Salmon-Willow Lakes Pack Trip '22 ~ Into The Gore 22Jul22-24Jul22

Our somewhat annual trip into the Eagle's Nest Wilderness, up to the Willow Lakes, was awesome this weekend. DaveS, GregL, SteveB and I climbed ~6 miles and 2200ft of vert on Friday afternoon to camp above Lower Willow Lk @ ~11.4Kft elevation. The trip was a bit longer for Dave and Greg as Dave dropped Steve & I at the upper TH and then had to park in overflow parking at the bottom of Willowbrook (no overnight parking allowed at the TH any more). Greg did similarly later in the day. The extra was 3/4 mile and several hundred feet. We appreciated that Dave!

Steve & I were dropped above Willowbrook and immediately started out on Three Peaks trail, which would intersect the trail to Willow Lakes following the North Willow Creek. Dave drove down the hill, parked and walked 3/4 mile up to the Willowbrook TH, grabbed his pack, and headed out, about 50 minutes behind us. We were almost certain that goat-boy Dave would ultimately overtake us ~ but he didn't! Steve & I kept a decent pace over the climb and made it in 3 hrs moving time and just under 4 hrs gross. The wildflowers became abundant over the last mile and a half and we got no rain on the hike.

Dave arrived shortly after and Greg arrived about 7pm after pulling up late to the parking lot (you know - working guy). We all set up camp in a glorious spot overlooking Lower Willow Lk and Blue River valley far below. It was a completely awesome site but for many pesky mosquitos ~ we slathered ourselves with deet.

I headed over to Middle Willow Lk to fish before dinner and caught a number of beautiful brookies and a fine low sun pan of the crest and lake reflected on the lake, and some wildflowers. I packed the new Rodfather Power Pack 6pc 5wt which tossed the chubbies distant with ease but landed the 8"-10" brookies too easily.

At camp we pumped water, prepared dinner and spoke of camp things... the working stiffs, both software dev mgrs reviewed issues with their systems and pending releases. Steve and I enjoyed ramen with veggies, jalepenos and chix. We retired pretty early to avoid being eaten but morning didn't even come too quickly. Coffee and oatmeal with parts was nearly the universal fare for the team. Steve's Jetboil system was almost instantaneous, but it would not simmer. Already we encountered moose & deer, as well as humans, along the treelines of meadows.

We fished all day Saturday, except for a 90 min nap in the tents during an early PM rainfall. It was a great day with literally 100s of brookies caught. I personally caught 68 on Saturday alone! We stayed on the Willow Lks this entire outing and started with a hike to Upper Willow Lake in the morning. Six "kids" we'd encountered on the hike on the day prior chose the very cool site abutting the upper lake - but that came with a dozen aggressive goats! They'd stolen boots and even a fly rod (all recovered) but were very present and curious and the "kids" were always chasing them out of their camp ~ to which they often bleated furiously. Fishing-wise, everybody caught many fish usually using a double dry system of a #14 Chubby Chernobyl trailed by a 2nd smaller dry, where an ant was popular. At times I even went dubl-chubby. We crushed it up there. Stealthy Greg took a high vantage to target shoot. Too, the upper lake has it's own spectacular crest and cirque. Half way through the session on the top lake I did trade rods with my Bro Brown - he was using my 6 foot RF Headwaters and a guy should not be made to fish with a rod substantially shorter than he is. I liked both rods for this area but the RFHW was tougher to cast far.

The Willow Lakes are inter-connected via streams. Upper Willow's effluent runs into a Side Willow spot and Middle Willow flows into Lower Willow. To make my way back to camp I followed the outflow of Upper Willow for some creek brookies. It cascades pretty steeply but there are nice holding spots ~ I used the same rig and caught many more on this descent, including landing a double catch where fish nabbed each of the two flies on the same cast and I was able to land both. The creek brookies had bigger darker heads and brighter coloring often and were stronger. It was a blast.

After back at camp for lunch and a nap during the rain, we set out for Middle Willow Lk. I think Greg had three fish on his first 3 casts. We did well with the same sized fish as at Upper Willow, but perhaps catching was more on-and-off as to our "luck." Still, we had a blast. Again on departure I took the effluent stream down to Lower Willow and did very well... I found some columbine hiding and a cool waterfall spot yielded several nice brook trout.

We all met up at Lower Willow Lake 200 ft below our campsite for our final fishing onslaught of the day. Lower is known for bigger fish but lesser catching. The Daves were fortunate to be on the catching side of the equation to cap the day. I landed a much nicer ~15" brookie on my #20 Griffith's Gnat... more challenging to land than the 10"ers without a net... so cool for my final catch for number 68. Though Greg then chastised me to get back out there to get an even 69.

We headed back to camp as sunset was pending and enjoyed a regaling of the days encounters, some freeze-dried vittles and Milky Ways, B&B&B (bourbon, benedictine, & brandy) and Greg's 114 bourbon. Very satisfying fishing day on the Willow Lakes. We retired kindof early again mainly a retreat from feasting mosquitos. Arising came more quickly on Sunday as we had the hike-out and Dave & Greg needed to check the status of their sketchy software releases :). The departure pic was excellent as we said bye-bye to the Eagle's Nest wild for another year. I led the entire stretch down as I'm sure my fellow CoWWs were full of respect (and wanted to ensure if I biffed they could get me out). These guys are so solid ~ I am lucky.

We crossed talus fields and hopped streams and ultimately gained cell service so I could reach out to our buddy DD who couldn't roll with us on this outing. Part of the discussion too was the 100 years it will take to recover from beetle kill deadfall ~ but we saw evidence too of the 5ft starts in the process.

We made it down quickly with 20min miles and DaveS went to grab the shuttle car while we talked with the goat herders from upper camp. They had bad mosquitos too but goats as well - and yet were all excited for their next trip into the Gore. We even saw them again at ORB, where we met up with DD and his bride YD on a rare outside sighting; DaryleD had scored us position A at ORB/Bird Cafe and it was so nice to see Y in the flesh, have a great beer, eat fried chicken, and do those down mountain things we do. Fabulous weekend with great friends.