Oct 19 - Silver Lake and Lake Solitude (BCC)

 Sunny day with temps near 70 degrees. Heading up BCC to hike out to Lake Solitude for the 1st time since July. The whole circuit from Silver Lake out to Lake Solitude and up to Twin Lakes has been closed due to Solitude construction. However, the trail out to Lake Solitude is now open. Yea!

I leave around 7:30 and wow has the traffic been reduced to a trickle. Love when "leaf peeping" and tourist season is over. 

I get a surprised by a cow and calf moose crossing the road (as did the guy on a bike).

I arrive at Silver Lake and the parking lot has only 3 cars!! It's in the upper 30s with the sun still coming out.

I head out to do the loop around Silver Lake heading in the clock-wise direction. Some of the puddles are frozen over and there is frost on the boardwalk.

I glance around and do not see any moose or deer.

Nearing the lake, I scan for beavers and again, do not find any.

The boardwalk heading into the woods has moose tracks (wet ones) on it. Moose have been by at some point this morning. I scan as I pass thru the woods but do not find any. But the views are nice.

As I pop out of the woods, I stop two moose on the edge of Silver Lake just past the beaver dam! They are both bulls. One has spiky antler so I'm guessing he's yearling and then other has slightly bigger. Either another yearling or two years old. The spiky one is attacking a pine sapling. The two joust at times. As they joust, I can hear their antlers clanging. So fun!

The bigger one moves slightly away for a drink of water while "spiky" keeps attacking the pine sapling. They return to joust.

While I'm watching this, I am moving forward on the trail getting closer and parallel to them. At some point, the bigger one decides it time to move away from the lake and starts in my direction. Time to continue quickly up the trail. 

Awesome experience!

I reach the trail to Lake Solitude and make sure its open and head up. The trail is a mix of packed snow, ice and clear trail depending on the location.

The trail is quiet, the leaves are but gone and it's all mine!!

I keep scanning for deer or moose but only hear a few squirrel/chipmunks moving around.

Soon I'm at the ski lift and then the small avalanche where a Pika has built a huge leaf pile.


I spot the little guy!

There are no deer at the bigger avalanche or Lake Solitude.

I stop for a quick break deciding whether I should see if I can continue up to above Twin Lakes and my favorite spot but I decide to head back.

Back at the TH, I do see the trail from Lake Solitude up to my spot is open. I have to do that soon.

Awesome, incredible day! 4 moose and some jousting. Can't beat that!

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