Lake City – Wild Wanderer

Gravel Mountain – 13,577 & PT 13702

RT Length: 8.66 miles

Elevation Gain: 3042’

I left Cinnamon Pass after hiking some bicentennials in the area, intent on driving to the Henson Creek Trailhead that leads up to Hurricane Basin. I put together a gpx file on CalTopo which had me taking Road 5 to 2, which is the road that goes over Engineer Pass. However, I wasn’t going to take the pass, I was going to take another road that cut down to 21. I was all excited about this until I drove to the cutoff. At the cutoff all that was there was a sign that said no going off road. Also, the road ended. Hmmm. OK, so there was no road here (or at least, not anymore) so I turned around and drove over Engineer Pass to the trailhead.

I have a stock Tundra, and it handled Engineer Pass just fine. I did see a couple in an OHV, a man in his 40s driving and his wife white as a ghost sitting next to him, clutching her purse as if it were a life vest. She was scared beyond belief, he was having the time if his life…lol! Luckily, since it was after 5pm there weren’t too many other drivers on the road, so I didn’t have to pass too many people. In fact, I didn’t see another vehicle once I went over the pass.

That being said, I wouldn’t recommend driving over Engineer Pass to get to this trailhead: Instead from Lake City take 20 to 21.

I found a nice dispersed campsite near an old cabin.

I walked around for a bit but honestly didn’t stay up long: it had been a long day and I was beat. I ate dinner on my tailgate and had a rather brave chipmunk and Canada Jay beg for food from me. It looked like they’d been conditioned for this behavior. Around 3am I heard what sounded like a wrapper being manipulated by a small rodent. I figured it was the chipmunk from last night fooling around. I thumped on the side of my truck a few times and it left, only to come back again a few minutes later.

I was finally on the trail at 5am. From my campsite I walked down CO Rd 21

I crossed Hensen Creek and changed out of my sandals and into my hiking boots. (I walked the area the night before and figured since it was a short distance to the creek I’d start off in my sandals and change after the creek to save time).

I followed the 4WD road for a very short distance and came to a fork in the road. I went left first, thinking I was supposed to follow the creek, but I ended up coming to private property with ‘no trespassing’ signs. In fact, I should have gone right and followed the road (this is counter-intuitive, but the road actually winds up the mountain).

After backtracking I followed the 4WD road for 2.75 miles, all the way to Hurricane Basin.

Note: my truck could have made it all the way to the mine, but I would have run into trouble if I’d needed to pass someone. There are only 2 passing points on this road, one at the first switchback, and one just before leaving the trees (which also happens to be a campsite, pictured below). If you choose to drive this road note other drivers coming up/down, and realize if they’re already on the road you need to let them drive the entire way before proceeding, as there’s no place to pass.

Just before making it to Hurricane Basin the road forked and I took a left

And followed the road all the way to the Golconda Mine. This area is pretty cool, and if you have some extra time I’d suggest you check it out. The mine was refurbished in 2014 but already needs more work, as nature is insane, especially above treeline. The doors open, and you can see some of the original items inside. There’s a blacksmiths’ hut as well, and a lot of leftover ‘trash’ from over a hundred years ago.

The trail to the summit starts behind the Golconda Boarding House. Well, there’s no defined trail, but that’s the way to start your trek up the mountain. Here’s an overview of the route:

The route starts out in mining rubble

And then changes to tundra. There’s a brief trail here you can pick up and follow for a bit before heading northwest up the mountain

After the tundra came the rubble. There were faint game trails that went up the rubble. On my way down I pushed in steps into the rubble and scree to make more of a defined trail.

I summited unranked Gravel Mountain at 7:10am.

Gravel Mountain:

From here PT 13688 is an easy ridge hike away

The route is obvious and easy class 2. Here are some highlights:

It’ll be obvious when you take the trail left

And a little right

I summited PT 13688 at 7:35am

PT 13688:

I had great views of the peaks I hiked yesterday

Time to head back

On the way down I did my best to establish a trail in the scree/rubble

Once at the mine I just followed the road back to my campsite

On the way down I was able to see the ‘road’ I’d intended on driving down to the trailhead. It didn’t look like it’d been used in decades. So, long story short, take 20 from Lake City, and not Engineer Pass (unless you have an OHV).

