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Sean Gillies — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 22:18:48 GMT

My family and I escaped the local heat wave for three days and camped on the shores of North Michigan Reservoir (8,900 ft) in the Colorado State Forest. This is a popular campground, but the less popular sites are still available mid-week. Ours had great access to the water that more than made up for the close proximity to the adjacent site. Arabelle and Beatrice fished, got some strikes, and Arabelle landed one very nice rainbow trout. We hiked, played card games, sat around a fire and toasted marshmallows. On our last night the sky cleared up completely and we had several hours of stargazing and meteor watching before we slept. We saw one bright orange Perseid fireball and heard people exclaim from farther down the shore of the reservoir.

While wandering on a hill above the reservoir I realized that I had run near the campground during the Never Summer 100k. After leaving the Bockman aid station (mile 56) at 9:50 p.m. I crossed N. Michigan Creek and in less than a mile traversed a clearcut hillside visible from the reservoir campground and then turned south to climb up and over the shoulder of Gould Mountain.

Jackson County Road 41A runs through the clearcut in the center of the photo. Gould Mountain is on the right edge.

The forest around N. Michigan Reservoir has been decimated by bark beetles.

On July 25 I ran across the entire background of the photo above. Right to left, mostly above treeline, and then left to right again, below treeline. It was fun to see the course again from a distance.

Sean Gillies (Posts about colorado state forest)

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