Snowshoeing Michigan Ditch Trail at Cameron Pass

I drove up to Fort Collins to hang out with my friends tonight. I wanted to take full advantage of being up north so CJ and I decided to do some snowshoeing during the day. The Michigan Ditch Trail was one I haven’t been on yet and it’s one of the most popular trails in the Cameron Pass area.

This trail crosses in to Colorado State Park land, so there is a day use fee

Having fun with huge icicles

The Michigan Ditch Trail is wide and level, perfect for cross country skiing

Even though the trail starts at 10,280 feet and climbs to 11,480 feet in elevation, it’s a pretty easy trail since the climb is so gradual that the trail feels almost level. Even though we were snowshoeing today, pretty much everyone we saw on this trail was cross-country skiing and I can see how that would be more fun with the trail being wide and level.

Some deep snow in places

Amazing scenery, Colorado is beautiful - especially in winter

We parked across the road from the trail on highway 14 and started to snowshoe, there was plenty of snow here and in some places it was pretty deep. The trail starts in the Routt National Forest but shortly crosses into Colorado State Forest State Park, so you need to pay a day fee unless you have a state park pass, which I do.

Stopping for lunch

Best enjoyed outside, yes it is!

I had to check out all the cabins

Some of the cabins were not very much intact

We stopped at the cabins, which were unoccupied, to have lunch. We didn’t snowshoe very far today. Michigan Lakes are 6 miles from the trailhead, which would make it a 12 miles round trip. I’d like to do that on my cross-county skis next time, that’s a bit too far to go on snowshoes.

With the sun setting, it was time to get back to the car

Beginning Elevation: 10,280 feet

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate

Elevation Gain: 1,200 feet

Ending Elevation: 11,480 feet

Length: 6 miles to Michigan Lakes

RMNP: Wild Basin to Copeland Falls

I really thought I was done with snowshoeing until winter but since the Front Range received lots of rain, three days of rain to be exact - and non stop, that meant new snow for the mountains. Today was the first day since the rain had stopped, the sun was shining again and the temperatures were in the low 60’s so that meant a drive up to the mountains to go snowshoeing (possibly last time this spring).





Copeland Lake

I wanted to go somewhere different so I headed to Estes Park then turned on to highway 7, drove by the Twin Sisters, Longs Peak and Mount Lady Washington and headed further south to the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park. There was no attendant on duty to check my annual parks pass, I read that during winter there is no attendant on duty ...but it was spring already?



The road to the winter parking area (left), road closed to Wild Basin in winter (right)



The trail is actually the road to Wild Basin during the summer months

I parked, got my snowshoes on and started snowshoeing from the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead. I wanted to get to Wild Basin Trailhead and from there I wanted to get as far as Calypso Cascades. Unfortunately I misunderstood what I read on the internet. I read that in the summer time you park the car at the Wild Basin Trailhead, but in the winter time (and when there is snow) you had to use the winter parking area. I guess I assumed that the paved parking lot near the entrance was the winter parking lot. But it wasn’t. There was another parking lot further down a dirt road, which would have saved me about a mile and half of snowshoeing.



Lots of creeks along the way to Wild Basin Trailhead



So I started to snowshoe from the Sandbeach Lake Trailhead toward the Wild Basin with was 2 miles. Unfortunately no one had been on this part of the trail except for the couple that started to snowshoe a few minutes before me. I found them 15 minutes later looking all confused. Apparently they didn’t know where the trail was, they were making it as they snowshoed. From the spot we all stopped at they went one way and I went another way, then I stopped to take my jacket off. It was very warm. I checked the map and tried to figure out where the trail might be. Then I found the dirt road that went to the winter parking area. I was so tempted to go back to the car and drive to the winter parking area and start to snowshoe from there, but I was already too far. I have already snowshoe a mile. All I have to say is that snowshoeing without a trail was very, very hard today. The snow was so wet and so heavy. It was like walking in quicksand. The snow would suck my snowshoes in and it took effort to pull my foot out again. After a mile I was already feeling exhausted and the trail was flat. What a difference the snow can make. I love to snowshoe in fresh powder, but I have to say that dislike this heavy wet snow.



Not a lot of tracks in the snow



Past Wild Basin Trailhead the area becomes more scenic



Since the snowshoeing was harder and I parked so far away I new that I would not make it to Calypso Cascades. I continued not knowing how far I would go, I couldn‘t believe how tired this was making me. Once I passed the winter parking area, there were actually a few people out using this trail and snowshoeing was not as difficult as earlier with no trail. But the snow was still deep and it still took effort to snowshoe it.

