Trail Log: 7-26-2022

•  Trail: Fish Lake - Clear Creek Res./Cabin
• Miles: 12.1
• Riders: Self - Lee - Marc - Patti
• Horses/Mules: Jack - King - Ally/Lou Ellen - Nellie Rose Marie
• Dogs: Hank

Reservoirs - Cabins and bowling for llamas.

Patti - Lee - Marc

Notes: Day 2 of our Fish Lake camp-out. I normally get up early and more so when I'm in the mountains. I'm not sure why this is other than I wouldn't want to waste a minute of daylight. I didn't bother tacking up as it appeared nobody was up and around just yet. I took Hank for a walk and fiddle-farted around camp. I should have known better. One minute every horse and mule in camp was secured in portable pens or high-lined...the next each one tacked and tied to their trailers... except for Jack. These people are like ninja's on horseback! I quickly caught Jack and had him tacked in a matter of minutes. This ain't my first rodeo.

I was again simply along for the ride. I followed Lee, Patti and Marc as we made our way Northwest from camp. I recognized part of the trail head as one I'd hiked with my pack goats years ago. Yeah...I know, pack goats, right? It was my pre-horse/post back packing era and deserves a short explanation:

Years ago, I started hiking/backpacking the Eagle Caps. One day, as my son and I were trudging up the Nip-N-Tuck with 50lbs of ill-fitting packs strapped to our backs...a deer bound ahead of us on the trail. I remember thinking...man, if we could rope that big bodied doe and strap these packs on her, we would have it made. That's when the proverbial light bulb lit over my sweat soaked head. GOATS! Only an idiot would try to rope a wild muley and try to convince it to become a beast of burden...but it takes a real special person to purchase 7 goats, spend hundreds of dollars on tiny little sawbucks and panniers and commence to packing with the cloven hoofed critters. I was not the first to come to this packing epiphany; there is in fact an entire organization dedicated to the ins and outs of owning, raising and packing of our capra aegagrus hircus friends...better known as “the goat”: NAPgA...yep, the North America Packgoat Association. I was a proud, card carrying member of said organization for several years.

I spent those years packing with my goat herd and am only the tiniest bit embarrassed to admit I loved every minute of it. I'm especially proud of the time my goats scared the shit out of a pack of llamas coming up the Nip-N-Tuck to the hilt with yuppie gear. While that is a story for another time – suffice it to say that watching a string of llamas roll down 100 feet of switchbacks leaving yuppie gear scattered over the mountain face was something akin to nirvana. Hippies, Yuppies and other Sierra Club likes might think that a most cruel statement. On the other hoof...horseback riders who have had the misfortune of encountering a string of llamas on a treacherous stretch of trail will feel a certain sense of retribution. I will add that no llama's were injured during the encounter. Even “Clark,” the wayward llama who went AWOL during the incident, eventually returned the following fall after the snow drove him back to the valley, returned unscathed. Paybacks are hell.

One day, after spending several hours tacking up seven little goats carrying 25lbs of gear each – that proverbial light bulb again appeared over my noggin: “Just think...one good pack horse could carry at least as much as seven little goats AND I wouldn't have to walk if I didn't want to!” The rest is history.

Clear Creek Res.

The trail had changed considerably since my back-packing/goat-packing days. Forest fires had come and gone – trail head improvements and a barrage of traffic had turned this once wild terrain into something...less. Not tame, exactly...but less wild for sure. I suppose it's inevitable. It saddens me.

Marc and Patti

We continued past Melhourn Reservoir to Clear Creek Reservoir and stopped to take a break. Lee pointed out rusty remnants of tracks, mining cars and various other equipment used in the building of the dam. Clear Creek is one of many reservoirs in this range. A network of creeks and man made ditches flow from the reservoirs to comprise the irrigation system that feeds Pine Valley below.

From Clear Creek we rode northwest to Clear Creek Cabin. A picturesque cabin on the edge of an alpine meadow. The cabin has been restored, is fully stocked and immaculately maintained I assume by a snowmobile club. We ate our lunch outside the cabin and staked the horses out to graze.

Clear Creek Cabin

We looped east along a four wheeler track and dropped south skirting Sugarloaf Reservoir. The gentle 2 track meandering over rolling hills covered in purple lupine was a welcome reprieve after traversing miles of deadfall and bog. I closed my eyes and took in the heady aroma. This would be a good place to die...not today, however. Not with so many trails left to trod and adventures yet to unfold.