Tag: Gibson Creek

Spread Eagle Peak – 13,423 and Peak of the Clouds – 13,524

RT Length:  11.05 miles

Elevation Gain:  5461’

This was my 4th attempt at Peak of the Clouds.  Not because it’s a difficult peak, but because every time I was in the area I was thwarted by the elements; snow conditions, or a fast-moving storm coming in.  Today had a great weather forecast, so I figured today was my day.

Unlike my previous stays at the Gibson Creek trailhead, this time it was packed.  Probably because it was a Saturday over 4th of July weekend.  There were RVs set up everywhere, and every parking space in the lot was taken.  Knowing I was going to spend the night in my truck I just waited for someone to leave and then backed into their spot. 

I was sitting at the trailhead, just appreciating the sounds of the birds chirping and insects humming, and then the sun comes out and lights up each individual blade of grass and all I can think is how lucky I am this is my life.  It was a perfect night, and the last one I’d be spending in this particular vehicle, as my new truck was waiting for me at the lot and I was picking it up Monday.  I wanted to enjoy tonight.

I’d been gone for a few days, and I also wanted to get back home to see my kids, so I made it an early morning.  I was on the trail at 3:45am.  The trail starts at the north end of the parking area, and follows trail 1456 west.

The trail starts out nicely defined.  Stay straight at the Rainbow Trail Crossing.  This sign has been broken for years.  I wonder if they’ll ever replace/fix it?

Here’s where it gets tricky.  After hiking for .4 miles, and at 9400’, leave the trail and cross Gibson Creek.  It looks like there used to be a good trail here at one time, but it’s no longer well defined.  In fact, someone placed a tree trunk over the way you’re supposed to go.

After crossing Gibson Creek, the trail picks up again. 

The trail goes through various conditions, from being well-defined, to being covered with downed trees, to barely being a trail at all.  It also crosses Gibson Creek several times. 

The main thing is to just keep following Gibson Creek west/southwest

I followed the trail for about 2 miles, to when the trail abruptly ended where a tree had fallen over the trail.  Here I crossed the creek one last time, and bushwhacked southwest, up the mountain.  It’s important to note here something the topo map doesn’t show:  Apparently, somewhere Gibson Creek was to my right, but a much larger creek was to my left (this creek is not shown on the topo map, and could just be an error in CalTopo, as the creek was always to the south of me, but on the map it’s shown as being north).  Gibson Creek pretty much fizzled out here, so keep the creek you can see to your left as you ascend the hillside. 

This is a steep hillside with some bushwhacking involved.  It seemed to go on forever.  I took a different way down than I did up, and I’d recommend taking the way I went up, directly aiming southwest towards the ridge, as it avoids the large section of willows to the northwest. 

I made it to the ridge as the sun was coming up

Once on the ridge, it’s a straightforward, class 2 ridge hike to the summit.

Here are some step-by-step pictures of the ridge

As I was nearing the summit, I looked towards the summit and thought I saw a bighorn sheep.  When I looked again I realized it was a coyote:  the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen!  He was chillin’ on the summit.

I summited Spread Eagle Peak at 7:15am.  The coyote was nowhere to be seen.

Spread Eagle Peak: 

It was an absolutely beautiful day!  I headed south, down the ridge to the Spread Eagle/Peak of the Clouds saddle.

This was a straightforward trek, with just one short class 3 move.  I stayed right and downclimbed this section.

Then followed the ridge to the saddle

It was a simple, class 2 ridge hike to the summit of Peak of the Clouds

Here are some step-by-step pictures

Here I saw some elk (they didn’t stay long)

Looking up at the ridge to Peak of the Clouds

As I was hiking up, a marmot rushed down past me.  I wonder where he was going?

The last part of the ridge was rocky.  I stayed to the left.

I summited Peak of the Cloud at 8:20am

Peak of the Clouds:

Here’s a look at the ridge to Rito Alto Peak (in case anyone is looking to do that one as well)

I sat for a minute and enjoyed my time on the summit.  It was a beautiful 4th of July in the Sangres!