By the time I made it the Wild Basin Trailhead I was very much tired. I looked at the sign and saw that Copeland Falls was only 0.3 miles away. That wasn’t far and I really wanted to see some kind of waterfall. I continued on but the 0.3 miles to Copeland Falls seemed like a mile in this snow.



Upper Copeland Falls



Zoomed in - Upper Copeland Falls

When I finally arrived at the first sign for the lower falls, I went in search of them. But I couldn’t see much. They were just a trickle in the snow. The upper falls according to the sign were just a fit further. It’s actually another 0.1 miles to the upper falls. The upper Copeland Falls were better but not as full as some of the pictures I‘ve seen from the late spring or summer months. The snow was really deep near the upper falls, these falls were not as close to the trail as the lower falls, and no one had been here since it snowed. I couldn’t really get a great view, not wanting to step really close to the water. After a few pictures it was time to go back. I was already tired and by the time I reached the winter parking area I was so wishing my car was parked there. Was it just the wet snow that was making this snowshoe trek so difficult? I couldn’t believe it. I had climbed mountain summits and I wasn’t this exhausted during the climb or afterward. My legs were so sore now and my back was hurting me too.



Last one of upper Copeland Falls



The ranger's cabin at Wild Basin Trailhead

I was tempted to take the snowshoes off and walk in the road but it was very muddy. I continued through the deep wet snow, now even wetter since the warm sun was melting it all these hours, following my own tracks back. I was so glad when I saw my car. I was so exhausted and so sore yet I had snowshoed 5 miles.



Heading back to the Sandbeach Lake trailhead in the late afternoon sun



Signs along the trail

I headed to Estes Park just to find out that there was a police road block on highway 34. They detoured us to highway 36 and I had to drive to Lyons, then to Longmont, then take 287 to Fort Collins. Kind of out of the way. I was so glad when I got home, but very perplexed to why I was feeling so exhausted and sore.



Sandbeach Lake TH elevation: 8,320 feet
Copeland Falls elevation: 8,515 feet
Elevation gain: 195 feet
Distance: 4.8 miles round trip
Difficulty: Easy

Snowshoeing: Young’s Gulch

I was signed up to snowshoe with a group this weekend. We were supposed to head out and snowshoe around Cameron Pass, but as the date approached and the weather was looking iffy at the pass, the location got changed to Red Feather Lakes. I was actually happy about the change since I haven’t snowshoed Red Feather Lakes area yet.

When I showed up this morning to snowshoe I found out that since Fort Collins received some snow a few days, we were going to be snowshoeing Young’s Gulch trail, just outside of Fort Collins

Young’s Gulch trail is located 2 miles up the Poudre Canyon on the south side of Highway 14. This trail was actually on my “to hike” list so I was happy that we were going to snowshoe it today. The trail follows Young Creek and the trail crosses the creek 3 dozen times. There are only a few bridges on this trail, the rest of the water crossings have to be done by just jumping from rock to rock or walking or riding through the creek. This trail is very popular with mountain bikers.



Crossing Young Creek



This trail supposedly has 3 dozen water crossings



Most of the creek crossings along this trail have no bridges, but a few did



Young’s Gulch trail is 4.4 miles one way and climbs 1,300 feet in elevation. I read that the first two miles of the trail are the most technical. Besides the creek, there are rock formations and aspens along the trail. Also bears and mountain lions have been seen in this area.











The group and I only snowshoed about 2 miles of the trail before stopping to eat our lunches and turning back around. The temperatures were already in the low 40’s by mid morning and the snow was melting off the trail fast. The stream crossings were interesting, especially wearing snowshoes. Many in the group ended up taking their snowshoes off, it was just easier to hike without them.

As for riding mountain bikes on this trail. There is no way I could ride my mountain bike here, I’m such a newbie. At least not the first two miles that I snowshoed today. The trail was very rocky. Comparing this trail to some of the other trails that are used by mountain bikes, I’d say that that Young’s Gulch trail is easier than the Ginny Trail at Bobcat Ridge but more technical then Hewlett Gultch Trail just east of here. To my surprise on a beautiful Saturday like today, there wasn’t a lot of other people hiking this trail, besides the group I was with, and no one riding mountain bikes. It was still early, we finished snowshoeing at noon.

