Wild Basin Pack & Peak & Fish Trip 24Jul20-26Jul20

Awesome, 'cept for some weather. Tom Wilke (our leader), Tom Resman (the summit mate), Greg Lehmann (master cutthroater) and I backpacked in to the Wild Basin section of RMNP Friday. We had a blast toting our gear just ~2mi to our Hole-In-The-Wall backcountry campsite. We were alone together there thanks to efforts by Wilks to score the permit earlier in the year. Here we are after fully convened with Greg's arrival at the site and a map of some objectives.

We had a good but early night around the stoves (no campfires here!). But it all started with the Toms and Dave arriving earlier for the climb into HitW along Sandbeach trail. We had permits for overnight parking, thanks to Wilks, right at the trailhead - and the one man tents were socially distanced and bear can appointed as required.

The Toms were climbing Mt Meeker (13.9Kft) and Dave & Greg were headed off-trail for fishing @ Thunder Lk. Both aggressive trips were successful but drenched with rain. Lehmann and I hatched a plan to go off-trail after reaching the west end of Sandbeach Lk via trail direct from our campsite. We did so descending 800ft over 2 miles down two cliffs, through forest and over deadfall, and skirting two swamplands near Twin Lks to acquire the Wild Basin trail. Sandbeach Lk looked promising for cuts and had many nice campsites and people - we moved on; the bushwhack was done with skill and route-finding but the down angle left us concerned for it as a return route; Twin Lk One was choked with lily pads and looked barren while Twin Lk Two was larger and looked fruitful but - we moved on. Once on Wild Basin trail we anticipated our objective below the fierce mountain valley we were ascending.

After ~9mi of climbing, bushwhacking, and otherwise we arrived at Thunder Lk. We confirmed the claims it being a good cutthroat lake with Colorado cuts and more classic cuts caught in abundance. We met a flyfishermen who said "fish the inlet with #22 BWO dries" so we went there first (but fished real bugs) and were greeted aplenty with golden-colored CO cuts. Greg schooled me in fishing with a couple dozen on the day, on 2 different rod setups, while I mustered about a half doz or more. The inlet carried the golden cuts and the deep side of the lake (no pics) carried the more silvery, less spotted  cuts. Peacock olive chubby #14 ruled for me and Greg did well subsurface with BHFBPT soft-hackle. A great day, even in the rain, but after 3.5hrs we needed to head back to camp - chance for more exciting debates on how to fix the country!

We took the long way back to our campsite (to avoid the off-trail climb) which required returning to the RMNP entrance and the start of Sandbeach trail again. Our hike ultimately was 17mi with 3Kft of vert and a 1.5mi car ride (thank goodness good citizen) down the Wild Basin road. The Mt Meeker seekers did well moving up Sandbeach trail then up Hunter's Ck drainage past the Dragon's Egg rock and up that couloir to Mt Meeker summit. 12 miles with 4.7Kft of vert including plenty of talus scrambling and the same soaker on the slog back to camp. Well done boys.

We all slept well that evening - or we think so as Resman left for Crested Butte Sat night. Greg and I departed Sun AM and sheepishly left Wilks to climb alone. Fortunately for all it was a good day with the forecast rain holding off.