A former co-worker and I headed out to Lakes of the Clouds in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range of Colorado in the middle of September for 5 days for a little fishing and hanging trip. Lakes of the Clouds are a group of three lakes all just below treeline a hair under 12,000' overlooked by Spread Eagle Peak and anchored by a waterfall at the end of the cirque.
My buddy Lee flew in from TX the day prior so he spent the night at my house at 7,000' to help with acclimation. The next morning we drove to the trailhead at 9,500' and began our hike up.
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The weather was clear, cool and breezy, (it had snowed the night prior at the lakes) which made the hike up with our 25# packs a little easier. Altitude didn't prove to be a huge factor for Lee until we reached around 11,000'.
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At this point we started to take more regular breaks (ok every 50' or so) but managed to get to our planned location with plenty of time to set up the hammocks and enjoy a delicious dinner of PackIt Gourmets. Before I go any further I have to give a huge shout out to Shug for his awesome videos on just about everything hammock related. We had an absolutely superb time the entire 5 days due in no small part to his equipment and meal reviews posted on his youtube channel.
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Our first night temps dipped into the low 20's and the breeze held all night. Lee was hanging for his first time in a Hennessy explorer delux asym, a very warm UGQ underquilt, with a 2QZQ underquilt protector. He borrowed my Snugpack 32 degree sleeping bag unzipped it and used it as a top quilt, and also borrowed my Warbonnet Edge tarp.
My rig was the Warbonnet XLC 1.7 single layer, 20 degree Yeti underquilt, 2QZQ UQP, 20 degree Mamba topquilt, and a Hammock Gear Cuben Standard Tarp, and could not have been more comfortable. With sunset around 7:30pm we had plenty of rack time between bouts of fishing over the next 3 days.
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Our days became a steady rhythm of fishing, and siestas.
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And delicious trout.
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Spread Eagle Peak is aptly named (if you look at it right you'll see why) and proved a spectacular backdrop to our days of fishing.
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Having all three lakes to ourselves most of the time made for great fishing. We managed to land (and lose a few) really beautiful fish, most of which were released back. The best flies to catch trout were Blue Winged Olives, Black Gnats, and a mixture of terrestrials in the afternoons.
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Words are really tough to come by that would describe the lakes, the fishing, and the gorgeous mountains surrounding us.
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Each night we were treated to the serenade of Swift Creek Falls as we had the entire place to ourselves.
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The weather was spectacular with the exception of some strong winds on our third night out. After sunset winds picked up and I would say gusted to 50mph at times during the night with temps holding in the upper 30's. Aside from putting a few rocks on our tarp stakes before we turned in to keep them from pulling out we swayed nicely in tune with the gusts. Our rigs proved very capable of handling the weather and we slept soundly despite the roar in the trees. That morning we delayed getting going until the sun cleared the mountains and started to warm up the area a little. By noontime the winds had died down and we were rewarded with beautiful weather.
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Fishing for trout with a fly rod is probably one of the finest outdoor activities. It provides not only an opportunity for traveling to truly beautiful places.
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But allows you to also enjoy the bounty literally within minutes of catching it.
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I can't say enough about the hammock equipment we used for this trip. The fine folks who made our gear really delivered exceptional products that performed flawlessly and made for great sleeping.
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I also can't say enough about the fine meals we enjoyed by Packit Gourmet: Pasta Puttanesca, Chicken Corn Poblano, Gumbo, Texas State Fair Chilli, for lunches, combined with desserts like lemon cheesecake with gingersnap crust for an after trout dinner dessert were all outstanding and made for a really enjoyable trip. Cooking was a cinch using a simple FancyFeast alcohol stove (and some creative windscreens) even in chilly morning temps.
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Breakfast from the hammock (thanks Shug!) consisted of Packit breakfast smoothies and pop-taaarts while we waited for the sun to warm up the lakes and enjoy superb fishing.
PS. Sorry about the sideways pics! If someone can pm me how to fix it I'll edit the post. Thanks for looking!
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