Escaping The Nutshell

2013-07-07 Pear Lake and Copeland Mtn

You can see the GPS tracks for this entire hike.

The video shows: View from burn area on Finch Lake - Pear Lake Trail (0:00-0:13), Finch Lake (0:14-0:27), Cony Creek (0:28-0:50), Pear Creek (0:51-1:08), Pear Lake (1:09-1:38), pond just below Copeland Mtn east ridge (1:39-2:01), on alpine meadow between 2nd pond and rock fall zone below ridge (2:02-2:25), at wall below glacial bowl of Copeland Mtn (2:26-2:57), shore of Pear Lake (2:57-3:12), outlet of Pear Lake (3:13-3:47), Finch Lake (3:48-4:10), moose with baby at Finch Lake (4:11-6:35).

We started hiking from the Allenspark Trailhead at 8:19, where the sign says 4 miles to Finch Lake, and 6 miles to Pear Lake.

Note that old topomaps call Pear Lake a reservoir. This is because it was a reservoir until Sept 1988, when the dam was demolished.

Getting to Pear Lake at a little before 11:00, we crossed the outlet and headed north through mostly trail-less thick wooded country until we got to a pond just below the Copeland east ridge. From there we circled east, then south along the wall of Copeland Mountain's glacial bowl, passing by a second pond.

My favorite spot on this loop is an idyllic alpine meadow between the second pond and the rock fall zone below the ridge. With the forecast for a a good chance of thunderstorms, and it being almost noon, we headed south along the granite wall of Copeland's glacial bowl back toward Pear Lake. Thinking of climbing up into the glacial bowl some other day, we also kept an eye out for a reasonable way up.

We stopped for lunch on the north side of Pear Lake at 12:15, with beautiful views and the sound of waves on the rocks. Returning the way we came, we got back to the Allenspark Trailhead at 15:45. On the return we spotted a moose and her baby on the shore of Finch Lake, and managed to get some video of them (see end of video).

The high point on the hike was above Pear Lake at about 10,800 feet, and the low point was the Allenspark Trailhead at around 8900 feet, for a difference of 1,900 feet. The tracks show distance traveled to be 12.1 miles.

2013-07-07 Elevation profile: Pear Lake and two ponds to its north from Allenspark Trailhead and back