I was making this an out and back trip today, so I turned and looked back at Spread Eagle Peak

Here are some step-by-step pictures back to the saddle

This is how I accessed the ridge

And then followed the ridge north

The short class 3 section was easier to upclimb than downclimb.

Then it was an easy ridge hike to the summit

I turned and headed east down the ridge, back to treeline.  I saw elk here as well.

Once near treeline I headed back toward Gibson Creek, but as I said before, I encountered a lot of willows and it was slow going.  I’d recommend following the ridge as it slopes up a bit and becomes treed, and then heading northeast.

Yes, there’s bushwhacking and route finding involved.

I made it back to the creek, and followed the trail back as it curved northeast towards the trailhead

I crossed Gibson Creek one last time, and was back on the well-marked trail.

I made it back to my truck at 11:45am, making this an 11.05 mile hike with 5461’ of elevation gain in 8 hours.  Now, time to drive home, wake up my daughters, and grill some steak!

Gibbs Peak – 13,577 and De Anza Peak – 13,362

RT Length:  20.02 miles

Elevation Gain: 7343’

I drove to the Gibson Creek trailhead the night before, concerned I wasn’t going to get a spot to park on Memorial Day weekend.  Imagine my surprise when I was the only one there.  Two more vehicles would join me later, but I was genuinely amazed the trailhead wasn’t more crowded: there’s great dispersed camping here.

Bonus:  no mosquitoes!  I spent the next few hours relaxing, making dinner, sipping whiskey, and reading, before making it an early night.  

(It was, in fact, a long night, full of nightmares.  I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say they involved frantic mothers holding their decapitated babies, pleading for help and saying there was a horrible accident, and a demon that took over the body of a frail child: the demon needed to die, but doing so hurt the child.  Not fun when you’re camping all alone.  I woke up around 2am and knew if I went back to bed my nightmare would continue, so I tried to think about other, happier things before starting out on my hike in the dark.  What’s happier you ask?  I have 3 kids.  I told myself when I got a divorce in 2012 I wasn’t going to date seriously until my youngest was 18 and had graduated High School.  Well, she graduated this week, and is off to college, so I spent the next hour trying not to think about the nightmare I’d just had, and instead thinking about what I was going to do about dating, whether or not I really want to at this point, and realized I haven’t ‘dated’ since the 90s, and it’s certainly changed.  It’s weird to be 40 years old and an empty nester.  So, how y’all dating now?)

But I digress.  Knowing it was going to be a long day, I was on the trail at 3am.

The trail starts at the north end of the parking area, and heads west for .1 miles before turning right and following Rainbow Trail 1336 north.

I followed Rainbow Trail as it wound around the east side of the mountain for 3.25 miles, crossing several creeks along the way.  One creek crossing even had two bridges to make the crossing easier (the other areas had shallow enough water where bridges weren’t necessary).  There was about a mile of the trail deep in spring conditions, with runoff covering the trail.

After 3.25 miles I came to a junction, and took Trail No. 1350 left (west) towards Texas Creek Basin. This is where my flashlight went out and I was glad the sun was starting to rise. 

Note:  Trail 1350 is not a maintained trail.  I was hiking it in the dark at this point, and there were so many downed trees I kept getting off route trying to go around them (going over them wasn’t always practical).  It wasn’t much better in the daylight.  I decided to gain the ridge as quickly as I could, and follow it west to treeline.

It took me 2.75 miles, and 2000’ of elevation gain to make it to treeline.  It was here I experienced the worst and most extensive bushwhacking I’ve ever encountered.  It was like hiking up through avalanche debris (although it was obvious the wind had knocked the trees down).  The ridge was either dense with new growth, or a jungle gym of downed trees.  I would not recommend this route, and I told myself I’d take Texas Creek on the way down (note:  I later realized I would not recommend the Texas Creek route either).  There was a small but raging creek to ford early on, and then it was straight up the ridge.

