Salmon-Willows Pack & Fish 2020 - Man Down, Alpine Brookies, Odells & Bugs... Awesome 07Aug20-09Aug20

Five set out (Brown, Hubbs, Yohanan, Sheldon & Coffin) but unfortunately our friend Richard took ill of altitude or something at 3.3mi and he and Steve headed back to town. The remaining trio chose the fine (and regular) site at ~6mi and ~2500ft elevation gain to 11.2Kft or so among the Willow Lks. It's a grunt but mainly the Ditch and North Willow are notably steep, but early in the hike. We all had 40-50# packs for the 2 nights and the trio marched well to THE spot. Some freakish stuff occurred as I met a friend on the ascent - Craig Odell was moving along with a friend and we joined them at at intersection. Of course he'd just cut off a 1/2 mile of trail and 500ft of climb with local "2 Cabins" knowledge and contacts. He was bound for the Odell encampment where an even better friend and the patriarch of the all-male outing was stationed, Chris Odell. Freak city in the Eagles Nest Wild of the Gore Range. Kala had shuttled us to the Willowbrook TH. Without cell coverage enabling knowledge of the remaining two of my team after we passed them, I hung a flag to indicate our campsite in the remote alpine. I was pretty worried as lame leader but the next day we learned of their fate. I documented the climb as we did have some turns. Too, Yoho crushed me on fishing night one at Willow Lake 16-2 over the hour or so before sunset - the rays were on him... dunno why it happened but I actually loved it.

It was a cold night @ 11.2Kft but a good & consistent climb allowed good sleep among killer stars and meteors after some mediocre dehydrated meals and few AirHead dessert bombs. We arose on Saturday intent on fishing all day, starting with Salmon Lk, a ~2mi hike. Fishing there was excellent for brookies 2X the size of most of the Willow Lks fish. We all caught fish and returned to our site in the early PM for lunch.

Here's some of my bounty; I was pleased I found ways to be effective with the new Tenkara set up. An olive & tan #14 chubby with a bead head gold ribbed hare's ear fooled all my fish.

Here's some of Jim's catch; he even scored one from the stream on the way back to camp...

 We left this awesome spot for camp and more fishing in the Willow Lks.

Arriving at camp we checked in on Yoho's ghetto - it turns out that from miscommunication or mishandling or whatever, Jim arrived without tent poles and we had to rig hiking poles and other stuff to get the tent to open up - it took Jim 10 minutes to get in or out of it and we surely were glad there wasn't nasty weather.

We left out for the uppermost Willow Lk after lunch and encountered the Odell's again - they wanted the bigger fish so built a makeshift raft! The lake was murkier than others but was still bountiful in smaller brook trout.

Ultimately we finished the fishing day on lower Willow Lk among the mosquitoes and unwilling fish hanging deep. So, we headed back to camp capping a fine day of roaming around the Salmon-Willows area. Dave bundled up for the bug onslaught as he contemplated man's existence and in a record we all hit the tents by just 8pm.

We arose Sun AM ready to pack out to the Kala shuttle after some PopTarts and coffee. :) We descended quickly and got to our ORB lunch about noon so the boys could get home before heavy traffic. Awesome weekend - thanks for coming out men - and, next time Steve & Richard, sorry you missed it.