27-31 July 2007
Hike in the Mummy Range, Rocky Mountain National Park
Celia and Jay, Mark and Kyle, and I took a 5-day trip in a part of Rocky Mountain National Park that was new to us, the Mummy Range, as described also
It was great; view the movie of pics (3MB) or the slideshow of pics (6MB).  We started and ended at the Lawn Lake Trailhead and visited three campsites.  The total distance was around 19 miles with packs and another 7 without; no big efforts, even by our moderate standards.
 Lawn Lake Valley

Celia above Lawn Lake on day 4

Our hike, broken down by days and nights, is shown in the figure of Rocky Mountain National Park (pdf at http://www.nps.gov/romo/visit/park/camp/info.  Mummy RangeWe spent the first night at Upper Chipmunk (4.2 miles, +2100'), the second night at Golden Banner (4 miles, -1300', +500'), and the third and fourth nights at Lawn Lake (4.3 miles, +1800').  Trip highlights include a first-day downpour while we tried to pitch camp, hiking along the Roaring River whose canyon was dug by a 1982 flood, two nice (cool) nights at Lawn Lake, viewing Rocky Mountain sheep, deer encounters, and good laughs.  On our fourth day, we had a fine day hike, which started early (6:30am) to go up to the Saddle and look for the advertised Rocky Mountain sheep.  We finally found the sheep and watched them for over an hour as they grazed.  Then we started back down a cascading creek, which we followed for a few hours.  A very fine day.

upper chipmunkDay 1
With only 4.2 miles to get to camp, we started late---a mistake.  The torrential rain hit us just before reaching the 19 Upper Chipmunk campsite, at 2pm and 10,640'.  It was a dilly of a storm lasting two hours and producing a river through the campsite.  Luckily the three tent sites were ringed with logs, and none of us got completely soaked.  Following the storm, we got dinner of Annie's macaroni and cheese and had an okay night, without more rain.  Only a few mosquitos, thank goodness.  The site was enclosed with trees, and you had to go to Ypsilon Lake to get water, quite a hike.  Nobody was camped at the second site.  No wildlife about.  Got dark near 8pm.  It was cool, but we were warm in our sleeping bags; must have been in the 40s. 

Leaving Golden BannerDay 2
The morning broke cool and cloudy.  Wanting to be at our next campsite before an anticipated afternoon storm, we limited our morning excursion to a couple of hours.  We took a hike past Ypsilon Lake and up toward Spectacle Lake, but we didn't make it to the lake---too steep with large boulders.  There was a gorgeous cascade above Ypisilon lake, leading either toward Chiquita Lake along one tributary or Spectacle Lake on the main stream.  We chose the steeper route toward Spectacle Lake.  Mark and Kyle turned back first, a wise move that the three of us mimicked a little later.   Here are pictures of another aborted atempt, right where we turned back as well.  Back at camp by 10:30, we packed up and retraced our steps back down to the Lawn Lake trail at the Roaring River and then slightly uphill to 022 Golden Banner campsite.  We found a sandy, open campsite on what looked like a river flood plain.  Reading a little history later indicated that the site was indeed on a flood plain.  The flood was produced after the dam at Lawn Lake failed in 1982.  The earthen dam was 80 years old and had fallen into disrepair after an access road that had been cut eventually became impassable.  I guess that the sand at the campsite was deposited on  1982 July 15 a little after 6am when the dam broke.  If the figures for the lake are correct, then the water exited the lake in ~40 s.  The valley was carved in a VERY short time 25 years ago but still looks like there was devastation very recently.  In other words, recovery is staggeringly slow.  The campsite was quite nice, but we did have another rain in the afternoon, which kept us in our tents from 2-4pm.  Low lying clouds continued.  Another Annie's dinner.  We went to bed early and had 1-3 rainshowers during the night, depending on whose count you believe.  No star gazing: full moon that we couldn't see due to the heavy cloud cover.  A few more mosquitos, but nothing like last year.

Lawn Lake CampsiteDay 3
The sky cleared; the sun came out; and we dried out our equipment in the morning.  There was one mishap: an errant chipmunk chose Mark's sleeping bag to deposit his digestion output.  Kyle claimed that it was indeed Mark's sleeping bag, even though their bags are identical.  We pushed off for Lawn Lake with expectations of fairer weather (as predicted by Mark).  The hike up to 023 Lawn Lake (or here) was uphill but on a good trail through the Roaring River valley, which continued to be wide from the 1982 flood.  We got to Lawn Lake and chose the best of the four campsites, a beauty with three good tent sites in the trees above the lake.  There was a very brief shower, and we took a walk around the lake before dinner (Raman).  The night proved to be a cold one as the skies cleared to let the bright moon through.  I saw Cassiopeia before daybreak, but the skies were too bright to see much of the Milky Way.

Mummy Range mapDay 4
Everybody arose by 6am so that we could set off early for an ascent to the Saddle at 12400'.  We set off  hoping to see the Rocky Mountain sheep that we heard about from a trail runner.  I was certain that we had to get to the top as early as possible.  We had a grand view from the Saddle of the valley north,  Hagues Peak to the east, adn Fairchild Mtn to the west---but no sheep.  We ate breakfast and started back down.  Then we saw the sheep grazing gently on the high slope just below the Saddle.  We ambled closer; they paid little heed.  We got within ~100' and watched them for over an hour as they meandered over the terrain eating grass and resting.  Finally we headed off west and then started down the high meadow of streams flowing over rocks, grass, and flowers.  We skirted the bowl to above Crystal Lake, then walked to Crystal Lake for a light lunch.  Finally we descended back to Lawn Lake.  Mark took a stumble and twisted his ankle badly.   We made it back to camp by 2pm, almost eight hours after we started.   A great day hike!  The rest of the afternoon was lounging.  Annie's again for dinner but a couple people preferred peanut butter---can't understand why.  Most of the food was gone---good planning.  Even the gorp was good this year, better variety than last when we came home with 5 of 7 lbs uneaten.  Another clear night with nearly full moon.  Deer circled our campsite in the evening, hoping for a handout I suppose.

Lawn Lake poseDay 5
We got up early after a good sleep.  I was warmer by zipping up my bag completely and pulling the drawstring tight.  The day was clear again.  We broke camp and started off at 8:30 on the 6.6 mile downhill walk back to the trailhead.  We made good time.  About halfway down we met three kids and a mother coming up.  They were already 4 miles in at 9:30!  The mother asked where we'd been.  Her reply to our response was "Just the Saddle?  No Hagues or Rowe?  We're going there tomorrow."  Her little son in front of the group looked about ready to keel over, but she was fresh---in more ways than one.  I guess we are just pansies.  We got back at 11am: 6.6 miles in 2.5 hours.   Not bad for pansies.  One final turn at the end took us down the wrong path, and we had to cross a bit of field to get to the parking lot.  The field was littered with all sorts of dung, as much as we'd seen on the entire trip.  I guess the wildlife know where to hang out for free food and garbage.  Our final surprise was a dead battery, but we jumped the Toyota.  The traditional lunch at Ed's Cantina in Estes Park ended the adventure.

Fred, 7 Aug 2007.