Sunday, August 12, 2007

Loon Lake Camping and Hiking

Decided to not be lazy on Saturday so we drove up to the Ice House area of the Eldorado National Forest. I had thought we might camp at the Tells Creek equestrian camp, but it was full. We continued on and checked out Gerle's reservoir and Airport Flat. Gerle's was full. Airport Flat was dusty and had a lot of OHV folks (meaning noise and more dust). We thought that Loon Lake would be full but we managed to get an $8 site overlooking the lake. Nice.

Commando and I did two short hikes. We drove up to the locked gate at Robb's Hut and walked the rest of the way. In camp, we scrambled up a hill overlooking the Valley beginning of the Rubicon jeep trail.

Camp wasn't altogether perfect. There were OHV people here too and they spent a lot of time riding or driving their noisy vehicles up and down the camp road. One guy had his son riding around and around and around on a little mini-bike. The kid could ride, but there's no way I would have let a 5 year old ride unsupervised.

The next day we got up bright and early and by 830 I was on the Loon Lake trail to the Van Vleck trailhead. It's a relatively easy trail although the first 2 miles are a bit of a steep climb. After the big climb there was a small drop then a gradual slope down to the end. I actually got a little lost and took a casual use/old, old logging road back to the trailhead. There was a trail intersection not on the map and no signs at the intersection. I assumed I was farther along than I was and took the left fork. No harm no foul.

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