PT 13509 – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 8.39 miles

Elevation Gain: 2744’

I’d spent the past few days dispersed camping at Red Mountain Pass, which is where I began my hike.

I was up and on the trail at 5am, hoping to beat today’s storms and make it to Independence Pass to join some friends camping that afternoon. I started our following the dirt road for .75 miles

Just before the Black Bear Pass / Porphyry Basin junction, I turned right onto a side trail. A 4WD vehicle can easily make it here. There’s room for one vehicle to park (yesterday I saw a full-sized Ford F250 parked here).

I was now on a “pack trail” that looks like it used to be a road. I followed this trail until I came to a mine.

This is where I left the “trail” and route finding became tricky in the dark. In the daylight, it’s pretty easy. There are a few game trails here, which I tried to pick up when I could find them.

Here’s the route I took after the mine

And some step-by-step pictures as I made my way northeast, hugging the mountainside

I crossed a mining area, then headed up the slope

I now had a view of how I wanted to gain the ridge. I was initially going to gain it to the left, and this would have worked as well, but I saw a small herd of deer grazing and I didn’t want to disturb them

This is how I gained the ridge, on easy, class 2 terrain

Once on the ridge, I followed it north towards the summit, as the tundra gave way to shale, which had game trails to follow

I summited PT 13509 at 7:20am

PT 13509:

I could see the town of Telluride to the west

Looking north, I could see Telluride Peak

To get there, I made my way northeast to the 13509/Telluride saddle, then northwest to the summit of Telluride. This was a chossy, class 2 ridge hike with a few game trails mixed in.

The easiest way to access the summit is from a class 2 ramp to the left of the summit boulder

I summited Telluride Peak at 8am

Telluride Peak:

Now to head back to the trailhead. I looked southeast, and could see Ptarmigan Lake. I didn’t want to descend that low, so instead I made my way back to the 13509/Telluride saddle

I then continued heading southeast to this point

Once there, I turned right and hugged the side of PT 13265 until I came to a gully

I descended the gully, and aimed for an old cabin I could see to my right

Here’s looking back at the gully I descended

At the cabin I turned left, and headed south through the basin

As I descended, I could see my route in, and decided to take the same route out of the basin. I could even see the game trail that picked up on the other side (it doesn’t last for long).