I made it back to my truck at 9:30am, making this an 8.66 mile hike with 3042’ of elevation gain in 4.5 hours.

I got back to my truck, opened the back to shuffle things around, and found mice droppings lining the edge of my sleeping bag! Ugh! At that moment I realized 2 things: 1) it wasn’t the squirrel last night making noise, and 2) the moth balls don’t work. Ugh. So. Not. Cool. A mouse had made its way into the bed of my truck and was looking around for food. At least I didn’t have any food accessible. I was a bit bummed though the hundreds of moth balls I had lining my truck hadn’t deterred a small mouse (and by the looks of the droppings it was a small mouse).

I had another day free to hike, but chose to drive home to spend it with my youngest instead (who was just accepted into her first college this week: in less than a year she’ll be off to college, and I want to spend as much time with her as possible before she leaves).

Every Mountain – 13691 & Cooper Creek Peak – 13694

RT Length: 12.93 miles

Elevation Gain: 3987’

The Cooper Creek Trailhead is located about a mile past the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch trailhead on 30 past Lake City. There were cars parked and camping at the trailhead, so I parked at a dispersed camping spot right next to Cooper Creek.

It was still early so I decided to take a look around. The Cooper Creek Trailhead is located in the historic town/settlement of Argentum, and there were still some old structures in the area.

It was an uneventful night. I slept soundly until midnight, when campers at the spot across from me returned from their outing. They weren’t loud, but they did wake me up. I went back to bed and didn’t wake up again until my alarm went off. I was on the trail at 5am. The Cooper Creek Trailhead is just to the west of Cooper Creek, visible from the road.

The trail is class 1 for the first 3 miles, and seems to follow an old mining road.

After hiking for 1.5 miles the trail crosses Cooper Creek, just where an overturned trailer sits in the water. It looks like it’s been there for a long time.

The trail continues to follow the creek up to the basin, passing a fresh avalanche area (there was still snow under the trees, but there was a clear path to follow)

After 3 miles of hiking along this class 1 trail it abruptly stopped. I crossed the creek and headed northeast along the mountainside, eventually picking up another class 1 trail (I’m not sure where it had started, as I crossed the creek at a couple of cairns and must have missed the trail)

The trail eventually leads to a lake in the upper basin (going left), but I didn’t follow it that far. Instead I crossed Cooper Creek one more time and headed towards an old mine to check it out. If you don’t want to check out the mine, here’s the overall route to gain the ridge.

The creek crossing was simple

The mine was filled in, but there were some pieces of equipment lying around.

I turned around and noticed 2 tents set up along the trail that leads to the lake and a couple other 13ers in the area. It was just starting to get light so I decided to be quiet as I gained the ridge. Eventually I found a trail here that led to the ridge as well (it actually goes up and over and down into the basin on the other side of the ridge)

Once I gained the ridge I turned right (east) and followed the ridge towards a false summit.

After reaching the false summit it was a half mile hike along the ridge to the actual summit. This was class 2, with no real obstacles to overcome.

I made it to the summit of Every Mountain at 7:55am

“Every Mountain”

Here’s a look back at my route in

Here’s a look at the route over to Cooper Creek Peak

This was another easy class 2 ridge hike without any difficult obstacles. At times there is even a trail. Actually, there are quite a few game trails here.

I summited Cooper Creek Peak at 8:50am. It was very, very windy.

