trenching – Wild Wanderer

Homestake Peak – 13,209

RT Length: 13.33 miles

Elevation Gain: 3363’

The road was nicely plowed from the Crane Park area to the trailhead, so I continued driving up the road and parked at the beginning of Trail 100.

I was the only vehicle in the lot, and it was supposed to snow this afternoon, so I didn’t anticipate a lot of people on the trail today. I put on my snowshoes and started out. The trail starts by heading northeast for a third of a mile before turning onto the trail that leads you to the 10^th Mountain Division Hut. I took the winter route.

I followed the trail for about a mile to a junction, losing elevation as I went.

When I made it to this junction it was dark and I misread the sign. I ended up continuing straight and it wasn’t until I crossed the second bridge I thought to myself “I don’t remember crossing any bridges when I did this trail last time” and realized I should have turned right at the junction, instead of continuing to follow the Colorado Trail. This mistake cost me a mile of hiking. So, long story short, turn right here and follow the 10^th Mountain Division hut signs, and if you come to any bridge, you’ve gone too far.

This put me on a 4WD road that took me to a marshy area, covered in fox prints. Here the snowmobile tracks ended and I’d be trenching the rest of the hike.

From the marshy area I followed the blue arrows to the 10^th Mountain Division hut. The arrows are conveniently placed along the trail every 20 yards or so. When the trail is covered in snow and just when you aren’t sure which way to go, you find another blue marker. These were extremely helpful, as I was trenching at this point (and for the rest of the hike). There were tons of rabbit tracks in the area on the recent snow.

Just as I made it to the 10^th Mountain Division Hut I came across what looked to be a recent ski trench. Even though it was earlier than I’d planned on heading west I turned left and followed the trench (I was getting tired of trenching). This trench led me to a bunch of skis standing in the snow.

I didn’t see anyone with the skis, and I knew I’d hiked too far following the trench (hopeful it turned and headed to Homestake’s ridge, which it didn’t), so I backtracked and found a low rib to hike up and follow northwest to the upper basin.

At this point I was frustrated: I was in a bad mental attitude I had to kick myself out of. Due to a recent conditions report I expected there to be a trench to treeline, and there wasn’t. I was having trouble finding any semblance of a trail, and the trenching was getting tiresome. I kept trudging along and backtracking, telling myself I’d only stop if the snow became more than I could handle (usually for me this means postholing past my waist). Also, this was my second attempt at this peak, as the last time I was here the snow was too soft to trench. I didn’t want to come back a third time if I could help it. I knew I was off the typical trail, but I also knew I was headed in the right direction, and I had the added benefit of being able to follow my tracks on my way out.

Once in the upper basin I turned left and followed a rib to the ridge.

Here’s the access point to the ridge at treeline

And a picture of the beginning of the ridge

Once on the ridge I turned right and followed it northwest to the summit. This looks like a great place to do some skiing! Here’s the overall route

This ridge was about a mile of steady elevation gain. The snow was firm but the wind was picking up. Here are some pictures of the hike to the summit

Towards the top everything was windblown and the snow became sugary. I was slipping and sliding a bit, but other than my snowshoes, no other equipment was needed.

I summited Homestake Peak at 9am (there’s a benchmark at the summit)

Homestake Peak:

The wind kept picking up, bringing in the Albuquerque Low we’re expecting tonight and through the weekend. I was cold, so after leaving a summit register I hurried back down the ridge.

Check out the wind

Here’s a look down the access point to the ridge and my trek down.

The wind had blown some of my tracks in, but I was able to still follow them back to the ski trench

I took the ski trench back to the hut, and then followed my tracks back to the marshy area

Once back in the marsh, just before the 4WD road I could smell a fox (they have a strong scent too, similar to a skunks, just more mild). I looked around and saw one prancing about 100 feet away. She was a magnificent red fox, quite large and all fluffed up due to the cold, making her look even bigger. She stopped only briefly to glance my way, and then carried on. I watched as she pranced through the willows and disappeared into the trees. No pictures: I just decided to enjoy the experience, as I knew pictures wouldn’t turn out anyway from this distance. All those tracks must have been hers.

