Ok. For some reason I can't master posting pictures. These will probably be red x's.

I just got back from a much anticipated backpacking trip to the northern portion of the Weminuche Wilderness. Here is the trip report with some additional thoughts.

Day 1: Left Texas around 6:30 and arrived in Alamosa around 10:30 for one last night of decent sleep.

Day 2: Hit the trail around 12:00 starting at the Ute Creek Trailhead on the west side of the Rio Grande Reservoir. The aspen were nearing peak color and were amazing.


We headed up the Ute Creek Trail and spent the night near where Ute Creek forks into the East, West, and Middle Forks.



After dark, 2 people rode by on horses and that was the last we saw of humans during the trip. The weather was amazing on Day 2 and we went to bed to a clear sky.

Day 3: Woke up to a light rain. Spent the day huddled under a tree trying to stay warm/dry. Around 4:00 (this is only an estimate as the watch I brought decided to quit working the first day so we never knew what time it was the whole trip) the sun came out for about 10 minutes and we took the chance to pack up and make a few more miles on the trail.
Luckily, we found a decent campsite about 3 miles down the La Garita Stock Driveway that leads to West Ute Lake and set up camp.


It rained very hard all night and I couldn't believe water didn't start flowing into the tent.

Day 4: Woke up to a clear sky with the sun shining. The rain we had experienced over night fell as snow starting about 50 feet higher elevation than our tent.

We spent the morning drying out gear and then hit the trail. We followed the trail to West Ute Lake and went up a strenuous climb to the lake which sits at 11801 above sea level (virtually above tree line). We had a typical lunch of mashed potatoes, trail mix, and candy. We then took the Continental Divide Trail east towards Twin Lakes which climbs a ridge to about 12600.

We set up an early camp in a group of pines between Middle Ute Lake and Twin Lakes. We had planned on camping at Ute Lake further down the trail, but realized it was going to be above tree line with no shelter or wood for the fire. That night after another bought with altitude sickness symptoms (dizziness, loss of appetite, etc) we decided we would call it quits and head back to the trail head the next day.

Day 5: Woke up to blue sky with the elk buggaling all around us which was typical of every morning and evening. The sun had been up about 30 minutes when the thermometer was read at about 11 degrees. Packed up camp and headed about 15+ miles down middle ute trail back to the truck at the trail head.

Stopped in Creede and got gatorade and dr pepper to fuel us on the drive to Pagosa Springs where we spent the night in a hotel.

Day 6: Headed out to Williams Creek for some AM trout fishing. Awesome place to catch alot of decent sized trout. I landed 11 with one being about 17-18 inches.

Ate lunch in Pagosa and headed back to Texas.

Day 7: Got back to Texas.

If the pictures didn't work, here is the picture links:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ESWilliams07/Backpacking2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLyn-u55ZSu-gE&feat=email#

[This message has been edited by oldarmy76 (edited 9/29/2010 12:28p).]

[This message has been edited by oldarmy76 (edited 9/29/2010 12:34p).]

Wow, that's nice wide-open country!

cool trip

The trouble is that you're putting the web page link in rather than an image link. You need the link to the photo, not the page.

For instance, if you are using Firefox, right click the picture, and "Copy image location". Paste that between your (img)(/img) tags and it should work.

And I have been using that same blue lowe alpine pack for 15 years. Good stuff.

Sweet pictures. I love it up there.

Looks like a great trip. Thanks for sharing.

I see...

I wanted to add a couple thoughts.

This route was my least favorite I've ever done for the following reasons:
1. The trail stayed above and away from Ute Creek most of the time so that it was impossible to get to the creek to fish until it had forked several times and the size of the trout were down to 4 inches.
2. The trail did not climb gradually following the course of the creek. Instead, it went up and down the valley wall. Even when I topped out at about 12800 on the CDT, the trail dropped right back to 11800 just to climb back up to 13,000. There was very little contouring making the hiking very streneous.
3. The trail was exceptionally rocky in some areas (more so than usual).

Other things that made this trip less enjoyable and were my own fault...
1. I went up there late in the year to catch the aspen changing, but the trail was above aspen level (approx 10,600) a majority of the time.
2. Too much climbing for someone who works on an office chair 40 hrs a week. I looked at the begining and ending elevation of each trail section and didn't pick up on how much it went up and down and back up.
3. Packed too much food again making packs a little too heavy for my taste.
4. Not enough planning to avoid areas above tree line as dark came on. We never got stuck, but it was close once.

For those of you looking to take your first backpacking trip I would highly recommend doing the Valecito Creek, Rock Creek, Flint Lake, Flint Creek, Pine River loop in the southern portion of the Wemunuche. This is my favorite trip by far. Elelavation gain per day is fairly mild, the trail remains close to excellent fishing creeks most of the time, and the scenery cannot be beat.