“Cooper Creek Peak”

Because it was windy it was also cold, so I didn’t stay long on the summit. Instead I headed back down to the Every Mountain/Cooper Creek Peak saddle and from there down into the basin

Here’s the overall route

I hiked down the grassy slope, aiming for the creek. I then crossed the creek and stayed a little high to avoid the muddy areas

The creek didn’t look like it had water fit for filtering

Still, I followed it back to the trail

Here’s a look back at my way down the basin

And the route back on the class 1 trail

Back across the creek

And back to the trailhead. On my way out I noticed a trail register I hadn’t seen on my way in

I made it back to my truck at 11:10am, making this a 12.93 mile hike with 3987’ of elevation gain in 6 hours, 10 minutes. Here’s a topo map of my route:

It was still early and I wasn’t yet tired, so I decided to drive to the next trailhead and get in a few more peaks for the day…

13,795 (attempt)

RT Length: 5 miles

Elevation Gain: 1948’

Note: My successful summit of this peak can be found here.

I never should have attempted this hike today, but the weather was clear and my beta told me the mountains in this area were snow free. There are so many 13ers in the San Juans I wanted to knock another one out before the snow sets in again. As I was leaving the house around midnight my daughter asked me if I’d take her to the school musical that night at 7pm. I did some mental math and figured I’d have plenty of time to climb this 7.5 mile peak and be back in time to take her to see the musical.

I drove in the dark to the Grizzly Gulch trailhead, a little surprised to see so much ice on the 2WD dirt road in

There was one other vehicle in the lot when I arrived. I’m guessing they were headed to Redcloud/Sunshine today. Last time I was here I’d had a porcupine visit me in the middle of the night, making noise in the gravel below my truck as he tried to get up inside.

It was getting light as I put on my gear. From the parking lot it didn’t look like I’d need microspikes or snowshoes, but I decided to bring them anyway. I was on the trail at 6:30am. The trail starts at the west end of the parking lot and then crosses a bridge and heads southwest on a well defined trail.

Well, it would have been a well defined trail if there hadn’t been so much snow! Not enough in the beginning to put on spikes/snowshoes, but way more than I’d anticipated.

It was immediately obvious no one had been on this trail since the last snow, which had to have been over a week ago. What was curious was how soft and sugary the snow was after sitting for so long. There were also tons of animal tracks visible in the snow, mostly fox and moose, and they’d been here recently by the signs of urine and scat on top of the snow.

Last time I was here I’d seen a moose, so even though I never ended up seeing one I was extra vigilant today. I went in and out of the trees several times and noticed much less snow in areas without trees. This gave me hope for the rest of the trail above treeline. Of course, most of the snow in these areas was only on the trail itself.

When I made it to treeline I was disappointed to find quite a bit of snow. It wasn’t the snow that bothered me, it was the type of snow: all sugary with very few areas that were consolidated. The drifts were the worst! 4+ feet of sugary snow that didn’t respond to snowshoes made for difficult traversing. I put on my microspikes. Here’s the path I took to the middle of the basin

There was a stream that needed crossing. It was partially covered in snow/ice and I couldn’t tell how wide or deep it was. It took me several minutes to find a good area to cross where I wasn’t worried about falling in.

After crossing the creek I located a faint trail on the side of the mountain and worked my way towards it. The trail was only visible because it was covered in snow. The walk to the trail took a long time because I was postholing with every step.

Climbing up the hill should have been easy, but the snow was still sugary and the talus below unstable. Rocks rolled with every step I took, so I took them slowly

There were several large areas of snow directly on the trail that were not passable. I tried making a bridge in the snow but it wasn’t consolidated enough to hold my weight. Stomping it down did not create a trail so I had to descend on the talus to find a stable route.

Oh, and I met a few ptarmigans

Here’s another view of the ascent

All of this careful footwork meant I was going slowly. I was really excited when I made it to the top of the headwall, as I knew I’d have a view of the rest of the route to the ridge and I was hoping to find it snow free.

