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As soon I decided to go to the Forest Lakes in the James Peak Wilderness today my dominant emotion was anxiety. The drive –  not the hike — made me fearful.

The first 35 miles from home through Nederland and Rollinsville weren’t scary. I had driven them several times before.

But all that I knew about the last 12 miles was that the road wasn’t suitable for low clearance vehicles, according to one source, and had “a rocky native surface,” according to another. This “Moffat Road” was the original “hill route” over the Continental Divide at Rollins Pass (elevation 11,660 feet) that David Moffat built in 1903. It starts at 9,200 and nowadays ends at about 11,000 near the upper trailhead for the Forest Lakes.

Since leaving Africa, I haven’t ever driven such a miserable road. While Suzy has high clearance and four-wheel drive, any minor problem would have left me stranded in the middle of nowhere. So I drove slowly and carefully, and those 12 miles took me two hours each way, while the first 35 miles of the trip took just an hour.
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In Conrad’s great novel, Heart of Darkness, his evil protagonist Kurtz dies uttering the words, “The horror! The horror.” That’s what he saw and that’s what he was as he lived in the Congo.

It’s the opposite here. “The beauty! The beauty!” is what I keep saying to myself on my hikes in the wilderness.

So it was in the Indian Peaks Wilderness today on my easy five-mile hike back to Diamond Lake. The only other time I ever hiked to this beautiful lake, almost exactly one year ago, I got too late a start and it began to rain just as I got there. My timing was much better today:

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Earlier this week when I wanted to know the trail conditions along Chapin Creek, I called the headquarters of Rocky Mountain National Park. The ranger who answered the phone didn’t know if the snowstorm a week ago had made it impassible or not.

When I told him I was going anyway, he asked me to call back with my report. I did. This time a different ranger answered the phone and told me she appreciated my report, which was the first one of the season for that trail.

I told her that I had encountered no one all day and asked if she knew of any other beautiful trails in the park that would give me solitude. She suggested two: Box Canyon, which I could reach from the Colorado River Trailhead, and Paradise Park. The term “park” in this sense means “a broad, fairly level valley between mountain ranges.”

Since I didn’t know either place, I checked them out and decided to hike to one or the other of them yesterday morning. Since both trailheads are on the other side of the park from Boulder, I knew I had to get up early and I woke up at 2:30 and was on the road an hour later, still undecided where to go.
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We seldom get such a beautiful evening in Boulder as we did today. It called for me to come out and I obeyed.

I also needed the exercise, because I walked out of my resistance training class today when a substitute teacher showed up. I really like the great emphasis that the regular teacher, Linda, puts on balance and stretching as much as weights.

The trail that called was the one I probably have hiked more than any other. The South Boulder Creek trail is within walking distance of my apartment and always has something beautiful to offer.
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This morning is sunny and warm in Boulder. So I took a little walk. I figured that it might be good turtle basking weather on the shores of Tantra Lake It was.
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Today I had some time to look through the hundreds of photographs I took yesterday and found some more worth sharing:

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Today I returned to Chapin Pass. But instead of climbing Mount Chapin as I did a week ago, I took the other trail and hiked down to Chapin Creek.

It made all the difference.

Today I found solitude for the first time on a long hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. I encountered no one in six hours on the trail — and beyond the end of the trail.

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The trouble with the book that I’m reading is that it makes me stop reading so I can go out and see the nature around me. The book, Digital Nature Photography Closeup by Jon Cox, inspires me to capture the beauty that lays out of doors. I could read only a couple of pages before it inspired me to see what’s out there today.

This morning I picked it up again while I was sitting at my dining room table applying ice to the painful bee sting that I got yesterday. At the time it seemed like a good idea.
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Butterflies and bees and other insects were everywhere on my hike today. I never saw or photographed so many. These other-worldly life-forms fascinate me, and I love to capture their strange beauty. They offered so many wonderful photo ops that for the first time I carried my camera in my hand, turned on and ready to go, almost all the way. As a result, I took 222 pictures, using both of my camera’s memory chips and batteries.

Even though I put on insect repellant before I started my hike, I didn’t need it. No bad biting bugs like mosquitoes were along this trail.
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