Upper Cataract Lake Loop

The weather in Denver has been warm and clear the first half of October. I thought I’d try to take advantage of it and get in another backpacking trip before things transitioned to winter. The Upper Cataract Lake was an area I’d spotted when researching my previous hikes from Vail Valley. A little research on GAIA GPS yielded that the Eaglesmere and Surprise Lake trails would make a nice little backpacking loop.

Trip prep

I made some gear and food changes for this trip. A cold front was supposed to move into the mountains while I was out. Plus, the mountains had some snow the previous week. This led me to include a few things that would not normally be in my fall season pack.

1. Micro spikes: My itinerary included climbing up the to the ridge line near Dora Lake. With the altitude and light snow, I figured an extra pound for micro spikes was worthwhile.
2. Heavier sleeping bag: My usual bag is a sub-kilo REI 20 degree bag. For those of you familiar with these, you know you’ll be cold in them well above 20 degrees! Wednesday and Thursday nights were expected to be in the upper 20’s at lower altitudes indicating teens at 11,000′. I included my Marmot 0 degree bag. Overkill, but it’s the only warmer back I own.
3. Few extra layers: Nothing extravagant here, just long underwear.

All these things were a bit more than was necessary. I wanted to check out this heavier setup to see how the weight felt for camping later in the season. Plus, with the mountains you never know. So go ahead you more experienced hikers, make fun of me.

My food mix was different too. I’ve been researching some options for food and was trying out my own hybrid for dinners (instant brown rice with dried vegetables plus spiced tuna in a bag) and breakfasts (instant whole milk and Grape Nuts). Typically I’d take Mountain House and oatmeal. The alternatives were something I could make with little effort and avoid the additives in freeze dried food.

Getting to Upper Cataract Lake Loop

My plan was to take the longer Eaglesmere #61 trail on the outbound trip. The trailhead for this is located about .25 miles from my planned exit point at the Surprise Lake trailhead. The GPS coordinates for Eaglesmere trailhead are 39.83958, -106.31334. Head north on Route 9 from Silverthorne and turn onto County Road 30 just south of Green Mountain Reservoir. Travel on this road until you reach Cataract Creek Road (CR 1725) and turn left. Follow this road all the way to the trailheads. You’ll see an option to head up to Eaglesmere just before you reach the Surprise Lake trailhead. It took me about 2 hours to get there and the temp was 52 when I arrived. There was only one other vehicle my trailhead and 3 at the Surprise Lake trailhead.

Eaglesmere Trail #61 – Day 1

The day was pleasantly warm and sunny with some breezes. Within .5 miles I was zipping off the pant legs it was so warm! The forest was especially quiet and peaceful. The trail starts off through Aspen forest and opens up to view of Lower Cataract Lake. There is a nice overlook about .6 miles from the trailhead. I got distracted taking a picture here and headed off on a side trail instead of the main trail. When that ended, I realized I was below the ridge where the main trail went, and clambered up the incline to get back to the main trail. I’m used to navigational errors. 🙂 The first few miles were relatively easy hiking with lots of views, great hiking!

As you approach the western part of the trail, you cross a small stream and enter a pine forest. There are plenty of open meadows here and there. Based on the tracks, there are lots of deer and elk in this back section although I didn’t see any.

Approximately 3 miles in, the Eaglesmere trail veers west but you’ll want to continue straight onto the Gore Range trail. That’s the way to Upper Cataract Lake. The area heading up to Eaglesmere Lake looks interesting and would make a nice, shorter backpacking trip some other time!

The route on the Gore Range trail meanders back east. This part of the trek included routing through some boulder fields. I scared up either a turkey or a grouse as I was rounding a bend. Always a little exciting for both bird and hiker.

A more interesting sight along the way was some broken ice covering a small pond. Broken ice, how exciting! Well, it was pretty coole because it looked like some large animal had walked through the thin ice and crossed the pond, maybe a moose? I like to choose the more interesting option when making up what happened.

Just shy of 3 miles after the Eaglesmere Lake branch, you reach the Upper Cataract Lake trail.

Tracks in the snow

One of the good things about the light snow was I could see the animal tracks. The bad thing is some of the tracks were intimidating. I took a stab at identifying them using this site. Feel free to correct my newbie analysis in the comments.

