Tucker and I just got back from his second backpacking trip in Colorado.   I had to make a trip out to Denver for work last Thursday.   Tucker has really wanted to make another trip out to Colorado, so I opted to drive out instead of having my work fly me out.   We drove out on Thursday and I spent that Friday working in our Denver office.    We stayed just outside of downtown Denver in a rather gaudy Bed and Breakfast that allowed kids and dogs.

The rooms, while kind of girly (as most B&Bs are), were nice enough, and the staff was friendly.   They even left some kids movies by the TV for Tucker. However, the neighborhood was kind of seedy.    Just the same, it was only a few minutes to our downtown office from our room, and the parking was free.   We had a scare at 2:00 AM on our last night in the B&B, when a guy walked into our room (he was evidently drunk) and said “Hey!”.   I think I was having a nightmare already at the time, and I woke up and screamed.   He said he was sorry and ran out the room.   Evidently I did not have the door completely latched.   At any rate, I got up and locked the door (considered dragging some furniture in front of it), and laid there awake the rest of the night thinking about how the B&B could have some sadistic owners similar to the plot in many horror movies.

The next morning we got up early, loaded our packs into the Subaru, had breakfast, and took I70 west into the mountains.   Our trailhead was about 100 miles west of Denver just outside of Minturn, Colorado.    Cross Creek Trail in the Holy Cross Wilderness is supposed to be one of the most remote wilderness experiences in Colorado and I was expecting us to have it nearly to ourselves.    Thus I was surprised to see several vehicles at the trailhead.   It is still crowded Colorado, so that is to be expected.    We hit the trail around 10:30 Saturday morning and it was already getting hot (80s, which is hot for the high country).

The trail seemed to be in good condition and easy to follow.   We encountered several people along the first couple of miles, but they were all day hikers spending the weekend in the high country to escape the heat in Denver.    Within a couple of miles of the trailhead we arrived at a creek crossing.   The problem was that the bridge was washed out and the creek was far to swift and deep to safely wade.   Fortunately, we found a tree that had fallen across the creek and were able to cross the creek there.   Its was more difficult than it might look because I was carrying a 50 pound external frame pack.

The washed out bridge seems to have dissuaded most day hikers and backpackers from continuing any further because we only encountered one other party from there on and for the next 3 days had the entire place to ourselves.    The hike up cross creek was quite strenuous with a lot of elevation gain.   The trail was also difficult to follow at times.    The trail usually took us several hundred feet above the creek, and there were very few opportunities to get good water.    It was a very pretty hike though with lots of aspen groves and huge spruce trees.   We finally made it to our camping spot around 3:30 that afternoon.   It was a very picturesque meadow with access to Cross Creek, a large beaver pond, and great views of Mount Holy Cross and Middle Mountain.

We found a good campsite between on a hill above the beaver pond and creek, and we setup camp.    I noticed that trout were rising down in the beaver pond, so we tied a rooster tail on our fishing poles and made our way down to the meadow.    The trout were so thick in the beaver pond that on my first cast I snagged one. Within a couple of hours we had already caught and released several dozen fish.     We kept a few for dinner and dinned on trout and rice that night.

The next morning we made our way down to the creek and spent the day fishing.   We probably caught another 100 fish or so on spoons.

We kept some more for lunch that day.

We noticed bear tracks all over the valley and by the creek.   However, we did not see any bears and in fact the only animals we did encounter other than birds and squirrels was a fox that followed us into camp.   That night my stove failed and we had to cook everything over a fire.   We had planned on spending a week in the backcountry, but the stove failing was a big problem as virtually all of our food other than trail mix required boiling water.    The next day much of our food and all of Carter’s dog food was raided by a bear.   We followed some bear tracks in the mud and found some of the empty food bags a few hundred feet from camp.   Normally I hang a bear bag with all our food in it, but I was lazy that day and didn’t (probably because I had to cook everything including boiling water over a fire because the st0ve was not working).   It was more than a little bit worrisome that the bear was bold enough to raid our food so close to our tent.

At any rate, with much of our food now gone, and all of Carter’s dog food gone we had to end our backpacking trip after 3 days.   We did some more fishing that day, packed up and started the long hike out of the backcountry.   We finally made it back to our car just moments before a thunderstorm hit.   Even though we had to cut the trip short, it still was a great trip due to the fishing alone.   I think Tucker is sick of the high country for a now, and he wants our next big trip to be to the north woods in Minnesota.

Showing our catch of the day to Tiffani.

Tucker had been wanting to fish the Wakarusa River for a while now so we went out this evening on it in the canoe.   This was Zhen Zhen’s first time in the canoe and she seemed to really like it.   The Wakarusa is not a very pretty river, its basically a typical muddy prairie river.   However, its full of catfish.   We caught this 20 pounder out of a snag within a hour of being out.     Tucker and Zhen Zhen were both very excited as I threw it into the boat.

Tucker and Zhen Zhen posing with the Flathead.

Flathead may not be the prettiest fish out there, but they are one of the best eating.  Unlike channels and blues, flathead only eat live bait.  Their meat is firmer and milder than other catfish as a result.  They rank right up there with walleye in terms of table fare.    As you can imagine, we got a ton of filets off of him.   The kids wanted fish tacos, so this is what ultimately became of him:

Fish Tacos

I caught a channel cat, lots of perch, and two bass.

This part of Mill Creek is fairly clear, and rocky (this is kind of rare for Kansas), and is one of the few streams in the metro that supports a bass fishery.