Sept 22 - Twin Lakes Loop (BCC)

It rained last night and supposedly snowed in the mountains. I'm excited to tramp thru the 1st snowfall this morning so I'm heading up to Twin Lakes the morning.

I arrive around 8am. I don't look at the temp but it's quite chilly. And it's beautiful! The snow did not reach the ground at Silver Lake BUT the mountain tops have a light dusting. So nice!

I head around the VC. The boardwalk is covered in ice. Luckily it's not to bad to walk on because it's rough ice. I scan for moose but do not see any. Personally, I think they got scared off by all the boardwalk construction the last year. But I keep aware.

I enjoy the views as I walk around to the trailhead.

Then I start up a very muddy trail towards Lake Solitude.

The vegetation is quite wet and there are frozen snow pellets on the plants, on the ground in various spots.

Not far up the trail, I scare a lone deer off the trail. At least she sticks around after running downhill for a bit.

I continue on. Not many flowers left - maybe a Aster here or there.

I'm closing in on the steps when I look left and I see a small moose standing next to a tree. 

She's too small to be an adult but where is Mom? Holy crap, she's standing just ahead of me feet from the trail. Crap! How did I miss here?! She eyeing me but her ears are up and she appears calm.

But I'm not sticking around - awesome!

Farther down the trail, I again scare 2, no 3 deer off the trail. It looks like a Mom/baby pair and another adult.

Cool, I'm definitely the 1st person on the trail this morning and I get to scare off all the critters!

Then, as I approach the opening for the frisbee golf. I see 2 more deer next to the frisbee "hole". One is quite aware of me and the other is feeding.

Oh! there's another a bit uphill and to the left. She's walking towards the other two. As I continue on, the two move off into the woods.

Such a busy, exciting morning!

A bit farther down the trail, I see what I believe are coyote tracks on the track. They are heading in the opposite direction.

The rest of the stretch is calm and soon I arrive at Lake Solitude. 

No deer or moose that I can see so after a brief break to take off my jacket, it's time for the hill.

The asters along this stretch are still frozen but they will be melting soon.

I'm still following coyote (or other) tracks and they are still heading in the opposite direction.

On the other side of the ski lift are 2 more deer for what is a final count of 4 deer sightings and 10 deer. Awesome!

Up the hill I go and soon I'm reach the top.

I head up to my perch for a "look-see". There are tracks along the trail to my perch heading in both directions. Oh how I just love snow -- easy to see animal activity!

I take a short break at my perch.

Time to head downhill.

There's some leaf color to be seen now.

At the lake, the levels are still lower. It's windy so lake reflection are not present today.

Time to ahead downhill. It's tricky at first because of the snow and ice so I'm being very careful.

Last week I was excited because people unblocked the steep downhill trail but today, someone has reblocked it. Boo!

But after a little downhill on the rocks, I see an opening to the steep trail so I head down that. So much easier.

I run into 3 people coming up the trail and looking at something flying above. I stop and see a hawk flying over head. (Someday, I really need to try and learn hawk ID.)

Soon I'm on the switchback. No real leaf color but it's soon.

As I pass the avalanche, I hear Pika but can't find them

Then it's back down to Silver Lake.

Awesome day!