I rolled out of Spooner Lake Trailhead a little after ten on a clear October morning, on the trail toward Marlette Lake. The last time I wrote up this trail was before it closed for repairs, so this was a return. The ranger at the gate said all the trails are open every day now, and it showed: a lot more people than usual, and horses on the trail too.
It was a bit of both kind of outing. Marley came with me and the bike. Helena walked with Sofi, a black dog we were dog-sitting. We set out together, split up to go at our own speeds, and met up again many times along the way. We each carried our own snacks. It's an out-and-back trail, not a loop. The plan was simple: get up into the aspens while they were still at their peak and see how far the color went.
It went all the way. Within half an hour the doubletrack was a corridor of white trunks and yellow leaves, with a deep blue sky showing through the gaps at the top. Marley stopped in the middle of the road and waited for me, small and brown against all that gold.
Higher up the trail opened onto a meadow of sage, with a hillside of gold aspens below the ridgeline and a few dark firs standing in front of it. The aspens weren't all the same color. Some groves were pale lemon, some had gone orange, and a few still held some green.
Just after eleven I stopped riding and started photographing. The light was coming from behind the trees, so the leaves lit up while the pines behind them stayed in shadow. That contrast is what I was after: one gold aspen against a dark wall of conifers, framed tall so the tree fills the picture.
A few minutes later Helena and Sofi were with us on the road again: a big smile under a sun hat and a black dog right beside her.
On the way back, the trail slipped through a dense stand of aspens that had turned almost completely orange, like a tunnel.
On a shared trail, bikes yield to horses, and I always do. Near the start, Marley and I stopped at a stream. I had a granola bar there, and just after, some friendly riders came up on their horses. I could see that the spot we were in was the best place for the horses to get to the water. We were ready to go anyway, so we packed up and left it to them. We were lucky to meet them and see such beautiful creatures.
The numbers: about seven miles, a little over nine hundred feet of climbing, and a high point near 7,700 feet. I was moving for under an hour of a ride that took close to two. My top speed was about 22 miles an hour, which tells you which half of the morning I enjoyed more. It was the half where I was standing still.
What I learned: on an aspen day, don't shoot into the sun-facing side. Put the light behind the leaves and keep something dark behind the tree. The gold does the rest.