At the end of the marshy area I came to the snowmobile tracks that led me back to the junction to the trailhead

I turned left at the trail indicating Crane Park and followed the trail to the trailhead. This was actually the most difficult part of the hike, as my thighs were tired from trenching earlier, and at this point every step I took included 5 pounds of snow sticking to the bottom of each snowshoe. I trudged here slowly, using my trekking pole to knock off excess ice and snow every few feet.

I could hear the wind screaming through the trees. Yep, the storm was coming in. I made it back to the road, and followed it to my truck

I made it back to my truck at 11:45am, making this a 13.33 mile hike with 3363’ of elevation gain in 6 hours, 45 minutes. Note, as you’ll see from my topo map, I made a few wrong turns and did some backtracking. I’d still recommend this overall route however (minus the wrong turns and backtracking).

Boss Lake

RT Length: 4.64 miles

Elevation Gain: 1260’

This year we rented a cabin up near Salida for a few days before Christmas. There wasn’t ny internet/cell service, so we spend time cooking, baking, watching movies, and putting together a puzzle.

We were supposed to leave early Christmas morning, so we pretended Christmas Eve was Christmas day. After opening presents we went sledding on a nearby hill, which was actually a street. It didn’t matter though: the girls had fun!

We were done sledding around 10am and the girls wanted a nap, so I decided to go hiking. It was too late to climb a peak, so I decided to hike to Boss Lake instead, a lake at the base of two prominent 13ers in the area.

I’ve hiked past the Boss Lake Trailhead a couple of times, and was told the lake was only about .3 miles from the trailhead. Spoiler alert: It’s actually closer to a mile. On my way up 4WD road 230 I saw some skiers heading down. They told me they’d just come from the hut. I didn’t know there was a hut in the area? Next time I’m going to have to try and find it.

The trail was nicely packed down along the road, but as soon as I came to the trailhead that ended and it was time to put on my snowshoes. It was 1.5 miles from the parking area to the trailhead (Boss Lake Trail 1420). I trenched all the way to the lake in snow at least 2 feet deep.

It was nice to be on another section of the Colorado Trail. It seems there’s also a new hostel in the area that caters to thru-hikers

I crossed the bridge and trenched a mile to the lake, where the snow suddenly stopped

I was hoping to find a nice, frozen lake, but instead I found a large pond covered in snow. There was a cool building next to the lake. It was locked.

I took a selfie to prove I was there and headed back

The trek out was easier than the trek in, as I just followed my trench

I met some nice people along the way, who were snowshoeing for the first time with their Sheba. They were thankful for the trench, and I told them to try hiking for a bit off trench, just to get a real feel for snowshoes.

I made it back to my truck and felt the day had been too easy, but at least I’d burned some calories, and this was vacation after all.

10th Mountain Division Hut

RT Length: 9.06 miles

Elevation Gain: 1456’

This trip started out as a summit attempt on Homestake Peak, but it ended with an unexpected trip to the 10^th Mountain Hut.

Weather all over the state either had high avalanche danger or high winds, so I settled on hiking Homestake Peak today, with a frigid forecast but only 5-10mph winds and no cloud cover. Or, so I thought. I arrived at the trailhead and put on my gear, including snowshoes, inside my truck.

There were some cool signs in the area

I was on the trail when it was still dark, and noticed tracks coming towards me, presumably made earlier in the night. I’m guessing they’re coyote

I followed the well-marked trail, using the blue diamond route

And then following the route to the 10^th Mountain Hut (still blue diamond/arrows).

Here I was following the Colorado Trail. It was just a for a short time, but still kind of cool to be back on the trail for a bit.

The trail was easy to follow until I came to a meadow. I was supposed to take the route outlined below, but the snow was too soft in the willows.

