There is a part 1 that I just bumped. This picks up on the return journey from Silverton to Poison Park Trailhead.
Please forgive my rambling and complete disregard for spelling, verb tense, synonyms, and general respect for writing the English language...I've been reading too much Lewis and Clark journals.
Day 8
Triangle Hotel to Avalanche Brewery Company and back 5' Gain and 5' loss
I forgot to mention from my Part 1 write up that I found out the previous evening that our 3rd hiker that was supposed to fly into Durango and meet us in silverton this day wasn't able to make it due to work complications. He is my best friend since kindergarden and we had gone on our last 6 packpacking trips together. It was a bit of bad news, but I was generally over it the next morning.
Day 8 we generally lounged around town, bought a few supplies from the grocery store, and rested. I iced my knee and bounded the ibeprofin. I was very concerned about my ability to continue due to my previously mentioned knee pain that started on day 4.
As we walked around town during the day we were able to arrange, what appeared to us, as an off the book trail drop for our destination in the morning. I spent time studying the map and coming to grips with the fact that there were little to no bail outs if my knee went south once we got on the trail.
Day 9
Highland Mary Lakes TH (10,800) to CDT. Where Colorado Trail Turns west down Elk Creek, Continue to Hunchback Mtn. Drop to Kite Lake/Beartown. Over Hunchback Pass and down Valecito Creek Trail to about 400 yards past camp site at end of Day 5. (10,480) 3,220 Gain and 3,600 Loss
What a day. It started with the kind of breakfast you want before you hit the trail.
It continued with a drive to the trail head with a cool guy that based times in his life as before or after his time in prison. We arrived at the Trail Head around 9:30 AM if I remember correctly. I knew the trail started with a fairly brutal nearly 2,000 climb. As we got started, the weight of the food resupply weighed heavily on my back and mindhow would my body react.
The views from the climb were amazing. Our bodies seemed adjusted to the altitude and the hard work. The climb, while strenuous, was enjoyable. We met up with what is a joint section of the CDT and CT and began our walk across a treeless and endless landscape.
We ran across plenty of CT thru hikers. A surprising amount were making the trip from Durango to Denver which is a little different than the traditional route.
Our route continued with small ups and downs and across small snow fields with plenty of views to go around.
Looking back at my photos, I took none between the CT turnoff down Elk Creek and the end of the day. That must have been when exhaustion started to set in. In case you didn't read the summery of the day, we ended up doing over 3,000 feet up and down which was a lot for us.
Things took a turn for the worse as we approached Humpback Mnt past the before mentioned CT turnoff. We had 3 options: 1) Drop down to Valecito Lake and follow the creek down to the eventually mapped trail, 2)go up and over Humpback MntI had gone to the top on a previous trip but didn't feel confident with my tired legs and reloaded pack, or 3) skirt along Humpback Mnt without loosing too much elevation and go over the top of Humpback Pass.
We went with option 3 which was a terrible decision. The Weminuch Map uses 80-foot contour lines which easily hide problems. We ended up having to drop (If I remember correctly) around 800 feet to below Kite Lake before bushwacking to get back to a mapped trail. We then continued over Hunchback Pass and then down to a meadow below Trinity creek on the Valecito Trail where we made camp.
Storms kicked in early afternoon, but we somehow avoided anything beyond an annoying drizzle. Tons of people here as it is part of the popular train loop.
Regardless of the tough day, I went to bed feeling good about our persistence and the fact that, for the most part, I held up. We had an easier day planned for the next. As I settled down, I thought about the football game feeling confident that the Ags would prevail.
Day 10
Valecito Trail (10,480) down to Rock Creek to Rock Creek Trail. Up Rock Creek Trail to Rock Lake (11,840) 1,620'Gain and 260' Loss
I did most of this route on my first backpacking trip back in 2005. Rock Creek is stained with Iron near the confluence with the Valecito.
The trail and creeks, with the exception of all pine trees being dead, is spectacular. The first bit of the Rock Creek is characterized by a rapidly dropping stained creek. The creek clears out (still no fish).
Then the Creek has one more waterfall (stacked with fish),
before opening up into a continues meadow with a slow meadering character. Saddly, no pictures taken.
The creek gets smaller and smaller until one final steep accent up to Rock Lake.
We made camp around 2:30at just below tree line.
My knee was hurting pretty bad. We did some brief and unsuccessful fishing at Rock Lake before lounging around camp.
There was a view of an open Ridge below the Continental Divide that I figured we would see some animals on as the sun started to drop in the sky.
Little did I know, but a bear would come out of the trees below us (in the picture above) and work its way across the area for about 30 minutes. Luckily, it was still heading the opposite direction when the sun went down. I have no idea why we didn't take a picture, we just sat and watched and enjoyed. We also saw a few deer working their way across the same area. It looked like neither party knew the other one was there.
We again had no fire due to proximity of the fire pit to our tents. We lasted until around 9:00 before the cold drove me to my tent. We had several hoofed visitors during the nightand probably some bears I didn't hear per ursus's stats.
Fun Factthe Loius Lamour bock "Sacket" is set in this area. The mining town that Tell Sacket and Cap Roundtree found is located just downstream a few miles on the Valecito. When Tell rides to his hidden mine in a hanging valley, He rides up Rock Creek.
