tabor creek trail 2185 – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 9.72 miles

Elevation Gain: 3055’

I parked at the Tabor Creek Trailhead (2185) and was on my way at 4:30am.

I followed the class 1 trail south as it crossed Lincoln Creek, and then began gaining elevation.

After hiking for .5 miles I came to a road, crossed it, and continued following the trail on the other side

I crossed Tabor Creek, and continued on this class 1 trail, staying to the right (west) of the creek for the rest of the hike.

The trail brought me through a gulch, and in and out of treeline and willows several times.

After hiking for 3.2 miles, and at 11630’ of elevation I turned right onto a game trail and headed west. Actually, the trail isn’t visible the first few yards, but once you find it, it’s a class 1 game trail. I put up a small cairn to indicate where it starts, but if that gets knocked down, notice the unique shaped rock in front of it. That’s where you turn right.

I followed this trail all the way to Tabor Lake. For reference, here’s a view from PT 13102 of the route

And some pictures of the terrain

Tabor Lake and Tabor Peak

I skirted the lake to the north

Then sat down and put on my microspikes, My next goal was to make it to the top of this gully

The gully doesn’t really look that bad, and for the first third of it or so, it wasn’t. There was plenty of scree to use for footholds, and it was easy climbing. However, the further up I went, the less and less scree there was, and more and more hard, compact dirt. I wasn’t able to get a footing on the dirt, even in microspikes, and ended up ascending via the rocky area to the left. This was better, but not much. The rock was steep and filled with kitty litter. I still felt safer on the rocks than I did in the gully. You can also take the rocks to the right. I felt this would have been much easier with snow. Here are some of your options:

At the top of the gully was a cairn to congratulate me

I turned left, and followed the ridge south

There’s not much to say about route finding on the ridge. I was able to stay directly on top of the ridge the entire time and kept it at easy class 3. The rock was chossy and loose, so I had to watch my hand and footholds, and I had to stop a few times due to excessive wind, but it was a straightforward ridge climb. With exposure. Here are some pictures of the ridge

I summited Tabor Peak at 7:50am

Tabor Peak:

Oh, and this was the summit register. No pen/pencil, and all the paper was wet. Maybe the next person can bring a proper one?

This was an out and back hike for me, so I turned around and headed back down the ridge to the gully

At the cairn I turned right, and headed down the gully towards Tabor Lake. I stayed on the rocks to climbers right for most of the descent, then took the gully proper the rest of the way down.