My day trip plan
was to snowshoe up to Gem Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a bright and sunny day when I arrived
at the Lumpy Ridge parking area. I
spotted a couple of hikers coming off the trail towards their car. I asked them if the trail was snowshoe-able
and they told me no. They said the trail
was just spotty snow and some patches of ice.
I set the snowshoes aside and set off in my North Face boots bringing
along my ski poles for balance.
The Lumpy
Ridge trailhead is one of two ways to access the trail up to Gem Lake. The other way is to go through the McGregor
Ranch just down the road. The Lumpy
Ridge trailhead trail goes up for .5 of a mile until it connects with the Gem
Lake trail. From the intersection it is
1.2 miles to the lake. You start at an
elevation of 7,870 feet and climb 960 feet up to Gem Lake, which sits at 8,830
feet in elevation.
The
trailhead information board had a sign posted on it, “Warning Lion Country”. It read, “Mountain lions frequent this
area. Mountain lions are powerful
predators. They can hurt or kill
you.” The safety suggestions on the sign
included: “keeping children next to you,
jogging is not recommended, if you do, do not jog alone, and travel in groups.”
The sign
went on to explain that if you see a lion:
“STOP. Do not run. Pick up small children. Stand tall.
And if attacked, Fight Back!” If
I actually did see a lion, I would stop, because I wanted to get my camera out. I would not run either; that would make the
picture taking difficult. And if I was
attacked, my ski poles would surely protect me from the savage beast.
That was the
plan anyway. In reality, if a mountain
lion stalked me from above and jumped on my back and sunk its teeth into my
neck…well, I wouldn’t be writing this now would I if that had happened.
With all
this lion safety education fresh in my mind, I headed up the trail. Suddenly, I thought I saw a blur of tan color
cross the trail up ahead of me. It must
have been my imagination, but then I looked down and spotted a whole bunch of
tracks in the snow. Whatever had made
them was running all over the place.
“Hikers
aren’t that hard to catch,” I thought to myself. There were no signs of fresh blood or torn
pieces of clothing lying around either.
I then heard some rocks tumble from above from the cliffs on the sides
of the trail. I rationalized that the
noise was just falling icicles and snow as it melted in the sun on the rocks. I cautiously continued on.
When I
reached the lake, it was frozen and covered with snow. I took pictures of the amphitheater framed
lake and discovered a snow angel someone had made on the ice. With the afternoon shadows lengthening, I
descended from the lake. The hike down
was covered in shade and a bit colder than I’d expected, but I had no more faux
lion encounters.
When I got
home, I looked up images of mountain lion tracks in snow on the internet. The tracks that I had seen by the trail all had
nail impressions, which almost certainly identified them as being made by a dog. I rested easy now knowing for sure that I had
not been stalked by one of the mysterious mountain lions of Gem Lake.