It wasn’t. Here’s the route up to the ridge

I continued for about 20 yards, trudging through sugary snow that went up to my thighs and mentally did the math. This hike had taken me about twice as long as it should have to this point, mainly due to the condition of the snow. I had 1.5 hours left before my turnaround time and looking ahead of me the snow in the gully areas looked similar to the snow I’d already had to avoid to get this far. Unfortunately, there was no way to avoid the snow ahead of me. There was a small lake out there I couldn’t see and I was worried I’d break through the snow and ice and fall into the lake. I grudgingly made the decision to turn around and head back home. That would give me time to make dinner and shower before the musical tonight. I was super bummed because it was a 6 hour drive out here and the day felt wasted, but I also knew I’d had bad beta and couldn’t have anticipated these conditions. The snow needs to consolidate before it’s safe to hike here. Here’s the path I took back:

Postholing the entire way…

In this picture you can see moose tracks and the trail I needed to make my way back to

I followed the trail where possible

Aiming for the creek and the trail out

Here’s looking back at my tracks

Getting through the willows is the hardest part, especially in sugary snow

Isn’t it fun when the only snow is directly on the trail?

The creek was almost frozen

I made it back to the trailhead at 10:30am, surprised to see another vehicle in the lot. This hike ended up being a little over 5 miles with 1948’ of elevation gain, done in 4 hours. I’d been hiking at close to 1 mile per hour this morning, which is considerably slow considering I average 2+mph normally. The good news is I made it back home in plenty of time for the musical. I’ll be back either in spring or summer, when the snow’s either consolidated or gone. Here’s a look at my route:

Point 13,820

RT Length: 13.5 miles

Elevation Gain: 4938’

So far this weekend nothing was going as planned. I took a 2 hour nap before getting up at 10pm to drive the 6 hours to the trailhead. I’d wanted to hike Point 13,811 today but ended up getting “lost” (apparently there are two Williams Creek Trailheads geographically close to each other) and long story short the workaround was a 3 hour drive, so I missed my window to climb Point 13,811 safely yesterday. What really stinks is I’d printed out the correct directions, set my GPS to the incorrect campground, and when my GPS took me a different way I didn’t challenge it, I just figured I was headed in the back way (face palm). Lesson learned.

Well, I’d driven all this way and wasn’t going to drive back without a hike. I switched my plans and decided to hike 13ers Baldy and friends instead.

After hiking Baldy and friends I drove the 30 minutes to Lake City and the William’s Creek Campground. There was tension in the air in Lake City. The residents seemed to be on edge, and for good reason: Avalanches have closed the popular 4WD roads in the area and now the residents are worried of flooding when those avalanches thaw. Apparently so are the tourists because they aren’t here. This is Memorial Day weekend, and the city looks like a ghost town.

I drove to the campground and was surprised to find not one of the campsites was taken. Not one.

I stopped to talk with the camp host and she told me she’s never seen it like this before. Her voice was quivered as she worried it would be like this all summer. I told her I was just interested in sleeping in my truck near the trailhead but wondered what to do since the trailhead was inside the campground? Should I just park on the road and hike in? She told me to just pick any spot I wanted and I could camp for free. I offered to pay, and she refused. Wow!

She was also concerned I was going out there by myself with “all that snow”. I told her I’d be fine and I’d be gone by noon, but if my truck was still here at night she could start worrying about me.

The trail starts at the back of the campground between spots 11 & 12, so I backed my truck into spot #12 and prepared to make it an early night. A quick wet-wipe bath, 4 packages of tuna, a roll of Ritz crackers, and 3 shots of whiskey later I was sound asleep (by 3pm).

I woke up twice during the night but was able to quickly get back to sleep. When my alarm rang at 2am I was not a happy camper (I’m not a fan of sleeping at trailheads: getting up is the hardest part) but forced myself out of my warm sleeping bag and got ready for the hike. I made myself eat a bagel as well (I don’t like to eat in the morning, as it makes me nauseous while hiking, but I knew I needed the calories). I was going to drink water on this hike too for two reasons. 1) I was dehydrated from not drinking anything yesterday (except 3 shots of whiskey) and 2) hydration is important. I just hoped it didn’t make me nauseous.

I’d done so much research and knew I wanted to make it to treeline as the sun rose, so I needed to be on the trail early. It was 4.5 miles of intense elevation gain to make it to treeline, so I started today at 2:30am, passing through the gate between sites 11 & 12.

