Last Friday was a really nice day here and since it was supposed to be warm, clear and really more like summer than spring I was intent on a hike into the woods… Well that didn’t turn out like I had hoped but it was a good day of being out. I had done some Google map and google earth research for a spot that I could get in some fishing on a stream that was not “overly populated”. My plan was to check out some 4X4 trails back into an area that just might get me within a short distance hike down to a nice stream. On the aerials it showed several beaver? ponds in a rocky canyon that just might be worth the hike to find a few nice trout hungry for my lure…
I packed in a PB&J sandwich and plenty of water and a limited amount of my fishing stuff and took off up the Mt Herman road. The road it self is passable by car but I wouldn’t want to take a newer one up there… actually I wouldn’t attempt it in anything with out a good amount of clearance because it a “once a year” maintained back road and even that once a year is just to move the big stuff out of the way to make it passable…
It is on forest service and hard to tell from this map but that was my trek up the mountain road and two turnoff’s from the main road on “lesser” 4X4 trails. looking close you can see a blue line running between the white lines (the white ones are FS road – mostly labeled “high clearance required” but like I said the “320” one is not all that bad but the average speed on that is about 5 to 10 mile per hour at best…
So the first turn off was really rough, although there was a much smoother way around it once you got up to look back you could see the better route around a huge boulder… and I took that on the way back out but once I got to the end of the road I could see pretty quick that if I found the stream I was going to be a rough trip… so I didn’t take the fishing stuff but figured I should try the hike to check it anyway… 
The first part wasn’t all that bad as it all looked a bit like this, once i got around a huge set of boulders but, about a hundred yards in it turned into this…
and a bit further I came on a spot to look down and …
Humm, the stream in question was on the other side of that… so I turned back from that point. there had been a lot of camping up there and the people generally cleaned up but a lot of people just leave bottles and crap all over the place. What has happened to people to think they can trash out everywhere they go that way? It took me a bit longer climbing back out than working my way down..
When I got back to the Jeep I figured to have my sandwich and then move on to possibility #2 at access to the stream. It was pretty nice up there but there were a lot of “cross-country bikers out”, even if we were in a “safer at home” order the places were not empty… I guess most figured that they would be even safer way out away from people… like this
Using the telephoto lens that is probably a bit under a mile away on the next ridge to the east. There was a similar camp on this ridge but I didn’t get a picture of it although there didn’t seem to be anyone there when I drove past it.
Once I had my sandwich and caught my breath… yea this is about 9000 ft up here… I moved on to the next access road… It looked a bit better for access but that turned out to be a false view as well…
Not too bad a start but once I worked down around some of those boulders I came to a pretty good size cliff that I just wasn’t going to scramble down. although it was possible it just wasn’t one I wanted to face in reverse to get out…
One good spot before you start down, after you I had climbed up a bit I could look back the other direction and see Pikes Peak…
and in my traverse of the rocky hill top I saw a few other things…
Some of the boulders were really really big… and on the north side of things there is still snow…
Fresh field smart pills… well I was smart enough, now, to not need any of these…
There are a lot of standing boulders up here that are used for fire stops, or ? several that at some point are going to fall down or roll over…
Even with the snow still in placed there are also flowers starting to bloom
And spooky looking logs…
And everywhere on these back roads there are signs – made of heavy metal so they don’t get shot up that state…”NO SHOOTING”… but at nearly every spot I found stuff like this and at this particular “end of the road’ there were more brass casings than you can count and I am assuming they drink the beer first then shoot it all up? but don’t pick it up…
It was late afternoon by the time I got through checking out the second possible way down with no luck… so I headed back down the mountain knowing I had an hour drive yet to just get down… but on my way through town I figured to check out the local lake… and boy I am glad I didn’t plan on going fishing there… as it was packed to the brim..
More paddle boards and canoes and people lining the shore than I had ever seen here… most were not 6 ft apart… so I just circled the parking lot and got out of there… and this is just a week removed from a guy drowning in that lake from and over turned canoe and the water too cold.
So now when the weather warms back up as we are now in an Upslope situation that will keep it cloudy, rainy and cool for a few days, I will drive back up and go to the next possible way down to the stream… likely will be on the way upper end and have to hike down about a mile to get to the spotted ponds… but that might be ok as long as I am in the bottom of that steep walled canyon. It appears there is a hiking trail that runs some of that area anyway so it won’t be as bad as the rock ledges I was looking at… will see how that turns out. Anyway it is just nice to get out…
WD0AJG