Upper Cataract Lake trail

The section going up to Upper Cataract Lake from the Gore Range trail is very similar to the Gore Range trail itself. It’s mainly pine forest with lots of downed trees and the occasional opening into small meadow. It wasn’t until this section that I met anyone else out on the trail. A man and his daughter were coming down from Upper Cataract Lake. We chatted for a while and then headed on our way. They said it was pretty windy at the lake…umm, that turned out to be an understatement! The views of Eagles Nest peak as you approach Kat and Upper Cataract Lake are really amazing.

Some intense wind

The wind did pick up as I approached the lake. I took the video below while I was looking for a camp spot. You can see the wind creating a mist cloud as it whips water off the top of the lake. The lake had some nice whitecaps. Fly fishing was out of the question!!

My camp spot was a small clearing about 150′ from the lake on the west side. It was shielded pretty well from the wind so I figured this would be fine.

While unpacking at my camping spot, I accidentally triggered my bear spray. For those of you that use it, you know it is an intense pepper spray. Of course I got some on my hands which eventually made it to my face to provide a nice burning sensation. Ugh, not fun. It was something I got to enjoy the rest of the trip.

Rough, windy night and an interesting start to Day 2

The sun goes down fairly early this time of year. By 6:30, it was cooling off and was still very windy. I went ahead and got in the tent, reading on my Kindle for a few hours. At 10:00PM, the wind had not died down at all and seemed to have picked up. It was really loud and I knew it was going to be a long night.

At midnight, I was still unable to sleep because of the wind noise. I turned on my phone and happened to get a signal. It was then I saw there was a high wind warning for the area until noon the next day with high winds forecasted for all of Wednesday…great. By 2:00AM, I was tired enough to doze off now and then, getting a rude awakening from the tent shaking or being pushed in on my head about every 10 minutes. Around 6:00AM, I heard what I initially thought was a distant rock slide but then realized it was trees crashing in the forest nearby, an unnerving sound. I finally got out of my tent around 7:00 and grabbed my bear bag of food. Within 10 minutes, I saw a tree break and crash about 20′ from where my bear bag had been and 120′ from camp.

Go/No-Go decision

The tree fall and forecasted wind were not encouraging signs. I knew hiking up to Dora Mountain or traversing any ridges in this wind wasn’t something I’d enjoy. The idea of hanging out at camp for a day waiting for the wind to die down didn’t sound appealing either. I decided to go ahead and head back, leaving the exploring for another trip. Even this wasn’t an easy decision as I new the trail back went through a lot of forest where trees would be falling.

The hike back – falling trees

The sun started highlighting the peaks as I left Upper Cataract Lake. Eagles Nest peak is an impressively steep, rugged looking mountain and the sun only highlighted these features.

Shortly after the spot where these were taken, I headed across a steep ridge. There were several trees breaking in the nearby forest. I didn’t have to dodge any, so I guess that was good.

A grouse decided to join me after I merged back onto Gore Range trail.

Despite my paranoia about a tree landing on my head, I was still able to appreciate the beauty of the sun breaking through the trees.

I was taking the Surprise Lake trail back to complete the loop and shorten my hike back. Surprise Lake looks like it gets a fair amount of use from day hikers. It’s clear why, it’s a beautiful lake.

The Surprise Lake trail is full of dead trees. Every strong gust of wind seemed to bring one down somewhere nearby…yes, that’s probably an exaggeration but that’s what I thought. One did fall no more than 20′ in front of me. Luckily I’d made a habit of stopping during every strong gust to listen and be prepared to dodge a tree. It’s a fun game. 🙁

The last mile or so of Surprise Lake trail enters an Aspen forest, a welcome change from the dead, cracking, falling pines. It was here that I saw a rafter of turkeys. I really need to start getting these on video instead of just pictures.

Back at the trailhead I noticed there weren’t any cars, at any of the trailheads. I’d been the only one up there the previous night. I couldn’t decide if that was pretty cool, or saying I’m dumb.

Summary of Upper Cataract Lake Loop

The plan of hiking up to Upper Cataract Lake and spending a few days exploring is a great option. Maybe the decision to leave wasn’t one all of you would have done, although I’m comfortable with it. You never know what Nature is going to hand you and I see no reason to challenge her.

Some day, I’d like to head back up and do this trip again, with good weather. This section of the Gore Range is incredibly rugged and beautiful.