Little Molas Lake Hike On The Colorado Trail

Holy mollusks! We're starting at Little Mollusk Lake, and we're going to hike part of the Colorado Trail. North of Durango, Colorado, off Highway 550, you'll find a trail that leads you through forests and flowers, past creeks and meadows, below the crests of mountains. It's the Little Mollusk Lake Trailhead, part of the Colorado Trail. On the Colorado Trail, you can walk all the way to the southwest edge of the Denver metro area on it, and start just outside Durango. If you're feeling really ambitious, you can hike all the way from Durango to Denver, which is about a 480 mile hike. So come on, let's go! The trail will soon take us to the higher elevations above the tree line, and you can also take your mountain bike on this trail if you so choose. If you do take your mountain bike, you will have to detour around the wilderness areas. I'm using these two cyclists as my pace vehicles today. My two pace vehicle mountain bikers dropped out. I passed them up. I got my next guy up ahead. He's in my sights. Looks like I might pass him too. Yep, just passed him up. I've got a pretty good pace going on right now. The trail winds through some forest, and we will be heading into the alpine zone soon. When I say alpine zone, I mean above the tree line. No matter how hungry you get in the wilderness, don't ever cook this stuff up and eat it. This is corn lily. It could cause convulsions and death. You can, however, eat a dandelion flower if you want. Or maybe you'd like to eat some of this fireweed. And this bush will have some berries on it soon. Some current berries. Going through a field of corn lilies. What's that sound? I'm hearing what sounds like sheep out here somewhere. Unfortunately, some smoke from distant fires has drifted into the region, making it a bit hazy. Sadly, smoky summer skies have become the new normal out west. Last year I was in Oregon, and there were so many fires burning in that region, and California and other places, that Oregon had the worst air quality on earth. No kidding. For the past four or five years, the summer skies have been choked with smoke. And the fire season seems to arrive earlier and earlier every year. From about the end of June till mid-October, it's just been smoke-filled skies all summer long. Now I see what that sound is. It's sheep off in the distance. Mountain biking through the flowers. A lot of flowers up here. Beautiful walk through the flowers. Looks like we've reached sheep land. They are all over the place here. There must be hundreds of them. Some of their bleeding sounds like they're in agony. And there's the big dog that protects the flock. Right there behind the sheep. He might bark at me. So he doesn't want me to come through the trail, but I'm not worried about him. He's just protecting the flock. I spoke a little Spanish to him. That dog doesn't know what to make of me. Yes, he started barking at me all right. Traffic jam ahead. It's a sheep traffic jam. Yeah, we're getting through here. Yes, okay. There's two of those dogs. Quite a few little lambs out here. You even have the black sheep out here. There's one right back in there that has a bell around its neck. Can you hear it clanging? What I've learned from traveling through Nevada and Utah is in the spring there, they often hire sheep herders from Peru and other places in South America. And I guess here it might be the same here in Colorado. And they come up to the higher elevations in the summer. The grazing is the best. I hung out with some Peruvian sheep herders once in Utah. Stayed the night. Camped out. And they stayed in their little sheep herders hut and cooked up their food in there. And I slept in my vehicle. And I conversed with them in my fairly poor Spanish. And they conversed with me in their somewhat decent English. But we managed to communicate okay. I see a couple of lakes down below. I think it's worth an exploration. Let's go check it out. Taking this faint little trail here. Just a couple little lakes here. That smoke's really coming in now. Looks like that must be the sheep herder's tent. This is our sheep herder from Peru. Nombre? Edwin. This is Edwin. He tends the sheep. Donde nacio? Yo nací en Peru. Peru. Cuantos borregos aquí? Aqui tenemos dos mil borregos. Dos mil borregos. Oh dos mil. Mucho. Aqui por diez semanas o mas? Aqui ya se por dos meses. Dos meses. Ya mas o menos no? Mas o menos si. Diez semanas ya por ahí va. Diez semanas. Okay. Bueno. Aqui en las montanas? Si es bonito las montañas. Si es bonito. Bonito. Es un poco dificil la soledad. Solita no? Solita? Ya solo. Uno mas persona aquí? Yo solo aquí. Solo? Solo solo. Ya solito con borregos. Muchos perros? Tres perros? Tenemos cinco perros. Están con las borregas. Y dos con mi no? Que son mi ayuda. Okay. Cinco perros. Pero grandes eh? Si. Son grandes no? Pero grandes. Ya. Okay. Gracias amigo. Buen suerte. Muy bonito aqui. No si es bonito. Buen paisaje. Y usted de donde viene? No entiendo. Y... Mi espanol no so good. Oh ya ya ya ya. Y por donde va ahora? Por donde vas? Para donde vas? The truth is I'm never really sure where I'm going. This is a look into the sheep herders camp. And there's a dog in the back. Can you see the dog? There's a perro. So we're back on the main Colorado trail here. And our sheep herder amigo back there. He's from Peru. Sounds like he has five dogs up here with him. And about 2,000 sheep in this region. We're back down into the trees again for at least a little while. And these are some pretty sizable trees. Pretty nice. Big trees. Thought I might as well take advantage of this spring water just coming right out of the earth and fill up my water bottle. It's nice and cool and tasty. This is what I refer to as pure source water. Right at the source. It doesn't really get any better than this. Nice little stream right here. That smoky haze has really come in now. Apparently this smoke is not from a Colorado fire, but rather from the fires in Arizona or possibly far northern California near the Oregon border. If you'd like a quick hit of vitamin C, try one of these spruce chips. I had one woman try one of these and she liked it. She said it tastes like lime. Right now I'm getting bumblebee kisses on this leg and also on this leg. I just met some hikers on the trail and they said that the smoke is coming from fires in Idaho and Montana. So, so far we've got Arizona, northern California near Oregon, Idaho and Montana. But apparently there are no fires burning in Colorado yet. Water is getting to be a very precious substance out west. Things are hopping out here. The trail is leading into some beautiful forest again. Mountain bluebell. Wild strawberry flower right there. The smoke is getting thicker and the day is getting later. I think it's getting to be about time to turn around. I hope what I've shown you today is a good sample and an accurate representation of what you might expect to find along the Colorado Trail. I'm sure there's an abundance of much more beauty and splendor to be found out here on this trail. If you come out here around mid-July as I have, I'm sure you're apt to find a lot of beautiful wildflowers too. We've come around the bend for one last view of all that's in the distance. I hope you've enjoyed hiking with me from Little Molas Lake heading toward Durango on the Colorado Trail. I'm about seven miles in, which means I've got about seven miles to go to get back to the car. Don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell. Don't forget to give me a like on my videos. Until next time, this is Rock Harper, I'll see ya.