I ended up zig zagging back and forth, trying my best to follow deer/elk tracks. I kept falling into invisible streams covered in several feet of snow. At one point my phone froze and I was unable to unlock the screen to see where I should have been going. My stylus wasn’t working in the cold either. Several times I sank up to my chest in snow, and after the third time getting my snowshoe caught in debris that immobilized me I decided to call it and head back to the trail. I wanted to try to find another way to summit: the conditions in the marshy area were just not safe. I could see myself twisting an ankle or breaking a leg on this route. Here’s my route out of the willows.

I didn’t want my day to be over, so I decided to follow the tracks to see where they led. They continued to follow the blue diamonds.

Right about now the sun was beginning to rise, and I could see it wasn’t going to be a cloudless day. The clouds made for a beautiful sunrise though!

As the sun rose the wind picked up. I could see snow swirling all around me, which was pretty cool. I also knew I needed to be more to the southwest if I wanted to attempt Homestake Peak today, but every time I tried to cross the snow and head southwest I sank up to my chest in the snow. That snow was seriously deep, and sugary. I’d need skis to attempt a safe crossing (I don’t own skis).

I could also tell the clouds were increasing, and by looking at how fast they were moving, they weren’t going 5-10 mph (more like 40mph or so). Here the well trenched trail ended, but I could see a faint line of where it had been a few days ago and decided to re-trench the trail to see where it went.

I came to a small sign, stating no snowmobiles were allowed past this point, and continued heading northwest.

Just after the sign I came to the 10^th Mountain Hut! So cool!

I wanted to take a look around, but as I got closer I could see people moving about inside and decided to leave them be. They looked like they were packing up to head back out. They must have trenched in on Friday, and I’m sure they’d be excited when they noticed I’d re-trenched their way out.

Heading back was easy, as I just followed my tracks

I made it back to my truck at 9:15am, making this a 9.06 mile hike with 1456’ of elevation gain in 4 hours

Here you can see my intended route (bottom) and the route I actually took (top)

As I drove home the winds became more intense. There were semis parked on the side of I70, waiting out the wind. Yes, it had been a good idea to switch directions today. While any day out hiking is a great day, I wasn’t happy with today’s stats, so after making it home I hopped on the treadmill.

PT 10245

RT Length – 14.15 miles

Elevation Gain – 4000′

Time – 7 hours

After our misguided attempt at PT 10245 a few weeks ago we really wanted to summit this peak asap, but the weather wasn’t cooperating and my cookie deliveries kept getting in the way. Finally, today seemed like a good day to try it again.

We arrived at the Barr Trail parking lot at 5:30am and were on the trail by 5:45am. The parking situation is the same as last time: $10 via card at the kiosk.

From the beginning microspikes were necessary. We kept them on for the entire hike.

The creek just after the Barr Trail / Incline turnoff was flowing nicely

The ‘cave’ had some snow

Just before the experimental forest, where the path was all ice 2 weeks ago it was now covered in several inches of snow and nicely trenched. This made it much easier to navigate.

We turned left at the experimental forest and continued along the well trenched Barr trail.

Past mile marker 5.5

Here’s where we messed up last time: We had gone all the way to Barr Camp (6.5 miles) and at the advice of the guy staffing Barr Camp took the trail just after Barr Camp, ending up at AdAmAn Peak instead of PT 10245. To be fair, the routes are strikingly similar, and while AdAmAn is unranked, it is taller than 10245 at 10405′. This time we were prepared and looked for trail 671, which is about a mile before Barr Camp. This is where we found it:

I’m sure there’s an actual trail here, but today it was covered in snow and not detectable. We put on our snowshoes and got ready to trench. At the above sign we left the Barr Trail and headed right (north), trenching our own trail, skirting the rock formation to the left

and heading down a small hill, losing about 200 feet of elevation before coming to a creek and turning left (northwest).

Here I was able to pick up the trail again anf followed it around the creek. Please note, this was NOT South Fork French Creek, but a willow filled off shoot.

