Following the Williams Range Through the Hunter/Fryingpan Wilderness

A loop back to Aspen.
Sunset and moon rise from Hunter Creek.
On this trip I took two dog friends with me: Cody and Jaya. Their owners work a lot so Cody and Jaya don't get as much attention or time to run free as they would like. I'd never taken dogs hiking with me before and figured it could be fun for all three of us. Cody and Jaya are half siblings from the same litter. Their mother (a pit bull) was taken to a Rainbow Gathering when she was in heat and impregnated by several different males. The best guesses are that Cody's dad was a Golden Retriever and Jaya's a Beagle. I can best summarize their personalities like this: Cody is a lover boy and Jaya is an insecure bitch.
Late one July Friday afternoon I picked them up at their Basalt home. The dogs were a bit concerned and confused as we drove up the Fryingpan River. As soon as we stopped at the trailhead, however, they became, to put it mildly, very optimistic about the developing adventure. I tried to take a group photo of us with my camera on its mini tripod. Bad idea--Cody quickly knocked it over.
A bit flustered, I grabbed my pack and we got on the trail. Only Cody had saddle bags and he hiked at my pace. Jaya ran out of sight most of the time. Half way to Sawyer Lake I realized I had left my hiking poles leaning next to the truck. Damn! It was getting late and I decided to go on to the lake and not worry about it until the next day.
We arrived at Sawyer Lake as it got dark. In lieu of my hiking poles I used a tree and my fishing pole to prop up the tarp. At bed time Cody and Jaya snuggled in and tested the waters a bit. Could they nudge me off my sleeping pad? Not a chance.
The next morning I decided to make a hike to the car and back without packs. It was the first major expedition of the summer for both the dogs and myself and I hoped it would help break in our legs. Cody and Jaya bolted down the trail. I did not want them chasing after all of the wildlife, but I did not want to be dragged behind them on their leashes either. Attempts at verbal discipline weren't any fun and were generally ineffectual.
I found my poles right where I'd left them, as well as a water bottle I'd left near by. Grabbed my tooth brush too--it's hard remembering everything on the first trip of the season!
On the way back up I started to develop a hitch in my trick right knee. It seems that the repetition of hiking on relatively level ground, as was characteristic of the trail for last few miles back to the car, is especially hard on it. We stopped for a snack and I stretched it out the best I could. I was able to limp the rest of the way back up to camp.
We had lunch and napped. When I dove into the lake Cody jumped in after me. We swam 25 yards out to a boulder island and back. Jaya whined at us from shore the whole time.
Rain showers settled in for the evening. I did a little fishing and had a nice dinner. We wandered around the lake as the sun went down and I worried about making the rest of the hike with my knee acting up.
When I woke up early the next morning I decided to make a go of it. We started by heading up the ridge above the lake to 12,000 feet. A half mile down the ridge it became rocky and exposed. I coaxed the dogs through a little bit of it. Though they were sure footed, they were uncomfortable and whined a lot. I lead them down from the ridge to a cold spring in a soft, grassy alpine meadow.
After a short rest we traversed below the ridge a short distance and then climbed back up. Another half mile down the ridge we were stopped by sheer crystalline pinnacles and cliffs at the apex of the Woody Creek Valley. We back tracked a bit, dropped into the valley, rimmed its top just below tree line and headed up its southern shoulder. A spruce and fir forest engulfed us and we traversed blindly until the land gave way to the Hunter Creek Valley. The slope gradually steepened as we dropped 1500 feet to the valley floor.
We stepped out of the woods at a beaver pond oasis of tall green grass that hugged glassy brown fingers of water. In a near by clump of trees we found a nice campsite and settled in. A swim was in order. Again Cody swam after me and Jaya whined from shore. We napped. I got up and did some Yoga, which felt good to my sore knee. I fished late in the afternoon and cooked up dinner. As the sun went down the peaks turned orange and the almost full moon rose above them. I was awakened a couple of times in the night by the dogs barking when the beaver's activity came too near our camp.
The next morning we headed up Hunter Creek. We found a trail which was trampled out by the elk through the woods but disappeared in the grassy meadows where they dispersed to graze. Several times I put my Jedi powers to the test, "feeling" where the trail again entered the woods. Above tree line we picked our way around marshy spots and caught up to a herd of 100 elk. I held the dogs off while the elk climbed up the granite ledges on one side of the valley.
We continued on to the very top of the valley at a pass near 12,500 feet. The crest of the Williams Range knifed off to our north east. We took it all in and then headed down into the Midway Creek valley. Grassy meadows gave way to a dreadful forest of rotting deadfall and mossy ledges. After almost an hour of plodding, we found the trail to Midway Pass.
At the top of the pass we heard thunder. Our intended route followed exposed benches above tree line for several more miles. To wait out the weather we bailed down the south side of the pass to a small flat spot next to a small clump of trees. We set up a crude shelter and napped. I could hear the occasional Harley rumble by below on the road up Independence Pass. It rained and hailed a bit but eventually cleared up by late afternoon.
We packed up and headed out into a cold wind. I noticed a yoga-ball-sized porcupine in our path that wasn't looking for new friends. Luckily both dogs were distracted by some pikas and I gladly turned to follow them into a boulder field and away from this prickly obstacle. We looped up and over a pass and descended into the elk haven of the upper No Name Creek Valley. Vast divinely irrigated meadows of wildflowers and grasses stretched for miles down gradual slopes in a wide open basin.
We found a protected spot in at what looked like a popular hunting camp and bedded down. A few elk stepped out of the woods and honked and whined at us in protest.
The next morning we headed out early for Aspen. The thick scent of nearby elk had Jaya so worked up she couldn't eat breakfast. 20 minutes down the trail she and Cody bolted. I continued on for 10 minutes and then stopped for a granola bar. They had never been gone for more than a minute or two so far on the trip and I was a bit worried. Cody soon showed up. I waited a few more minutes and decided to head back up to look for Jaya. She finally bounded out of the woods near where she disappeared. It had been about a half an hour. I was not happy.
We headed on up and over a ridge where I found some good wild strawberry patches. A mile down the other side the forest abruptly ended and we wandered out into vast meadows. At their end we came to the muddy remains of Warren Lakes and found the road down Smuggler Mountain. It was a hot and dry afternoon by the time we walked into Aspen where the first order of business was a swim in the Roaring Fork. Jaya jumped in this time too!
The drive up the Fryingpan.
Cody and Jaya relaxing after a long day's hike.
A grey evening at Sawyer Lake.
Upper Hunter Creek Valley.
The twin valleys where Hunter Creek begins.
Aspen through aspen.