To be continued...
Please forgive my rambling and complete disregard for spelling, verb tense, synonyms, and general respect for writing the English language...I've been reading too much Lewis and Clark journals.
Day 8
Triangle Hotel to Avalanche Brewery Company and back 5' Gain and 5' loss
I forgot to mention from my Part 1 write up that I found out the previous evening that our 3rd hiker that was supposed to fly into Durango and meet us in silverton this day wasn't able to make it due to work complications. He is my best friend since kindergarden and we had gone on our last 6 packpacking trips together. It was a bit of bad news, but I was generally over it the next morning.
Day 8 we generally lounged around town, bought a few supplies from the grocery store, and rested. I iced my knee and bounded the ibeprofin. I was very concerned about my ability to continue due to my previously mentioned knee pain that started on day 4.
As we walked around town during the day we were able to arrange, what appeared to us, as an off the book trail drop for our destination in the morning. I spent time studying the map and coming to grips with the fact that there were little to no bail outs if my knee went south once we got on the trail.
Day 9
Highland Mary Lakes TH (10,800) to CDT. Where Colorado Trail Turns west down Elk Creek, Continue to Hunchback Mtn. Drop to Kite Lake/Beartown. Over Hunchback Pass and down Valecito Creek Trail to about 400 yards past camp site at end of Day 5. (10,480) 3,220 Gain and 3,600 Loss
What a day. It started with the kind of breakfast you want before you hit the trail.
It continued with a drive to the trail head with a cool guy that based times in his life as before or after his time in prison. We arrived at the Trail Head around 9:30 AM if I remember correctly. I knew the trail started with a fairly brutal nearly 2,000 climb. As we got started, the weight of the food resupply weighed heavily on my back and mindhow would my body react.
The views from the climb were amazing. Our bodies seemed adjusted to the altitude and the hard work. The climb, while strenuous, was enjoyable. We met up with what is a joint section of the CDT and CT and began our walk across a treeless and endless landscape.
We ran across plenty of CT thru hikers. A surprising amount were making the trip from Durango to Denver which is a little different than the traditional route.
Our route continued with small ups and downs and across small snow fields with plenty of views to go around.
Looking back at my photos, I took none between the CT turnoff down Elk Creek and the end of the day. That must have been when exhaustion started to set in. In case you didn't read the summery of the day, we ended up doing over 3,000 feet up and down which was a lot for us.
Things took a turn for the worse as we approached Humpback Mnt past the before mentioned CT turnoff. We had 3 options: 1) Drop down to Valecito Lake and follow the creek down to the eventually mapped trail, 2)go up and over Humpback MntI had gone to the top on a previous trip but didn't feel confident with my tired legs and reloaded pack, or 3) skirt along Humpback Mnt without loosing too much elevation and go over the top of Humpback Pass.
We went with option 3 which was a terrible decision. The Weminuch Map uses 80-foot contour lines which easily hide problems. We ended up having to drop (If I remember correctly) around 800 feet to below Kite Lake before bushwacking to get back to a mapped trail. We then continued over Hunchback Pass and then down to a meadow below Trinity creek on the Valecito Trail where we made camp.
Storms kicked in early afternoon, but we somehow avoided anything beyond an annoying drizzle. Tons of people here as it is part of the popular train loop.
Regardless of the tough day, I went to bed feeling good about our persistence and the fact that, for the most part, I held up. We had an easier day planned for the next. As I settled down, I thought about the football game feeling confident that the Ags would prevail.
Day 10
Valecito Trail (10,480) down to Rock Creek to Rock Creek Trail. Up Rock Creek Trail to Rock Lake (11,840) 1,620'Gain and 260' Loss
I did most of this route on my first backpacking trip back in 2005. Rock Creek is stained with Iron near the confluence with the Valecito.
The trail and creeks, with the exception of all pine trees being dead, is spectacular. The first bit of the Rock Creek is characterized by a rapidly dropping stained creek. The creek clears out (still no fish).
Then the Creek has one more waterfall (stacked with fish),
before opening up into a continues meadow with a slow meadering character. Saddly, no pictures taken.
The creek gets smaller and smaller until one final steep accent up to Rock Lake.
We made camp around 2:30at just below tree line.
My knee was hurting pretty bad. We did some brief and unsuccessful fishing at Rock Lake before lounging around camp.
There was a view of an open Ridge below the Continental Divide that I figured we would see some animals on as the sun started to drop in the sky.
Little did I know, but a bear would come out of the trees below us (in the picture above) and work its way across the area for about 30 minutes. Luckily, it was still heading the opposite direction when the sun went down. I have no idea why we didn't take a picture, we just sat and watched and enjoyed. We also saw a few deer working their way across the same area. It looked like neither party knew the other one was there.
We again had no fire due to proximity of the fire pit to our tents. We lasted until around 9:00 before the cold drove me to my tent. We had several hoofed visitors during the nightand probably some bears I didn't hear per ursus's stats.
Fun Factthe Loius Lamour bock "Sacket" is set in this area. The mining town that Tell Sacket and Cap Roundtree found is located just downstream a few miles on the Valecito. When Tell rides to his hidden mine in a hanging valley, He rides up Rock Creek.
To be continued...
