Rawah Wilderness, CO: Backpacking, fishing, tons O' pics

[ilbruche]

Hiked up the McIntyre Creek trail on Friday with my buddy Toby to a camp used by horse packers. I forgot to get some shots of the camp. They had some frames built for canvas covers. The camp was right on the edge of a huge park and has plenty of pre cut firewood.

Day 1: Hiking in and bog fishing with bugs.

Some weird plant that looked related to asparagus.

A little beaver action.

Close to the camp.

Getting ready to fish the creek near camp. The mosquitos were horrendous. You'd have a squadron of 10,000 around you. It made concentrating on anything next to impossible. Even with 100% deet they drove us nuts.

Splitting some wood with the HI R10.

 

[ilbruche]

Grilling up a buffalo steak and marinated turkey breast.

The last bite.

Relaxing by the fire.

At night while sitting around the fire I heard a noise near camp. I turned on my flashlight and was a porcupine bumbling closer. I shined the light on him for a while and he eventually turned around and went away. Porcupines are silly.

Day 2: heading out to fish and peak bagging instead

Lots of myshrooms around.

The river looks good Toby is stoked. :fish:

Sadly most of the fish were dinky little 4 to 6 inchers. The biggest we saw was maybe 10 inches.

 

[ilbruche]

Saw a moose. They are friggin huge.

A couple of the "ponds".

Toby wanted to head to the higher alpine lakes. So we had to get on the ridge and head south. On the way back I went down and fished the last pond shown in the picture below. Everything was very wet and boggy. My feet were wet pretty much all day. After you go in once it's better to say screw it and keep walking in the water.

I decided I wanted to bag the pyramid shaped peak in the distance. It was on the way so why not.

 

[ilbruche]

Old cabin.

Trail sign in the middle of a bog.

I love the alpine environment.

Toby has almost caught up.

Looking south.

The lakes were still a good 3 miles away. We decided to head back and fish what we had passed.

Elk near the ridge.

 

[ilbruche]

Thinderheads were coming in and the bugs were driving Toby mad. I still wanted to fish this pond even if I didn't catch anything. The fish were rising and I hooked a couple.

Trail shots on the way back.

Can you say bark beetles?

 

[ilbruche]

Thus ended day 2 with both of us pretty tired from all the hiking, fishing and climbing in the sun. The mosquitos were relentless. I got back to camp, ate a little food and passed out.

Day 3: rain and hiking out.

W e packed up camp and headed back. I took my time and snapped lots of pictures.

Some sort of scrape....maybe porcupine?

 

[ilbruche]

Beavers at work.

And back to the start.

So we saw all sorts of wildlife. Elk, moose, deer, Great Horned Owl, porcupine, trout and of course mosquitos. :grumpy:

 

[Fonly]

awsome pictures man, thank you very much. :thumbup:

 

[ejes]

Fantastic pics, man!! Loved em all. Wish I could lay my hands on an R-10 at some point.

Did you make the wooden spoon and fork combo? That is a pretty neat little dodad.

 

[Rockywolf]

Wow! Another example of a beautiful place tucked away in this country. Thanks for the pics bro!

 

[myright]

Gorgeous pictures, thanks for sharing!

 

[bearthedog]

Nice pictures, nice place. Thanks for sharing!

 

[tonym]

Wow those were some great pics bro! I have no idea which one I liked the best as they were all amazing. With country like that around I don't know how you have the time to go to work.

Thanks for sharing your adventure, now you have 4 knives of mine that need sheaths so get to work!

 

[j williams]

Bruce those pics are awesome. Looks like your weekend was better then mine. I just got home from a 36hr shift on bambulance. Looks amazing, that HI is sweet, you rehandle that one too? I also have one of those bamboo fork/spoon things, mtnfolk mike sent it to me. They are too cool. Thanks for sharin bro, looks like a freakin blast!

 

[JohnnyO]

Incredible pics! You must have had a great time. Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm sure it took you a while.

 

[cmdr249]

Awesome pics! Thanks for taking the time to photo and share.

 

[mneedham]

Ilbruche - Looks like a great time:thumbup::thumbup: I'm liking that spoon/fork combo too, where did that come from?

 

[texastonydobbs]

Excellent pictures & narration , Thanks for sharing bro ! what knives did you guys pack?

 

[cocomen69]

Nice pics, Bro!!! Looks like a great trip.

 

[ilbruche]

Fantastic pics, man!! Loved em all. Wish I could lay my hands on an R-10 at some point.

Did you make the wooden spoon and fork combo? That is a pretty neat little dodad.

The R10 is pretty nice. I convexed the hell out of it and it works great.

Ilbruche - Looks like a great time:thumbup::thumbup: I'm liking that spoon/fork combo too, where did that come from?

Mtnfolk Mike. :thumbup: Seems you do a trade or sale with him and you get the little bamboo spork. I actually forgot my other spork and this was a stashed mini backup utensil...it worked great.

Excellent pictures & narration , Thanks for sharing bro ! what knives did you guys pack?

I had the R10, Breeden Pathfinder, Opinel #8 Inox Garden Knife and a Farmer. Didn't use the Breeden. I wanted to use it on some fish. Tasks like cutting fuzz sticks are unnecessary when your staying at a camp that has a huge stash of firewood and the ground is covered with dry needles and tons of wood chips. I also wanted to test out the R10 a little bit more.