ice lakes trail – Wild Wanderer

V4 – 13,541 and V2 – 13,319

RT Length: 12.74 miles

Elevation Gain: 4921’

Due to colder weather than anticipated, I’d abandoned my initial backpacking trip after the first night and was looking for a “Plan B”. Going through my binder of potential hikes, I narrowed it down to ‘something around South Mineral Creek’ and decided to drive to the trailhead. It was full when I got there, but that was ok, as I was planning on hiking the next morning (I’d already put in 15 miles that morning).

The trailhead was open this week, after being closed due to last year’s fire. There was an information center set up at the trailhead, with a place for volunteer park rangers to talk with hikers. There were also signs educating hikers about wildfire.

Speaking of wildfire… where was it? From the parking area there was no evidence of a fire. As people slowly made their way back to their vehicles and left the parking area, I ate my dinner of noodles and chips, sipped some whiskey, and read a book. I made it an early night, wanting to get some sleep before it got really cold.

It got really cold. Another night in the 20s, which made for a layer of frost on everything when I woke up. I didn’t want to get out from my sleeping bag, where I was warm. And, I had a headache? I really wasn’t feeling it this morning, but got ready anyway, and was on the trail at 6:30am, 2 hours later than I’d originally planned. It was still dark outside. The trail starts at the west end of the parking area, and has a trail register and signage. I didn’t sign the trail register, because it was covered in a layer of frost and my hands were cold enough at it was.

The trail was very easy to follow. The fire burn area was short, and ended just before the waterfall/4WD trail cutoff. It seemed to follow the avalanche area from a few years ago. The trail seemed unaffected, and was clear of debris.

I followed this class 1 trail 2.5 miles to treeline. At treeline, I started feeling more like myself, excited now I chose to hike today (isn’t that always the case?).

At the junction around 11425’ I turned right and followed the trail into the upper basin, towards Island Lake.

Here’s an overall view of the hike to the V4/US Grant Saddle (the lake isn’t visible yet, but it’s straight ahead).

At the junction I turned left, towards Island Lake. This is the junction I’d be coming back to when it was time to hike V2.

I decided to skirt the lake to the left, on the obvious trail, but you can take either side. Note: there isn’t a clearly defined trail to the right, but it’s an easy trek either way. There was a thin layer of ice on the lake.

Once past the lake it’s ‘choose your own adventure’ to the saddle. All routes go here.

Here are some closer pictures

When I hit the scree I put on my microspikes, and didn’t take them off until I made it back to this spot. There’s a runnel you can follow, as well as tundra and scree routes.

Once at the saddle I turned left, towards V4

I skirted the north side of V4, hugging where the talus met rock, following the contour of the mountain west. This is loose rock.

Following the contour of the mountain brought me to a scree-filled gully. I ascended this gully (microspikes were very helpful here, as it’s steep).

At the top of the gully I turned right and followed the scree up

This is where it got complicated. I’m not entirely sure which it the actual ‘summit’. I saw a cairn, and scaled the first tower I came to (this was easier than pictures make this look). The cairn is circled in red

But when I got to the top, it looked like the actual summit might be the next tower.

So, I checked my altimeter. It read 13,540’. I backtracked and made my way to the next tower

But when I got to the top of the next tower and checked my altimeter, that too read 13,540’. I turned and looked back: the first point now seemed higher to me, and it had a cairn, so I figure that was the high point. Peakbagger said the peak was 47 feet behind me, but somewhat closer to the first tower… which would have put me in empty space.

I made my way back to the first tower and took some pictures. I summited V4 at 10am. (Not sure why I said V3 in the video, but by the time I realized my mistake I was already back by Island Lake).

V4:

I headed back the way I’d come, back towards the US Grant/V4 saddle

I stayed high here, to avoid the loose choss

My next objective of the day was V2. Here’s the overall route I took to get there

I made my way back down towards Island Lake, this time skirting the lake to the north, picking up the obvious trail on the other side that leads to the US Grand/V2 saddle.

There’s a small fork in the trail about halfway up the hillside, but it doesn’t matter which way you go, as they both merge back together. Microspikes are a good idea here too.

Once at the saddle, I turned right and followed the ridge east, immediately coming across a memorial plaque

There was a trail here, and it was easy to follow.

It was a bit rocky near the summit, but there was still a trail to follow. Easy class 2

The summit was long. I walked the entire length to make sure I summited, but I’m pretty sure the actual summit is about 1/3 of the way across. There’s a wind break there.

