5 days in the Supremely Snowy Sangres
Sept 16, 2020 12:24:53 GMT -8
zeke, MTalpine, and 3 more like this
Post by cweston on Sept 16, 2020 12:24:53 GMT -8
Sept. 11–15, 2020
(Important background: there was a huge snow storm in the region, Sept 8–9. Parts of the Wet Mountain Valley allegedly received up to two feet of snow.)
The plan (already modified due to the snow):
Hike to upper Horn Creek basin and base camp there until Monday, Sept 14, thus giving the high country as much time as possible to melt out ahead of my planned epic Sangre crest traverse from the Fluted/Little Horn saddle to Comanche or Venable Creek. Monday morning would be the “Sh*t or get off the pot” moment. (Either do the traverse, or retrace my route back to the Comanche/Venable trailhead.
Day 1: Friday, Sept. 11
(Important background: there was a huge snow storm in the region, Sept 8–9. Parts of the Wet Mountain Valley allegedly received up to two feet of snow.)
The plan (already modified due to the snow):
Hike to upper Horn Creek basin and base camp there until Monday, Sept 14, thus giving the high country as much time as possible to melt out ahead of my planned epic Sangre crest traverse from the Fluted/Little Horn saddle to Comanche or Venable Creek. Monday morning would be the “Sh*t or get off the pot” moment. (Either do the traverse, or retrace my route back to the Comanche/Venable trailhead.
Day 1: Friday, Sept. 11
Given the snow conditions and forecast for clear skies the whole duration of my trip, I took my time getting moved out of my Westcliffe cabin, and hit the trail at about 11:00. I hiked the very pleasant 5-6 miles of the Rainbow Trail in about 6 inches of snow, but decently tromped down. I had a close encounter with a buck and two does near Dry Creek. By 1:00, the snow had melted to the point where the trail was visible sometimes. (It was, of course, generally either a creek or a lake.)
I started up Horn Creek, telling myself there was no rush, and I’d just take the first decent camp I came upon. After a tough mile (deeper snow, not tromped down) of not seeing a decent camp, I chose one at about 9,600 ft that puts the “barely” in barely adequate: I cleared most of the snow away with my boots at least for the actual floor of the tent, but not so much the vestibules. It was terribly unlevel, and a dry camp. Fortunately, I had my 4 liter gravity filter rig (overkill for a solo trip), so I crammed the dirty bag full of snow and hung it in the sun. I eventually got about 1.5 liters of water. (This tells you how wet the snow was—if it’d been powder, that amount of snow would have yielded about a cup of water.) I read and rested the rest of the day: I was tired (even though I’d only hiked about 6 miles), and it was cold and windy. My camped was riddled with elk and bear sign, but I never saw the animals.
A good, but weird start.
One of several scenic creek crossings:
Lunch break (it's elk season, hence the orange vest):
My terrible, rotten, no-good camp:
View from my terrible, rotten, no-good camp:
Day 2: Saturday, Sept. 12
Again, I only hiked about 5 miles (and about +2200 ft net), but they were TOUGH miles in snow. I saw a group of deer early on: buck, doe, fawn, and another fawn or maybe a yearling. I saw a grouse and an owl. A couple miles in, I was overtaken by a group of grouse hunters on a day trip: this was a happy occurrence, because now they were cutting tracks instead of me. The timber country was beautiful: sometimes, under normal circumstances, I tend to just hunker down and “get through” this part of a hike. It was nice to really take in the beauty of the snow-draped forest. By the time the trees thinned to parkland, the snow was running up to knee-deep, and it was a real slog. At one point I had simply resigned myself that I’d be heading back down for lack of a decent camp. But as I cleared the trees and entered the magical upper basin, I found a knoll (about a mile short of the highest lake) with a patch of clear, fairly level ground. When I got up there, low and behold there was an established camp at about 11,800 which was literally the ONLY patch of bare ground in the upper basin. I made camp around 2:00, and all was well with the world. The sun was warm but not blazing hot, there was a perfect cool breeze, and upper Horn Creek basin covered with snow is indescribably beautiful. Life is good.
Heading upvalley:
Crossing Horn Creek:
Finally reaching parkland (R to L--Little Horn, Fluted, Mt. Adams just peeking through):
My camp:
Fetching water from the outlet of one of the small lakes:
(end of part 1)