The first part of the trail was dry.

The trail was easy to follow as it crossed a few streams and skirted the south side of the mountain. The stream crossings were a bit tricky in the dark, as everything was slippery and loose and the water was flowing fast. Any logs you see that look stable over the water are in fact, not.

I could see lots of evidence of deer/elk/moose in the area (all 3 determined by the scat I saw) but didn’t see any wildlife.

The trail passed by a few ponds. The first one I had no trouble navigating in the dark

The second one is where I had some problems. The correct thing to do here is to go left and hug the side of the slope. In the dark I didn’t know this and instead followed what I thought was the trail (but was really the creek). Luckily this only lasted a quarter mile or so and I was back on track. I didn’t even know I’d done anything wrong until I was hiking back and could see the obvious (and dry) trail above me. The solid way is the way you should go, the dotted one is the way I took. My advice: stay high, stay dry.

Directly after I found the trail again I was in a rocky basin. However, I didn’t know this at the time, I just thought I was following a good trail (with a little bit of solid snow). On my way back I realized it was a rocky basin.

Here’s where the “fun” began. We’re currently right in the middle of spring thaw after an intense winter season. At this point the trail conditions became less than ideal as the spring melt became a river in the middle of the trail

You can imagine how much fun this was to hike in the early morning dark when it was still pretty icy. I came to a small meadow and followed it through what had become a springtime marsh

This area did not smell good: It smelled infected. Just after the meadow is where the fun began, as I was now on a very small and “defined” jeep road. There were several areas with large downed trees covering the trail. On my way back in the daylight this wasn’t difficult to navigate, but as I’ve found quite a bit lately, navigating downed trees in the dark isn’t a pleasant task. Luckily they were all within the same 200 feet or so on the trail.

Oh, and remember how the trail was covered in ice and water earlier? Now it was covered in ice and water and snow! So much fun! I hopped back and forth, trying to stay on the snow. Luckily it was consolidated and not too difficult to accomplish.

Here the trail became difficult to follow again due to the conditions. I was able to find the “jeep road” again at this point (here I’m looking back)

The steady snow began at 11,000’ and never stopped. The road was initially easy to follow, and then around 11,500’ I lost it.

In the dark I had no idea where the road had gone, but the snow was getting a little slushy so I put on my snowshoes and looked at my topo. I needed to head east to summit the mountain in front of me (12,000’). I aimed east and forged my own trail, amazed at how deep the snow was in this area.

I made it to treeline, where both the wind and elevation gain quickly picked up. I was excited to get to the top of this hill (which was point 12,195)

Here’s looking back on the way I came up to treeline

My plan had worked! I’d made it to treeline just as the sun was beginning to rise

I took another sip of water and considered: I now had a clear view of the path to the summit. Here’s the route I took

It looks easy and straightforward, and it is, but there are a few things you should know:

Point 12,195 and Point 12,483 are not ranked (I know, bummed me out too!)
- Neither is Point 13,632
The elevation gain is steeper than it looks
It’s longer than it looks (about a mile and a half, maybe more)

So I started on my way. I skirted Point 12,483 and started hiking the hill to the east (it looks like you can just go straight and hike the adjacent hill but you’ll hit a gully). So, you hike up and when you reach a small plateau you turn right and head north to the summit.

From the plateau if you look left you can see Point 13,632, and to the right is Point 13,811

I headed north to summit Point 13,811. Here the snow changed and changed and changed, from consolidated to postholing to very slippery ice. This is the route I took. I took the dotted line up, and the solid line down.

I would NOT recommend taking the dotted line route. I repeat, DO NOT TAKE THIS ROUTE. It was nasty scree mixed with ice or snow, neither which provided any traction on the 30-35* slope. A fall here would tear up your gear and your hands if you weren’t wearing protection.

From halfway up I got my first good view of another centennial: Point 13,832 (and took a few more sips of water)

I summited to intense winds on a small cornice.