We followed the ‘trail’ until it seemed to end. We were just about parallel with AdAmAn peak at this point. Here we turned right (northeast) and could see PT 10245

We were going to have to cross an aspen grove to get to the peak. When we were right in the thick of it Steffen said: “This looks like the type of place you’d see a moose” and about 2 steps later we saw evidence a moose had spent the night here. In fact, on our way back we saw moose tracks going over/through our trench, so we must have scared him/her away with our approach.

Once past the aspen grove we were in the willows. I’m pretty sure this is where we crossed French Creek, but it was frozen and covered with snow so all we saw was a marshy area. Trenching here wasn’t fun: I sank up to my thighs several times. Here’s the path we took through the trees to the summit

There were large boulders everywhere, and a band of boulder piles to the right that weren’t climbable. Sticking center left of the mountain seemed to work well.

At several points we wanted to take off our snowshoes, but then we’d encounter snow that made us thankful we hadn’t. The summit was located to the left, at the mountain’s northernmost point. There was a cairn indicating the summit. We sumited at 9:50am

There were beautiful views of Pikes Peak, with AdAmAn Peak below (the pile of rocks in the center of the photo).

We took summit photos

and headed back down, solidifying our trench

back through the willows

and to Barr Trail, where we took off our snowshoes and continued our descent. The trench on the trail was indeed deep in places, and microspikes were still appreciated after the incline cutoff.

We made it back to my truck at 12:45pm, making this a 14.15 mile hike with 4000′ of elevation gain in 7 hours. I got a bunch of pictures on the way back, but unfortunately I’m still learning how to use my camera and it had been stuck on ‘program’ mode for the entire hike down, making my pictures all dark and fuzzy. We gave each other a high-five at the bottom, glad to be able to say we’d actually summited the correct peak this time. Check off another El Paso County Highpoint! Here’s a link to the GPX file, for those interested.

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 8.15.28 AM

Twin Peaks A – 13,584

RT Length: 9 miles

Elevation Gain: 4625’

Any time your hike begins in the Piñon Pines and Junipers you know it’s going to be a long day. I arrived at the South Zapata Creek Trailhead after mistakenly being directed to a gated community a few miles away (Google Maps was taking me to South Zapata Creek, not South Zapata Creek Trailhead: I’d suggest putting in Zapata Falls as it will direct you to the campground and trailhead). No worries though, I was free all day and this only put me back about 15 minutes from schedule. The 4WD road to the correct trailhead was a little rough in the beginning with a lot of softball-bowling ball sized rocks, but after the first mile or so it smoothed out. I parked my truck just before the campground entrance and was on the trail at 6:30am.

I followed the trail that led to Zapata Falls for .85 miles

Just past a defunct trail register

And at this cairn left the trenched trail and turned right and headed up the hill.

From here on out I was ‘off trail’. At this point I should have put my snowshoes on, but I tend to be stubborn about such things and kept hiking in just my microspikes. My next objective was to gain the ridge to the south. This ridge was steep and I kept sliding backwards in the snow. Yep, snowshoes would have been a good idea. Here the snow was soft but I was only postholing about a foot at a time. To make things easier I did my best to follow recent game tracks. It looked like there were a lot of deer in the area.

From the top of this ridge I followed the drainage up to a small plateau. Once again, there were tons of deer tracks here and it looked like they’d bedded down in the area last night. I even saw a buck bounding away as I arrived.

I also got my first view of Twin Peaks A

The view was short lived however, as I dipped back into the trees again.

In the trees I came upon an unexpected cabin. It looked old but well kept up. I would have taken a closer look but the snow was really deep here. I broke down and put on my snowshoes.

From here on out the snow just kept getting thicker and stayed sugary. I kept heading southeast, this time through some thick aspen groves. Shout out to the deer/elk that helped me by breaking about 250 vertical feet of trail: I followed their tracks through the trees until they disappeared over the ridge.