I summited V2 at 12pm

V2:

From the summit, here’s looking back at V4

It was getting cold, quick, so I headed back to Island Lake, and followed the trail from the morning back out of the basin

Here you can see the burn area (along the 4WD road)

Here are some pictures from the hike out

There were so many people on the trail hiking out! And everyone seemed to have a dog. I was discouraged to see trash on the trail: it hasn’t even been open a week and people are already littering. I picked up a few pieces on my way out.

I made it back to my truck at 1:30pm, making this a 12.74 mile hike with 4921’ of elevation gain in 7 hours

On to the next trailhead!

US Grant Peak – 13,778

RT Length: 9.5 miles

EG: 4084’

Parked at the Molas Pass Trailhead, I woke up very well rested but with a bloody nose. The stars were out and it was dark outside, but my nose runs a lot while I hike so I know what a runny nose feels like. This was blood, and I reached for a bandana. I slid my arms out of my sleeping bag and gasped at the cold and wondered to myself why my alarm hadn’t gone off? I knew I’d overslept, but wasn’t sure by how much? I fumbled for my phone, which was indeed flashing “Alarm! Alarm! Alarm!” but not making any noise. Apparently it was going off but because of the cold it wasn’t functioning properly. Note to self: get an alarm clock that doesn’t run on your phone. The display said it was 5:26am. Drat! I’d set the alarm for midnight, and now it was much too late to begin either of the hikes I’d had planned for the day (although the 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep had been pleasant).

As I was applying pressure to my nose I considered my options. Due to the time I couldn’t hike into the Vestal Basin, but I was close to the South Mineral Campground where I’d hiked yesterday, and the conditions there had looked favorable. The only downside? I didn’t have any beta with me on any of those peaks. I decided to drive to an area where I had cell service and pull up my email. I wasn’t sure, but maybe I’d emailed some beta to myself a few weeks ago from peaks in the area?

Did I mention it was cold? I turned on my truck and the temperature read 19 degrees. Oh, and that frost is INSIDE the window.

A few miles down the road I had 2 bars of service and found a pullout to park. I was there for about 20 minutes searching through my emails for information on a hike I could do today. Not one vehicle passed me while I was there.

I was in luck! I had started some notes on US Grant Peak. I hadn’t finished them completely (I’d wanted to do this peak with Pilot Knob and “V4” and possibly “V2”) but I had enough beta to go on. It was 50/50 on whether the path would be clear enough from snow to summit, but I figured just the hike to Ice Lake would be worth the effort. I took screenshots of my emails and drove back to the South Mineral Campground, parking in the same spot I did yesterday.

I took my time getting ready (it was colder here than it had been at Molas) and started on the trail at 6:30am. I signed the trail register and was on my way.

The trail begins at the west end of the parking area

And starts by switchbacking up the hillside. There were more switchbacks than I thought were necessary, and lots of signs asking people not to cut the switchbacks. What these trail designers may not realize is animals can’t read signs, and I’m sure the trails are being cut by deer, coyotes, etc. that would rather take the faster route. If you don’t want people to cut switchbacks you need to design a more efficient trail. Also, THANK YOU to all of our hardworking trail builders and maintainers out there! You rock!

There was also a lot of avy debris that had been nicely cleared

After the avy area there’s a waterfall. This is where (I believe) the switchback area you can alternately park at links up with the Ice Lakes trail. I went left here.

The trail exits the trees for a bit and then enters them, switchbacking again

Here I encountered ice on the trail. Nothing too difficult on the way up, but slippery on the way back down.

I excited the trees and rounded the corner

The trail is so nice I missed the turnoff and hiked about a quarter mile past it before realizing my mistake. I backtracked and took a picture of the correct route. Turn right here onto the unmarked Island Lake trail

The rest of the trail up to the basin is easy to follow

I had great views of Fuller, Vermillion, and Golden Horn for most of the trek

The trail all the way to Island Lake was well established

I made it to the lake and decided to take a bit of a break. Up until this point it had been slow going. I was curiously more tired than I should have been, considering I’d gotten quite a bit of rest last night. Then it hit me: I hadn’t eaten anything! Adding up my calories yesterday (I’m guessing around 1000 total with the two packets of tuna and spoonful of peanut butter) and apple I’d eaten this morning, I wasn’t fueling properly. I got out a tin of almonds and snacked as I took in the views. Someone had left firewood.

