Lime Mesa/Mtn View Crest, San Juans

Sept 18.

ca. 16 miles, +/– 3,500 ft

4:00 up, 2:45 down

This was big day hike, and my feet are sore today. (I really prefer to keep it to 10-12 miles per day max). But the bang for the buck was outstanding.

Most of it is technically off-trail, but the first 3-mile stretch is on a social trail almost as good as an official trail, and the ridge traverse is off trail but the routefinding is elementary. Virtually the entire hike is above treeline. (I'm not sure I've ever parked the car above 11,000 for a hike before.)

I'm not going to post my usual detailed TR, because this one exists. This is what turned me on to the hike, and I did exactly the route she describes, although I parked a little further down the road.

Some thoughts:

•Breakfast at the Hermosa Creek Grill (near where one leaves the pavement) is mandatory. They open at 7, which would clearly be a problem in summer, though. It's a solid hour of somewhat grueling drive from where you leave the pavement. To do the entire hike safely in summer, you'd have to start no later than 6:00 am, I'd say. The problem is that for the final 1.5 miles of Mtn View Crest, there is no retreat from lightning--it's like a peninsula in the sky. (Up until that point, one could always retreat to the south.)

•In summer, you'd need to either sleep near the "trailhead" (multiple possibilities), or hike 2.5 miles the evening before to the beautiful parkland camps just below where you meet the official Lime Mesa trail.

•If you follow the literal edge of the ridge, as I did going up, you'll have some moments of moderate exposure and some small bits of straightforward class-3 downclimbing from the high points. But, the beauty of the route is that both these things are utterly avoidable if you just retreat south from the ridge edge whenever you need to.

•If you go all the way to the dead-end, you'll have a few spots of class-2 scrambling where one "bump" of the ridge connects to the next "bump."

•The hike was completely dry, save for a couple trickles that I wouldn't want to count on. However, I crossed several creeks and washes that I'm sure are reliable water sources in summer.

•It's super cool how the crest summit defines such a sharp contrast between the rolling tundra to the south and the super-steep, super rugged terrain of Needle Creek to the north.

•But for the somewhat epic proportions, this would be an excellent first off-trail route for someone wanting to build their off-trial skills. My map and compass never even left my pack: that might have been a little over-cocky, but the routefinding was that simple. The geology itself made the routes obvious.

•The least awesome thing about ridge routes is that they tend to be pretty up and down. She suggests traversing at about 12,600 on the return to minimize this, and that's what I did, although, by my altimeter, it was more like 12,500 to 12,550. I found bits of boot-built tread on that traverse about half the time.

The "peninsula in the sky" (notice lack of lightning retreat here):