This route mainly follows the ridge, but it takes forever to get to treeline. Well, it took me forever because I was trenching the entire time. This was the most challenging trench I’ve ever put together: the snow was deep, unconsolidated, and never ending. Several times the snow was so deep I couldn’t go forward and I had to get creative and zig-zag my route to make it possible to continue. This type of trenching is tiring!

I’d make it to what I thought would be the treeline, only to find more trees ahead of me. Here’s a look at the route from one such area

More trenching through the trees

And I came to an area so thick with snow it was untrenchable. I was exhausted and seriously considered turning back: where was treeline anyway?!?! Last week I’d had to turn back on Rinker Peak due to unconsolidated snow, and I really didn’t want to repeat the same scenario twice. I decided instead of continuing along the ridge to descend a little to the south to see if the terrain was any easier, and it was! I came across a rocky area and easily traversed a little below the ridge and then regained the ridge (to more snow)

I (finally!) exited treeline and had just a little bit more trenching to do before taking off my snowshoes and tackling the rest of the route in just microspikes. Up until this point I wasn’t sure I was going to complete this hike: all that trenching had worn me out and I thought I’d never make it to treeline. Several times I’d thought about turning back, but I’d put in so much work I didn’t want to give up. This clear view of the peak renewed my spirits and I was ready to go.

I could see the summit ahead of me and it was a nice day: warm with no wind. I thought taking off my snowshoes would be a good idea and could also save some valuable time. In the beginning, this was a good idea. I was able to quickly rock-hop up the ridge

After gaining the first bump however, things changed. The snow was no more consolidated here than it had been before treeline. In fact, the snow was 4-6 inches deep: a thin layer over rocky terrain. The snow never held my weight and I frequently postholed in areas where I could easily have twisted an ankle. I was cursing myself for taking off my snowshoes, and would have put them back on except the wind had now kicked up and I was afraid to take off my gloves because of the exposure. I was just going to have to be careful and rock-hop whenever possible.

I followed the ridge as closely as possible, but those cornices were weak. I kept postholing in the shallow snow and my feet were becoming frozen. I wasn’t giving up though: I could see the summit!

Here’s a look at Twin Peaks B (unranked) and Twin Peaks A. There was a lot more snow at the summit than I’d been able to see from below, those cornices are bigger than they look, and once again, hollow. I followed the ridge to the summit.

I took a few steps up the cornice to try and get as high as possible and heard a hollow sound below my foot. I quickly retreated: In no way was I going to climb to the top of the cornice.

I found the summit wind break, set up my camera on top of my backpack, got a (terrible) picture, and decided to book it back down. I wasn’t going to play with that cornice.

I had no desire to climb Twin Peaks B today as well: The cornices were hollow and I would need to go over one just to start, that wind was becoming insane, and I could no longer feel my feet.

Time to head back down the ridge

There were some great views along the way of Lindsey, Ellingwood Point, Blanca, and Little Bear

And also the Sand Dunes

Here’s the rest of the route down the ridge and back into treeline

And a look from treeline up the ridge

I stopped to put back on my snowshoes at treeline and headed back to the trees, carefully retracing my steps and making my tracks into a solid trench. This is more tiring than it sounds.

I followed the ridge and in a small clearing between hills saw what looked like a reverse shadow far ahead of me. Anyone know what this is?

I made my way back to the cabin

And decided to keep my snowshoes on for the rest of the trek back to the trailhead. Here’s the way down the ravine

And down the ridge

Back to the Zapata trail

It had been a long day, and it was starting to get dark. I’d originally wanted to visit Zapata Falls while I was here, but looking at the time I wouldn’t make it there until after dark. I’ll just have to come back when I’m here later this season. The trail was easy to follow from here

Back to the trailhead.

I watched an absolutely stunning sunset as I broke down my gear and got ready to head home.

I made it back to my truck at 5:30pm, making this a 9 mile hike with 4625’ of elevation gain in 11 hours. This was by far the most tiring day I’ve had trenching ever, but totally worth it!