After hiking for a total of 6.75 miles I came upon 100 yards of mashed potato snow.  I strapped on my snowshoes and kept heading west towards treeline.   The snow kept starting and stopping again.  On my way up I kept my snowshoes on.  On my way down I misremembered how long the snow section was and kept taking the snowshoes off, just to need them again.

Once at treeline there was a small amount of snow to navigate, and then I was able to avoid most of the snow to the summit.

One good thing about the hike above treeline:  there are no false summits to Gibbs Peak.  What you see is what you get.  As long as you keep heading west and gaining elevation, you’ll make it to the summit.

I made it to the summit of Gibbs Peak at 9am, after 6 hours and 8.25 miles of hiking.

Gibbs Peak:

There was a benchmark on the summit.  I took off my pack and realized I’d lost my water bottle somewhere.  That’s what I get for not strapping it in.  No matter, there was plenty of snow if needed.  I’d have to look for my water bottle on my way back down.

There wasn’t a summit register, so I left one.  I had a great view of De Anza Peak to the northwest. 

In order to get to De Anza Peak I had to head southwest to point 13227, and then northwest to the summit of De Anza.

This part of the hike was actually quite fun, as I was now losing elevation, getting a little bit of a break, and following animal tracks the entire way.  

When I made it to PT 13227 I turned right and headed followed the ridge northwest.  You can’t tell from these pictures, but I was actually downclimbing a bunch of rocky areas.  On the way back I stuck to the areas covered with snow, as climbing up the rocks, especially in snowshoes, was a little too spicy for me without a helmet.

There was still more elevation to lose however.  Here’s an overall view of the route to the summit

From this point on I needed snowshoes, as I began postholing up to my waist.  I strapped them on and followed the ridge.  Here are some step by step pictures.  I went straight up and over this hump

Then mostly stuck to the ridge, aiming for the gullies to my left just before the summit

Once up the short (30-40 feet or so) gullies I followed the windswept ridge to the summit

I summited De Anza Peak at 10:40am

De Anza Peak:  

Here’s looking back at the route from Gibbs Peak

I left a summit register and started back.  While it looks like a simple ridge hike back to Gibbs Peak, the areas without snow are actually rock formations, and I needed to skirt them on my way back. 

I made it back down to the saddle, and went up and over the bump in the ridge again

Then skirted the rocks to the right, staying on the areas with snow

Then it was a simple ridge hike back to the summit of Gibbs Peak

I re-summited Gibbs Peak, then followed the ridge east back to treeline.  I looked for my lost water bottle, but was unable to find it.  (If you find it, it’s yours!)

This time, when I entered the trees, I stayed right.  It was my intention to avoid all the bushwhacking I’d one on the way in by taking trail 1350 out.  I once again encountered the mashed potato snow at treeline

And at 10,600’ I descended towards Texas Creek. 

I was highly disappointed to find this area was no better than the way I’d taken on my way in.  In fact, it may have been worse:  at least when I was on the ridge, I had a sense of direction. Now I was unable to find a distinguishable trail, so I followed the creek east out of the basin. 

At one point I realized the creek was actually the trail, or what used to be the trail. 

Eventually the trail became a bit more distinct, although still covered in water and downed trees.  Just know if you’re following the creek east, you’re going in the right direction. 

I had to eventually cross the creek, and to do so I needed to take off my shoes.  I crossed the creek, and here the trail picked up again.  From the creek crossing Trail 1350 was much easier to follow; there wasn’t any water on the trail, but there were still downed trees. 

From the creek crossing it was just over a half mile to the Rainbow Trail / Trail 1350 junction, where I picked up the Rainbow Trail again and followed it back to the trailhead.

I made it back to my truck at 5pm, making this a 20.02 mile hike with 7343’ of elevation gain in 14 hours. 

So, which approach is better, the ridge or the creek?  If I had to go with one, I’d say the ridge, just because I had a better sense of direction.  Both were miserable.