Finch Lake Snowshoeing

Today, I snowshoed up to Finch Lake, on the southern flank of Rocky Mountain National Park. It is accessed easily from Wild Basin or a trailhead near Allenspark, where I started. From where I started, it was about an 8-mile round trip (including some meandering around the frozen lake for views), and sported a decent 1500 ft of climb, which never feels like much on snowshoes. The trail crossed a few frozen and not frozen streams. Where liquid water surfaced, I noticed a lot of animal tracks in the snow, undoubtedly since it was a great source of fresh water for the various fauna roaming these parts in the winter. This area also featured a woodpecker making enough noise to be heard over the intense wind gusts blowing through the trees. I wanted to follow the trail a bit longer, but by the time I reached Finch Lake, the trail was lost in deep snow drifts and it would have been quite difficult orienteering to higher elevations. It was windy, as it often is, and the mountains were typically shrouded in snow showers, only peaking through at times. I did have some pain sensations in the left knee, but nothing acute, nor was it obvious that the snowshoeing produced any setbacks.