish we had brought our show shoes! We had also forgotten our gaiters (mental note to add them to the back pack list...) and after tromping through slushy, and not so slushy glaciers in the rain for an hour, listening to the thunder and after having climbed up and over a pass at 12,760 feet with my back pack, I was seriously not having fun and wishing I could be somewhere else. So we stopped for a little pick me up...boiled eggs, crackers, cheese and a little tipple of brandy to raise the spirits...which it certainly did. Warmed through and fueled up again, we kept on heading down towards treeline in the hope that storm would hold off and the hiking would get easier.

Which of course it always does as you head down from a 12,760 foot pass. After a while we hit treeline, got lost, found the trail markers again, crossed the creek and got back on the trail and found ourselves walking gently through a lovely valley in the Fall Creek drainage.

This view is back up the way we came...






and this one is heading down...yay!











We were surprised when we came across some fishermen in this drainage and figured we were further along than expected.
We ended up hiking from 8 to 5 on the second day so we wouldn't leave ourselves too much for the last day.
It had been a slog, but we were finally covering some miles and decided to camp as soon as we saw a good spot when we crossed into the Firecracker Creek drainage.





The third day we knew it would be an fairly easy walk out, but weren't sure how far we had to go. The trail petered out (again...very frustrating) and we ended up hiking a larger loop than we intended. Apparently a pink ribbon tied to a pine tree branch down in the valley and across the river now denotes which way the trail is heading. Silly us; we found a more heavily traveled trail and followed that... which took us an additional 3 miles or so further around than we wanted to go. Fortunately it wasn't difficult terrain and there was a decent trail to follow.

Nick was finally able to get some fishing in on Big Blue Creek as well as we followed it back up towards where we had left the truck. We had a shock on yet another creek crossing as I was about to climb out of the creek, stepped and went in up to my hips...panic! Fortunately, Nick was there to grab my arm and haul me up the bank!

And then highlight of the trip as we were coming down to our final creek crossing (told you we would be glad of those water shoes...) as we saw a moose moseying through the willows to the river right where we were heading...Unfortunately too quick of a view to get a photo, but enough of a view to know it was a female and we had no idea where junior was!



We went ahead and made the crossing anyway, and where very happy when we got back to the truck and the beers we had stashed in the cooler were still cold!

And the best part? I had no blisters! Yay!