We are sad to say that we have exited the backcountry for the last time this summer. Enjoy this recap of our last trip, written by trip participant Quintin Pollart
Ahoy from Stillwater Campground,
The group has just arrived at the sunny Stillwater Campground after getting out of our final back country hiking trip! At the beginning of that backcountry we set an extremely lofty goal of 1,000 fish for the trip. With eight of us and the two leaders, Will and Charlie, every person would have to catch 100 fish. We started out very strong in our quest to catch 100 each, as the first afternoon that we were in camp at North Inlet Campground we all caught a ton of fish in only a couple of hours, but the second day greeted us with some clouds that kept the day cold and the fishing slower than expected.
On that day Charlie, Quintin, Max, Hugo, and Drew journeyed up to some high alpine lakes that sat a solid 1,750 feet above North Inlet camp ground and North Inlet Creek, which is where the group did most of the fishing during the back country trip. These lakes were obviously filled with some incredibly pretty and sizable fish, but due to the cloud weather and the extreme cold, the group of five could only pull out a total of about fifty fish. These lakes seemed like they could be some seriously fast paced fishing on a sunny day. Back down at the creek, Will and the rest of the group had some very good luck fishing the pocket water and runs of a meadow just west of our camp site. Also at the meadow, the group was able to spot a parent and child Moose that grazed while they fished. Once the whole group got back together we made an awesome dinner of quesadillas and enjoyed a camp fire.
The next day we had a big task at hand. Each one of us would have to catch 65 fish to reach our goal of 1,000 fish. On this day Charlie took a group bushwhacking to a larger meadow that had been spotted from the trail to the lakes. This group was very successful in their fishing and was only limited by the hail storm that rolled through North Inlet Valley at around 3:00. Tired and cold, this group trudged back to camp and packed into their tents. Meanwhile, Will’s group, that included Todd, Max, and Drew, weathered the storm and found some awesome fishing on the other side of it. Todd, in fact, was only able to catch a couple fish in the morning, but caught around 45 post storm. When Will’s group got back to camp the sun started to poke back out of the clouds and a few from Charlie’s group were convinced to go back out the river and attempt to hook a few more. In the end the weather hurt our attempt to reach 1,000, but Davis was able to catch about 87 and Quintin stayed out until dusk, reaching his goal of 100 on the last night. After a big dinner of buffalo chicken mac and cheese the whole group went right to sleep.
The next morning the group woke up at 6:30 and made the seven mile hike back out in only two hours! After a quick iced cream stop in Grand Lake the group shot over to Stillwater Campground, set up camp, and then headed to town to do laundry and get some food. We are amazed how fast the trip has flown by, but are eager to start our overnight float on the Colorado River!
Signing out,
Quintin Pollart
