A buddy and I had driven to Rocky Mountain National Park late one August with the intent of hiking to a small lake at the base of Long's Peak. That was about a five hour hike with an elevation gain of 4,000 feet, and we wanted to be there at sunrise, so the hike began at 11:00PM the previous night, in complete darkness. Both of us carried expedition style back packs loaded with snacks and our 4x5 camera gear. That was a tough slog. the next morning we took off from base camp at before sunrise, again and hiked to Dream Lake. I had much younger legs then. I am so glad I did those hikes, since it is likely I won't do that again. When I found this spot, and began setting up a fly fisherman took a beautiful little Brown Trout directly in front of me - he released back to grow some. Dream Lake is one of my favorite mountain lakes. There are four lakes in the cirque, Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake and Emerald Lake, so it is a gorgeous area to hike in and to make photographs. Unfortunately, the metroplex of Denver is close by so this area is like a parade in the normal tourist season. So again, I probably will not go back there, but will retain it in memories of a good life.
For the curious. the film was processed using a Jobo rotary processor for N-- development. It prints fairly easily onto Ilford MGFB Classic paper using a #3 contrast filter.
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