The Outside Edge

Bear Creek: A cautionary tale

Text & photos by Tim Miller
http://timotheus.synthasite.com

Clouds hovered low over the razorbacks near Morrison, Colorado. The air smelled crisp and cold. A steady break beat of car zooms and whooshes echoed up rocky cliff walls from Morrison Road below. My wife Joni and I scrambled west, up a ridge’s shifting scree, as flurries gave way to full-fledged snowfall. We’d followed a clearly marked and trampled trail to the top of the steep incline after glancing at the Bear Creek Trail map in a recently published hiking book. Looking around, I could’ve sworn we were going the right way. I was wrong.

To me, hiking is a sport. I like to work out while I’m taking in sights and learning about nature. Like a lot of athletes, I believe in bad omens. My wife and I should have read the ill portents that day, before we trekked to the top of the razorback across Morrison Road from Dinosaur Ridge. All our scrambling up the scree only brought us to the trail’s abrupt end at a cave three-fourths of the way up the ascent. We would have needed climbing equipment to go any further.

At least we had a chance to take in the haunting scene of Red Rocks Amphitheater covered in ghostly fog from on high. But the fact that the trail stopped before it got to the top frustrated me. Joni and I were a little tired and confused, too. Earlier, we had to double back on the trail a few times, due to false forks that led us to pointless dead ends. Each wrong turn was a bad portent. As Joni sipped water and rested after our constant 45-degree ascent up the razorback, I mulled over the details of our short, yet difficult trip.

While driving, I’d followed our hiking trail book’s directions the best I could. The guide

only gave directions to get to the Bear Creek Trailhead from central Denver. That doesn’t work for us. We come from the south. It also called Morrison Road a north-and-south highway, whereas it clearly goes east and west. That was another bad omen. Nonetheless, Joni and I easily found the parking lot next to Bear Creek.

Signs along the parking lot indicated that we’d entered Jefferson County Open Space. I assumed that was a good thing, since most trails cut through public land. Then, there was the sign that said “Trail” near the parking lot. I know the area around Morrison has a lot of paths, but we could see Bear Creek flowing alongside Morrison Road and a marker right in front of us, which basically said, “go this way.” Oops.

A single set of bootprints was our only guide after we’d passed the “Trail” sign and started up the ridge. Whoever had left their foot casts in the frozen mud ahead of us had also deviated along the wrong forks. Sometimes, a dead end looked better than the actual trail. So we followed the false path to no avail.

After Joni and I rested and rehydrated at the ridge’s almost-top, we went back down to the trailhead. The trek was short, strenuous, and dangerous. The weather got colder. The snow fell in big, sticky flakes. The bad mojo flowed. Joni was ready to leave. However, I was determined to find the right trail.

As Joni threw her pack in our Volkswagen and ate some trail mix, I ran all over the place and found just about every other path in the area. When I actually looked at our trail map, I discovered that we’d been going the wrong way the whole time. A seeming sidewalk going east along Bear Creek, which I’d initially disregarded as a bike route to Morrison, was the path we were looking for. So, finally, Joni and I journeyed down Bear Creek Trail. Luckily, it was a relatively flat and easy trek after our daunting trudge up JeffCo’s ambiguous ridge.

Bear Creek Trail flowed through meadows, past leafless trees, and between the hills and ridges of the area. That’s probably why other people were actually on it. I was the only dupe foolish enough to drag my wife up the steep, slippery JeffCo hill on the other side of C-470 in the dead of winter.

Believe it or not, I learned a few things from our excursion to Bear Creek. They are:

1. Bring a few different maps of the same trail to make sure their information is correct and up to date.

2. Read your maps carefully.

3.Don’t assume that the trail marked “Trail” is the actual trail you want to take.

4. Boot prints are never a good indication of the right way to go.

Don’t be like me. Over-prepare, read, and follow directions.