Up until Christmas, most of the lower elevations around Salida were mostly free of snow. A fair amount of snow fell the past week starting on Christmas night. With high avalanche danger in most higher mountainous areas, it seemed like a good time to cross country ski at some lower elevations.
I haven't cross country skied since I moved to Colorado. When living in Maine I cross country skied quite frequently and was eager to explore some areas in Colorado by ski. I didn't really know where to ski and got some suggestions. One that sounded good was skiing along the North Fork of the South Arkansas River. I was told it offered good mountain views without any real avalanche danger and decent skiing terrain. Best of all, it's not too far from Salida.
The route I followed started at the Angel of Shavano Campground. The road is plowed to the campground. Beyond the campground is Forest Service Road 240. In the summer this is a four wheel drive road that follows the river, more of a small mountain stream, to a couple of alpine lakes. The route follows the river below 14ers Shavano and Tabeguache and sits below many other 12 and 13000 foot peaks. In the winter the road isn't plowed making it a nice place to ski. The trailhead sits at a fairly low 9160' in elevation and the end of the road climbs to Billings Lake at 11800' or so.
I originally planned to ski it on New Year's Eve. I woke up that morning to -14F and decided to wait a day with warmer temps. The temperature was hovering around zero when I started on New Year's Day the next morning. As I passed through Salida, just the summit of Shavano was barely obscured by the clouds. By the time I reached the trailhead, it started snowing. The forecast wasn't calling for snow until afternoon but it was just flurries at this point.
The first quarter mile was rough. Someone attempted to take a wheeled vehicle in the deep snow and chewed up the snow pretty badly. Luckily they couldn't make it too far and the trail was in better shape after the vehicle turned around. The route is uphill almost the entire way but very gradual. I was breaking trail the whole way but it wasn't very deep. As I continued the snow began to fall fairly hard.
|
Ski tracks in virgin snow |
|
Skiing through section of aspens |
Because of the snow I never did get to enjoy any of the scenery I heard about in the area. The snow was getting quite heavy and the wind was starting to pick up. At times it was near whiteout conditions. Although I was in the woods, I would pass through the occasional clearing and really get hit with wind. After two hours of skiing, I reached the Shavano Townsite, an old mining settlement from the 1880s. Shavano Townsite sits at 10750' feet or so. The conditions were not getting any better and I decided to turn around after 4.5 miles. I had climbed nearly 1600 feet in the 4.5 miles but it never felt too steep.
|
Shavano Townsite |
|
Remnants of an old cabin at Shavano |
As I returned, my route was almost entirely downhill. It was snowing hard enough that my tracks were almost completely covered. I was skiing into the wind and
it was quite chilly. Because it was downhill, I made it back to the trailhead in about an hour. The total trip was about 9 miles with snowbreaking most of the way.
|
The result of skiing in the heavy snow |
By Monday, warmer weather was moving into the Salida area. With temps forecasted to reach 50 this week, I wanted to ski this route again in clear weather while the snow was still decent. A friend skied it over the weekend and told me a snowcat tracked out the trail making for faster conditions.
I had a couple of setbacks Monday morning before I returned to ski the North Fork again. I made it about 5 minutes from home before turning back to pick up a prescription that needed to be filled for one of our dogs. Right before our driveway, I had to pull over to let another car pass. I pulled too far over into the deep snow and got stuck. I ran back to the house to get Puma, who just got home from an overnight shift. I wasn't stuck too badly and I figured we could use Puma's car to pull my car out of the deep snow. That went smoothly and I was quickly back on my way. I at least got to see a herd of elk not too far from the house for my troubles.
|
Elk running in a field not too far from our house |
After the setbacks, I made it to the trailhead about 830AM with fairly clear skies. It was around 30F when I left my house so it wasn't too cold but it was quite windy. From the start, the route was packed down by a snowcat and at least a couple of snowmobiles. I made better time traveling the groomed path and made it to the Shavano Site in about 90 minutes. Generally the snow was slightly hard but not icy. Most of the powder blew off the trail. There were a couple of thin spots where the snow blew off the trail with a couple of short patches with rocks but nothing that couldn't be avoided.
|
Conditions were a little thin at places |
|
Distant peaks coming into view |
Even more incredible than I expected after hearing the story from you on yesterday's hike. By your photos of the lower section, an awful lot of snow had blown off in the day between my & your trips. Thanks for the photos, story, and Wow, I need to get up to that basin!
ReplyDelete