And in “it’s a small world” category. A fellow blogger and motorcycle rider, among other things, was also snowshoeing with this group. I found Felix’s blog when I was still living in Chicago researching moving to Fort Collins, and I’m still reading it. After snowshoeing Felix and I compared notes on touring. Although his stories were of touring cross country on a mountain bike. Now that’s hard core!

Distance: 4.4 miles one way
Difficulty: Easy
Elevation gain: 1300 feet
Elevation at Trailhead: 5840 feet

Vail Pass: Surviving a Night in a Snow Shelter

So last night at about 10:30PM I finally lied down to go to sleep in my snow cave but I just laid there most of the night. It has happened before, I can’t fall asleep at high elevations. It’s a symptom of altitude sickness. Maybe I did doze off a couple of times for a very short period of time, but for the most part I was just laying there with my eyes closed waiting for morning to arrive.

As I laid there I was glad that I wasn’t feeling as sick I did last October camping at Rocky Mountain National Park. I guess I have gotten a bit more acclimated since then. Moving to Colorado from Illinois and going camping at 10,000+ feet in elevation back then made me really sick. I was so nauseous and had such a bad headache the night of camping and most of the next day too.

I can’t say that tonight I was toasty warm in my two sleeping bags (one +15 degree bag and one +40 degree bag) and the bivy. But I wasn’t really cold either. The first two hours I was comfortable but as the temps kept dropping outside my toes started to get cold. My toes are always cold when I’m camping. Finally I decided to get two of the hand warming packets opened. I wanted to put them inside my socks around the toe area. That wasn’t easy to do since I wanted to do this without unzipping my two sleeping bags and the bivy. My one sleeping bag is very fitted, it took me 15 minutes of wiggling around inside my sleeping before I managed to insert the heating packets inside my socks. But once that was done, it was wonderful. The warmth radiated all over my toes. The package said the heat would last up to 7 hours, unfortunately, it didn’t. After about 2 hours the warmth was gone and an hour after that my toes were back to being cold. I had two more heating packets handy but I didn’t want to go through the trouble of getting those inside my socks again. Morning was just around the corner, wasn’t it?



Very low ceiling inside my snow shelter (looking in the direction of my feet)

My head was totally inside the bivy and one of the sleeping bags, at times I had to unfold the sleeping bag and bivy and open up a small hole to get some fresh air inside. At those times I couldn’t help to look out of my snow shelter’s entrance and gaze at the sky above, glistening with stars. Toward the morning the sky was no longer navy blue and I could no longer see the starts. It was kind of grayish-whitish, I couldn’t tell if it was clouds or fog or just the color of the sky. Unfortunately I left my altimeter clipped to my backpack, and had no way of reaching it. So I couldn’t check the time or the temperature. But I was sure morning was near, with the sky so pale.



The view from my snow shelter in the early morning

The morning did came soon enough. I heard Mary packing up, she told us last night she had to leave early in the morning. It was about 6AM when I crawled out of my snow cave. At first I felt OK, even a bit warm. I had to take my jacket shell off because I was having some kind of hot flash. By the time I walked back from the clump of trees I designated as “my bathroom” I was freezing and nauseous. I was getting a headache too. I should have taken some Excedrin last night before attempting to sleep but I forgot so I immediate took some this morning and ate some crackers to settle my stomach.



The guys having breakfast in the "kitchen"



Collapsing the snow shelters, this roof went quick



This snow shelter roof held up pretty well

The sun was still hiding behind the mountains. Now that I‘ve been up for a few minutes it felt as if it was getting colder. I had all my layers back on now and my down mittens. I forgot to check the temp when I got up but at 6:40AM my altimeter was displaying 13 degrees. When the others got up they said that their thermometer was reading 0 degrees when they woke up. I’m thinking that during the night the temp probably fell below 0. They also said they had a hard time sleeping as well.

Mary got packed and left at around 6:30AM. It was just Tom, John and Mike now. They were making breakfast, I got some hot water from them to make some white tea. The warm tea felt so good on a cold morning like today. It warmed me right up, settled my stomach too. I was a bit worried that my headache would keep getting worst like it did back in October, and I’d have to pack up camp and backpack to the car feeling like crap, but after 30 minutes the Excedrin kicked in, maybe the hot tea and crackers helped also, my headache was going away. And then finally the sun came up from behind the mountain peak and started to shine upon us with glorious warmth. It was early in the day still but the sun felt so warm.

