Backcountry Bliss - Sawmill Trail, Rawah's, CO

Chris and I had a nice weekend in the mountains. We needed a weekend for just the two of us, away from the house (if I had spent the weekend at home, relaxing would have been out of the question. I would have ridden my bike, worked in the yard, cleaned, worked on the newsletter, etc etc). We had very vague goals for this backpacking trip - 1. to be outside and 2. to not be in Ft Collins, where the highs were in the high 90's. We didn't really care where we were going, except I didn't want to too far from a trailhead because of my knee, just in case it gave me any problems.

So we decided on Sawmill Trail, just east of Cameron Pass, in the popular Rawah mountains. On our crappy map, the trail split about 2 miles in and then both branches ended. But it also seemed to get close to treeline, promising great views. We parked at the Blue Lake trailhead, there were close to 10 cars there already, but our trail started farther west on Hwy. 14. That worked in our favor - there was only one car parked there and we only saw 2 other people the whole time we were out there.

The trail was actually an old logging road. It was nice to be on a wide trail where Chris and I could walk side by side. We wound through a lodgepole pine forest, with a mix of old trees, young saplings, and bare stumps from the logging days. It was kind of sad to see all the trees that had been cut down, but it was also neat to witness the regrowth of a forest. The trail was in some spots covered in wildflowers. I tried to give some flowers names so I could identify them with my wildflower book that I left at home. I gave them names like 'rocky mountain honeysuckle' and 'buttercups', Chris opted for names like 'stardrops of death' and 'pixie farts'. In any case, they were beautiful and there were also an abundance of orange and black butterflies. We also saw a ton of moose and elk tracks, and a couple mountain lion tracks!

We had to cross a stream along the way that was FREEZING!!! I think it was the coldest water I've ever been in. It got above my knees and seemed to take forever to wade across. But it was a bit of a thrill, too, especially coming back across the stream early this morning when there was still a bit of a chill in the air. Our campsite last night was right next to Sawmill Creek. There were a lot of mosquitoes so we built a fire and relaxed for several hours with nothing to do. It was perfect. As we ate dinner, a young male moose wandered into the brush across the creek from us. It was very cool but made us both a bit nervous after our encounter with some aggressive moose last July. My sleep last night was interrupted by numerous nightmares involving charging moose.

We wandered around some more today and were rewarded with stupendous views of the 12,000+ feet mountains to our west and the towering peaks in North Park (literally the northern part of Rocky Mtn National Park) to our south. It was a lovely day.

The drive back through the Poudre Canyon was tortuously hot in Chris' non-AC'ed truck. Finally it got to be too much, so we pulled over and jumped in the river. It was fun and so refreshing. We had to drive home in wet clothes, but that actually felt really good!

This weekend was good for me. Hopefully I can refocus and work hard this week without feeling burnt out by the end of it. That's how last week went, I was exhausted by Thursday evening and didn't want to do anything but sit on the couch. Tonight Chris and I have done some cleaning and grocery shopping, and we made a delicious meal - salad, onion rings (yum!), and green chile/monteray jack cheese buffalo burgers, and I made a coffee cheesecake type concoction that is still chilling ... guess we'll eat it tomorrow.

Oh yeah, my knee felt pretty good this weekend. Chris was very kind and carried almost all of our stuff in his backpack, so I just had my clothes in a daypack. I have an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday, just to get it checked out. It's not the joint that hurts as much as the bone right below my knee (tibia?), it still has a bump on it.

Well, seeing as how I am now rambling, I'll sign out for the night. Thanks for reading!
:)