I put on my helmet, gathered my gear, and started out again. Here’s the path I took up to the saddle between V4 and US Grant

There is no clear trail around the lake, but the route was obvious. I was still a little worried snow on route may be a problem, but wouldn’t know for sure until I made it to the saddle, or perhaps even further. This part of the hike is easier than it looked. In my experience, gullies like this are steep and not much fun, but this one was filled with the good kind of scree (like on Red Mountain A) where it’s easy to gain traction. I went straight up the side of the mountain and followed the gully.

About halfway up the gully I spotted something moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned and it stopped moving. At first I thought it was a mountain goat because of its size, but then it started walking again and I noticed it had a canine loping gate, similar to a coyote. But it was huge! My next thought was wolf, but I don’t think we have them in the San Juans? Also, 13K seems pretty high for a wolf. Maybe someone had lost a dog? I whistled to it and it turned around, stood, and watched me until I was out of sight, which ended up being about 30 minutes. Any guesses as to what this is?

The final push up the gully to the ridge wasn’t difficult but I was going slow. This part of the hike was very mental for me, and even though I knew I was close I wanted to give up. Stopping and turning back seemed like a great idea, and it got me to thinking: What is it that keeps me going, even when I want to quit? Stubbornness? Probably. I know if I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and stop-stopping I’ll eventually make it. Yes, it’s stubbornness, but it’s also something more…

At the saddle I turned right and my spirits dropped a bit. No snow (yay!) but tons of scree and choss. I was going to have to be careful with my footing.

There was a very faint trail here, and a lot of gullies. I noticed in the important areas there were cairns (probably 5 total). If you see a cairn, use it because it’s helpful: heading up or down the wrong gully would prove nasty here.

I came to an easy class 2 gully (it looks worse than it is)

This is where the fun begins. There isn’t much left to the rest of the route, and it’s all class 3+.

This is the class 4 crux section. Here is the route I took up the class 4 section and over the class 3 airy ledge (it felt worse to me than the airy ledge on Jagged).

The class 4 section was easier to me than I’d heard. I stepped on a medium sized rock and easily pulled myself up. There were plenty of hand and footholds, and I found the climb was just over twice my body length, so no more than 10-15 feet. Here’s the path I took (both up and down)

Here’s another look up from the step

Once on the ledge I went right (the only way I could go) and carefully traversed the ledge. There was definitely some exposure here.

Once around the ledge I found myself at a class 3 gully. Woot! No snow! This was the last obstacle on this climb and I was thrilled it was (basically) snow free! This gully had both stable rock and choss, so each move had to be carefully calculated. It’s steeper than it looks, and would not be fun with snow. It looked like you could take the right side straight up, but that was steeper than I felt comfortable climbing, so I kind of zig-zagged up the gully wherever I could find stable rock. Bonus if there was dirt involved.

From the top of this gully it was an easy walk to the summit

I summited at 10:20am

Summit Video:

It was a really nice day so I spent a lot of time on the summit, enjoying the views and congratulating myself for not stopping when I wanted to. This is why I keep going:

This one was tricky, so here’s how I made it back down. First back down the gully

Then across the airy traverse (don’t look down)

And back down the crux.

Once again, it’s important to be aware of the gullies from here. Look before you commit, as there are many game trails that look like trails. They don’t all “go”. Look for the cairns and second guess each route you take, especially on the way back down.

Looking over at “V4” I didn’t feel comfortable attempting it today, mostly because I hadn’t done any research on the route and an obvious one wasn’t visible to me from US Grant’s ridge. It looked like it had too much snow, so I didn’t even attempt it, and instead put on my microspikes, made my way back to the saddle and headed down.

It’s amazing how different the snow can be on two sides of the same mountain. Here’s my route back down to Island Lake. I followed the soft gully back down, paralleling the snow.

I took another break at the lake to reapply sunscreen and take off my microspikes and jacket (it was getting hot!). I heard some voices above me, looked up, and noticed some hikers at the top of the US Grant/”V2” saddle

The trek out was uneventful. I had to be careful because the snow was now icy and I didn’t want to slip (but I didn’t want to put on my spikes either). I came across a family with three young kids (between the ages of 4-9) who were about halfway to Ice Lakes Basin and didn’t look like they were going to make it. Their dog was off leash, barked and charged at me. I’ve never been afraid of a dog in my life, but this one caught me off guard. The oldest child told me not to worry, that the dog was nice and just pretending to be mean. Hmmmm. In any event, I warned the next couple behind them with the off leash pit bull of the off leash charging dog ahead. Seems to me there was potential there for a scuffle.

There were several cars in the parking lot now.

I made it back to my truck at 1pm, making this a 9.5 mile hike with 4084’ of elevation gain in 6.5 hours.