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I usually stop at the San Gregorio Reservior trail head for
my hikes but today I continue on to the Palomas trailhead. Eventually the Palomas trail meets up with
the Rio de las Vacas.
There are four other vehicles in the trailhead parking lot
on this holiday; I surmise they belong to a number of backpackers. Several
miles into my hike I run into two groups of backpackers returning home. They had tired smiles on their faces; a good
time mixed with carrying everything on their backs.
The trail starts out at a 9300’ elevation with a steep climb
as it exits the parking lot keeping up the ascent for the first mile. I reason that this is to weed out the
wanna-be hikers from the real hikers. Approaching
the first meadow, needing to stop for a breather and some water I come upon a
family of turkeys having a leisurely breakfast.
After a few seconds the first and largest turkey pops up his head knowing something has changed; his head darts back and forth identifying me, the
intruder. Once spotted, the other family
members all spot me then scurry over a rise some distance away. This meadow is
the top of the initial climb. Once past
the meadow the trail drops down a steep incline into the Rito de las Perchas
river valley. The river is small, clear
and cold with another meadow opening downstream and forest
upstream. It appears that there are a
few possible camping spots along the river.
I have to find a narrow spot in the river leaping to a small grass
island before traversing to the other side.
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| Corn lillies |
Once past the river I start another climb out of the valley,
thankfully this ascent is moderate and shorter than the initial climb. All along the way I pass between open meadows
and forest. As I continue the gradual
ascent to 10,000’, the elevation of the las Vacas, I come across patches of
snow. I don’t really need a compass indicating
a general northerly direction since all the snow is hiding in tree shadows. Spring is in all stages of bloom: dandelions
are in abundance; corn lilies a foot tall along the road I drove in are a few
inches tall at 9500’. Other flowers
blooming at lower elevations are barely poking their heads out of the ground at
elevation. Aspens just outside of Cuba
are fully leafed out, at the trailhead leaves are small, screaming lime green;
at 10,000’ buds are showing on one tree with tiny leaves on the next.
The last half mile before converging with the las Vacas the
trail enters then follows a dense line of pines providing a hundred yard long shadow
on the trail and consequently a hundred yard long by 1 – 3 foot deep continuous
snow pile. I am not certain where the
trail goes so I try following where a few footsteps have passed before. After bobbing back and forth between standing
on top of the 2’ snow pile then sinking to my knees in snow the next step I
decide to slog through the running water flowing down the adjacent meadow. |
| Rio de las Vacas |
Continuing on, I can hear the las Vacas but I am not able to
get a good view or approach it. There
seems to be a wall of pines between the trail and river. I am not ambitious
enough to fight my way through the pines at the same time keeping my feet dry
from the free flowing water making its way across the open meadows to the las
Vacas. The pines thin out several
hundred feet further upstream where I see a clear amber colored stream. I can step across the river quite easily;
most places are only 2 – 3’ wide, but it is deep; at least 6” in the main
portion with pools in excess of 2’.
This river valley is different than the other valleys we
have visited and fished. We are at the
top of the San Pedro Parks Wilderness.
It doesn’t really get any higher than this. The valley is wide; there are no ‘walls’ of
rock closing us in. You can see a long
way with these conditions; you can see weather coming. You also have to deal with the wind; since there’s
nothing to stop it.
Mark was patient, not breaking out the fly rod until
arriving at the las Vacas. He was temped
early in our hike at the las Perchas but I convinced him to wait. We split up assembling our fishing gear. Within the first 15 minutes I catch a 10 –
12” brown. I had seen trout rise in a
pool just upstream and was able to convince one to go for my dry. This is certainly the largest I have caught
to date so my day was made.
As the day went on Mark and I leapfrogged each other
continuing upstream. We stop for lunch
and compare our fishing. Since we are
not having much success in the open meadow we decide to continue upstream heading
towards a section where trees border the river. Once back among the trees and changing of
flies the trout were again interested in our offerings. Each of us caught several small cutthroats.
By the end of the day we fished just over a mile upstream
from our initial contact with the river.
Here the las Vacas is primarily an open meadow stream with pines occasionally
lining its banks.
On my return I find that I am naming some of the meadows due
to their unique characteristics: turkey, ball field, Christmas tree, marsh and
snow. I’m eager to come back later in
the year to see what these meadows look like.
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| Rito de las Perchas |
Mark
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