August 23 - Lake Solitude (almost) - BCC

 Well today was supposed to be Lambs Canyon but after a good amount of lovely monsoonal rain, I decided to head to Lake Solitude ... and it turned out to be an awesome choice.

Quiet drive on the way to Silver Lake. It's in the mid-50s with the sun still coming up just after 7am. Parking is almost fun (boy I can't wait to Labor Day).

They had rain here last night too as the boardwalk is wet. I cross the boardwalk and take a quick stop at the pier. 


I can see a crowd gathered just after the pier so I know I'm meeting a moose. And sure enough there are two bulls moose eating just off the trail. Hard to see behind the brush but someone (from pier) lifts a drone off and that quickly catches the attention of both moose. The one almost steps onto the trail

and the other resumes eating. Not sure how much longer before they move off or lay-down, I turn and head around lake. When I'm across on the other side, I see people heading towards the trail so I think the move are moving that way. 

I get to where the trails start and the moose have headed west with a few people following them. I do catch a glimpse of one of them as I head up towards Lake Solitude. What an awesome start!

Quiet walk towards Lake Solitude.

As I approach the little slide with the Pika Veg piles, there's a group of folks so something is going on. The one group heads my way and in passing say there is a moose blocking the trail ahead. Oh cool! A 3 moose day!

I pass 2 people looking for Pika shots and continue cautiously. As I approach the large avalanche, I think I see the moose and as I get closer, yes, there is a moose standing in the middle of the trail feet before the avalanche. I get as close as I can and stop and watch. It's a very young Bull (little knobs for antlers) and he looks pretty skinny. And he's just standing there; not even feeding. But he is aware of me as his guard hairs are  up.

The couple catches up and we watch as he stands there. They start talking about going off-trail (which would be fun; over logs, uphill) and I decide to turn back.

Pretty exciting day!

The return was so much quieter than last week. In fact, I didn't really see anyone until the steps where there was a group of folks stopped watching the two males I saw before. One was feeding and the other was laying down. Everyone was sneaking past including myself except I do stop for photos.




Awesome day!

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