Four of us turned out for this run, including Pops, Maldavid, Larry the Jeep Guy from South Carolina who I met earlier this summer on Medano Pass, and me. We stopped at Cascade campground on Chalk Creek Rd. to pick up PWCO70crusier who was camping this weekend and hit the trail at 10AM.
Larry is staying in Pueblo for the summer and is trying to fit in as much CO wheeling as possible. His Mud username is Lsho15 and he might be joining us for more trail runs in the near future.
There were tons of people, including four wheelers like us, the Razr crowd, hikers, and mountain bikers. The shelf road on Mt. Antero was impressive, as usual. Quite a few hikers were coming down the road after making the summit. The road was rougher than I’ve ever seen it but not too bad compared to some of the other roads in the area. We stopped at the top for quite a while and ate lunch at 13,824 feet elevation.
Heading down the mountain but still above treeline, we stopped at the junction of the Brown’s Lake road. We gave first aid supplies to the owner of a Doberman who had a cut on her (the dog’s) foot. We also provided water for a group of hikers that were headed down the Brown’s Lake road. And, three mountain bikers came up the Brown’s Lake road and looked like they were going to die. A hardy bunch, those mountain bikers are. It’s not easy at 12,000 feet +.
Speaking of dogs, this is a difficult place for them. The rocks above treeline seem to be mostly fractured granite with sharp edges, not an easy place for dogs to be. Near the top, an exhausted spaniel refused to follow his owners as they walked down the road. Another couple had two very small dogs not suited for the conditions. I felt sorry for the dogs that I saw in that harsh environment.
We then headed down to Brown’s Lake on an enjoyable trail that has just about everything. It’s one of my new favorite trails. At the bottom, it’s a short hike to the lake, where three of us fished and Maldavid threw sticks for his golden retriever to, you know, retrieve. Driving this trail might just have to be an annual event.
Then, the moose episode occurred. The moose was in a large meadow of willows having a feast. We stopped and captured some images and them proceeded along the road that skirted the meadow. The moose was just fine, as was I, until he decided to head parallel to me and then converge on my position. What I did not realize was that he was headed for the woods so I sped up to get ahead of him. Well, he sped up as well and outflanked me. In a panic, I stopped and backed up and gave it a 50/50 chance of him trashing my Lexus as we stared at each other up close. But he turned at the last second, crossed in front of me, and trotted into the woods. It only took about 45 minutes for my nerves to settle down as we drove out.
All the vehicle and foot traffic was off the road by the time we got to the main trail and we had a leisurely trip down to the main road.