The guys were already packing up, but before leaving, they wanted to collapse the snow shelters so no one would fall in to them by accident. I didn’t really get to see the snow “palace” John and Mike had built for themselves since it was a bit further away from the other snow shelters. They claimed it was about 40 degrees inside all night. I believe it. The thing was huge, it had an elevated sleeping platform inside and as you came in to their snow shelter, you entered through a “foyer” and then behind the wall, that’s were the sleeping quarters were. This design helps to keep the cold outside air out. They did say that they had a bit of condensation problem this morning, maybe their shelter needed a vent. Just a few steps on top of the roof of this enormous shelter, and the roof collapsed.



Enjoying the view this morning

Mary was already gone, but her snow shelter was still intact. We were all surprised how sturdy her roof was. She did pack it down a lot while she was building her mound. It took John and Mike a few tries and lots of jumping on top of the roof, before it finally gave in and collapsed.

By the time the guys got packed I was feeling a lot better. They were ready to head back to the cars, I was planning on staying a bit longer. I had a lot of condensation in between my bivy and my second sleeping bag, I wanted to dry those out in the sun before packing them up. I also wanted to relax and enjoy the surroundings some more.



My sleeping pad, bivy with two sleeping bags inside



Ice in between the bivy and the second sleeping bag



When the ice melted, my sleeping bag was all wet, as was the inside of the bivy



Drying everything out in the sun before packing it up

The temperature were starting to rise already and I started to take my layers off. Two hours later I was only wearing my turtle neck and a fleece. Then I realized what I forgot to bring - my sun screen lotion. I put some on yesterday before heading out but I didn’t bring any more. Here in Colorado especially in the winter time, while surrounded by so much white and reflective snow, a sun tan comes very easily. I’ve had a slight tan all winter from snowshoeing but today especially at these high elevations I was feeling like I was getting a sunburn. When my bivy and sleeping bag were dry, I packed everything up, but I could not collapse the roof of my snow shelter so I had to fill in the hole with snow using my shovel. The backpack felt heavier today, probably since I didn’t sleep much last night. I snowshoed back to the parking lot, arriving at my car by 12:30PM. The traffic was kind of heavy getting back in to Denver, I made no stops and I finally made it to Fort Collins after 4PM.



My snow shelter is no more

Reflecting on this weekend, I have to say I had a lot of fun and learned a lot of things. It’s trips like these that really make me appreciate the simple things in life, like sleeping on a bed inside a warm room. Things that I probably never think about and take for granted most of the time.

I think I was pretty well prepared for this excursion. I got by not having anything to put on the floor of my shelter. Next time I do this I’d like to have something that is light and thin, maybe one of those cheap emergency blankets would work well. Placing my gaiters on the ground to step on with my socks worked pretty good, while I was getting in to my sleeping bag.

Besides forgetting the sun screen, I also forgot my silk glove liners, which was a bummer. They really do add a lot of warm. And I realized there are two things I really needed to get and not just for winter camping since it’s cold at night in the mountains even in the summer time. Those two things are a goose down jacket and goose down tent booties, or camp shoes. Everyone except for Mary and I, had a goose down jacket and I think everyone had goose down tent booties. These two items weigh practically nothing and don’t take up very much space, but are very warm and can make camping in cold weather very comfortable.

I do have to admit to two silly and needless mistakes I made. I was actually told about these two things, since they were very important things, but I got busy with other things and I forgot and had to suffer the consequences.

In my Winter Backcountry Essential’s clinic a few weeks ago I learned that in the winter time, when temps are below freezing, you should leave your water bottle upside down since the water freezes from top to bottom. That way you will always have some water to drink.

I had planned on doing that before I went to sleep, I had even planned on bringing my water bottle in to the shelter with me to make sure my drinking water didn’t freeze overnight. But with all the problems I had getting in to my sleeping bags and in to my shelter I forgot to do this. By the time I remembered I was already tucked in and far away from my backpack and water bottle. I knew that by morning the rest of the water in my Platypus would be frozen and now my water bottle too because I forgot to leave it upside down.



Those two extra plastic shopping bags came in handy this morning - I used them inside my frozen boots

The other very important thing I was warned about was not to leave my boots outside over night. I guess if boots are left outside, the moisture inside freezes and in the morning you have a pair of frozen boots. I wanted to put my boots inside the snow shelter, but there was no space. So I decided to put them in some plastic shopping bags brought with and inside my pack but I forgot. In the morning my boots were very frozen inside and so very, very cold.

I’m looking forward to building my next snow shelter. I hope Tom organizes another outing like this next March.