Saturday dawned to clear skies, a temperature of 31 degrees and a layer of frost coating anything exposed to the air (including Colter's hair). We cooked oatmeal for breakfast before loading up the packs and setting out.
Middle Fork Lake is a small lake near the northern edge of the Wheeler Peak Wilderness. Until recently there was a Jeep road leading up to it and with its proximity to Red Rver it was a heavily travelled route. The road was closed to motorized vehicle use a few years ago, making it a great walk to a high mountain lake.
We headed up the road through a thick forest of Engelman spruce, subalpine fir and aspen. The road paralleled a branch of the Middle Fork, treating us to a series of cascades. The kids enjoyed playing in the remnant snow.
We made the 2.3 mile trek up to the lake a little after noon. We found a beautiful campsite on the north side of the lake back in the trees. We set up camp, dried out the sleeping bags and played by the lake as clouds slowly began to gather.
Around 3:00 we began to hear low grumblings of thunder and it began to rain. Wyatt and I put on our rain gear and went for a walk around the lake as the other kids played in the tent. We had fun climbing through the snow and watching the rain move in. We headed back to the tent as the lighting drew closer.
The clouds moved out as quickly as they had appeared and we were able to finish the afternoon with plenty of sunshine.We cooked cheesy chicken enchiladas for dinner and enjoyed a small fire before retiring to the tent to read a few chapters of "Ralph S. Mouse".
Sunday dawned warmer and drier, with a temperature of 35 degrees when we awoke. We spent a lazy morning playing and taking down camp before heading back down. Our trip out was uneventful, not passing any other hikers until we were within a 1/4 mile of the trailhead. We had great solitude for such a pretty and easily reached location. We had seen two hikers on Saturday, had the lake to ourselves and saw only the one pair of hikers Sunday.
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