Snowshoeing Finch Lake Trail
Finch Lake Trail is located in the Southeast corner of Rocky Mountain National Park in the Wild Basin area, near Allenspark.
During winter months, you have to park at the Winter Recreation Parking area, which adds an extra mile to the hike. In the summertime, you can park right at the trailhead.
I figured that this weekend might be one of the last chances to get out the snowshoes for the season.
The trail crisscrosses a couple of other trails and you can continue on past Finch Lake to Pear Lake.
If you were really ambitious, you can even continue on to the Cony Lakes or even on the Cony Pass.
The road from the Winter Recreation Parking area to the trailhead was well packed and icy when I headed out around 6:15 AM. Above is a snapshot of what the trailhead looked like when I made it there. There was one set of tracks that went just far enough to realize that no one else had traversed the trail since the recent 54 inches of snow they received this week and then they must have turned around.
Somebody has to be the first one, right?
One thing I love about snowshoeing in fresh powder is all the evidence of the local wildlife's scampering about. Anybody care to name the owner of these tracks?
Even with my 930s, I was still post-holing really deep. Up to two feet sometimes. On one extreme drift, oen of my trekking poles, set at 125 cm, sunk in all the way to the grips!
When I made it to the nose of the ridge, I had a good view of Meeker and Longs. The peaks were obscured by clouds off and on all day.
On the other side of the ridge, the snow switched from soft, undisturbed powder to windblown, sunshine crusted fun. Even if it isn't as deep, this stuff is harder to trudge through because it initially holds your weight and then breaks through and you have to absorb the sudden sinking through the powder underneath. There are some nice groves of Aspens on this side as well.
The tail is well marked at the major trail junctions. Keep heading west.
A portion of the trail comes close to a steep slope where you have some terrific views of the valley below and the peaks opposite, if the clouds don't keep them shrouded.
I got a little off trail to take some pictures and was struggling to find my way back to the trail. Instead of doubling back, I whipped out my map and compass to figure out if the trail was above or below me and I easily found my way back to the trail. My CMC Boulder instructor would have been so proud!
There is another trail junction where you can choose to head straight West and downhill to Calypso Cascades, which is a series of short falls along Cony Creek just before it dumps into Ouzel Creek.
My progress was so slow in the deep powder that I was still about a mile from Finch Lake when I decided to call it a day and about-face shortly after noon.
About 1:45 PM, just after I had rounded the nose of the ridge on the way back, it began to snow on me, just a light dusting at first and slowly increased to a winter wonderland!