There was no place to set my camera where it wouldn’t slide down the peak so I did my best to get a selfie (sorry, it’s terrible) and looked around

I’d really wanted to hike over to Point 13,832 today and get in both centennials, but I didn’t feel secure on that ridge. In fact, I’d kind of expected it to be more wind-blown. I’d just hiked across snow that looked similar, and the conditions varied quite a bit. Parts that looked secure were not, and parts that didn’t look solid were. I didn’t want to fall and slide that far unsupported. The fall line was so long I couldn’t get it all in one picture

And so I mentally prepared myself to drive the 6 hours back to Lake City sometime this summer to knock off that other point. Time to head down. As I said before, this last 200 feet of vertical or so was not pleasant. I wasn’t going to do that again on my way down. Not going to happen. But the ridge wasn’t much better: It was all ice at a sharp angle, and when the ice gave way rocks went with it. I’m not gonna lie: I turned and faced the mountain at times for this part. Also, I love my ice axe.

I made it to the small saddle and looked at the rest of the route down

And started to get nauseous. Ugh! I knew this would happen! Well, at least I was descending in elevation. Here the snow had varying conditions as well, but less danger of injury

I made it to Point 12,483, over Point 12,195, and back down the trail, following my tracks below treeline. Here I discovered things I hadn’t seen in the dark (the correct trail, stream crossings, navigation around downed trees, rock piles, etc.) and a few things I hadn’t seen in the dark (notice the spider?)

Oh, an old beaver dam…

I was almost done with the hike when I came to a fork in the road I hadn’t remembered, and decided to take the path more traveled. This ended up being a mistake (although not an unfortunate one). I quickly came to a trail register I hadn’t seen in the dark. It was designed for hikers over 7 feet tall, so someone had placed a large rock at its base. I still couldn’t see inside.

Now I was in a meadow. I wasn’t entirely sure I remembered a meadow at the beginning of this hike? Hmmm… things are different in the dark

As I walked through the meadow my arms started to hurt. You know what I’m talking about: your arms get sore from elevation and the blood pools in your hands and you do the “Praise Jesus” walk through the woods. Well, I was doing it now through the meadow

And then I saw houses? Wait. Uh oh. This wasn’t right, but I immediately knew what had happened. I exited the meadow and saw a sign I hadn’t seen on my drive in: A sign for the (correct) Williams Creek trailhead. Because of it’s placement you can’t see it driving in unless you know it’s there, but you can see it driving out.

I turned right and immediately saw the campground sign. Hmph. OK, so I guess I hadn’t needed to enter the campground to find the trailhead.

I felt really dumb, but not really because at least I knew where I was. I walked back to the campground, through the campground to my campsite, and stopped the clock. I made it back at exactly 11:11am

I’d hiked 13.5 miles with almost 5000’ of elevation gain in 8.5 hours.

Oh, and check out my pants. I seriously need a new pair of winter pants. I’ve had this pair since 1998 when I bought it at a garage sale for $3. Last year my crampons tore a hole in them, and I’ve been sewing them up ever since, but I think it’s time for a new pair. This hole collects snow when I hike, which means I can stop every 5 minutes or so and unload 5lbs of snow-turned ice or I can carry it in my leg, limping unevenly as I go.

Added to that they’re bibs, which makes using the facilities unpleasant; especially when it’s cold outside. I’ve been looking for new snow pants for quite a while but I can’t find any in my size, and yes I’ve checked Goodwill and in children’s sections. Any petite ladies out there have advice on buying snow pants that fit (and preferably look good)? I think I’m seriously in the market for a new pair at this point…

On my way out I stopped by and thanked the Camp Host, wishing I had something to offer her in return (since she wouldn’t take money). Usually I give out Girl Scout Cookies but I didn’t have any this time. She asked me to let people know Lake City is open, half of the city is in no danger of flooding, and she’d love to have some campers! If you get the chance this summer, consider camping in Lake City at any of the campgrounds along County Road 30. They’re open (and empty). I drove through the Mill Creek Campground and it didn’t have any campers either…