After a zero day in Salida I headed back to the trail at Monarch Pass. The trail follows the Monarch Crest south along the Continental Divide. The Monarch Crest is a section of trail that I had a fair amount experience with. I have hiked the trail here a couple times and have ridden the Monarch Crest by mountain bike several times. The Monarch Crest is one of the most coveted mountain bike rides in the US. Because of its mountain bike popularity, it's not the best place to hike despite its endless views.
I hit the Monarch Crest on a Saturday morning. This is also the time that van loads of bikes are shuttled to Monarch Pass to ride the iconic route. A van load started just moments after I headed up the trail. For the next 11 miles, the trail was a mountain bike highway. A constant flow of riders passed on the narrow singletrack. As a mountain biker, I wasn't too upset about the bike traffic. Saturday morning was just bad timing on my part. That being said, I wasn't upset when the bike traffic tapered off in the afternoon. The views along the Monarch Crest are quite scenic as you follow the top of the Continental Divide above treeline for a long stretch. I have a lot more photos and details at a dedicated post from a mountain bike ride along the Monarch Crest that does this stretch of trail more justice at
Mountain Biking the Monarch Crest: Twice is Nice.
 |
| Along the Monarch Crest |
As the trail reaches Marshall Pass the bikes and views both decrease. The next 60 miles of trail don't usually rank to highly on most thru hikers favorite sections. The trail enters cattle country on a low section of the Continental Divide that traverses the Cochetopa Hills. The trail is often exposed, with little water. The trail follows long stretches of dirt roads.
 |
| Uninspiring trail south of Marshall Pass |
In this stretch, starting at Tank Seven Creek I hiked, or at least camped with, a group of four other thru hikers for the next five or so days. Interestingly, I was the only AT thru hiker among them and they all had thru hiked the PCT. I hadn't camped with another CT thru hiker for over a week, just before Frisco.
Adding to the lackluster section of trail, the weather started to amp up after a few nice days. My first day back on the trail, I encountered a typical monsoon afternoon with a round of thunder and lightning that seemed to linger along the Divide. Fortunately it didn't rain too hard and it only lasted an hour or so.
 |
| Leaving the mountains behind |
Leaving Tank Seven Creek, I started to encounter cattle. The cows mostly just stared as I passed by. There was a bull in a group that seemed agitated by my presence. It made a lot of noise and started coming towards me. I gave it wide berth, going around a large blow down to avoid it. The blowdown seemed like enough of a barrier for the bull to lose interest.
 |
| Cows grazing |
 |
| The angry bull |
Water is sparse in this section. I made a steep mile roundtrip detour to Baldy Lake to stock up on water. Within a half hour of the detour, it began thundering and lightning. The rain soon followed. For the next four hours, the storm seemed to loom overhead without moving. Much of the trail traveled through open fields with lots of exposure. It turned into quite the unpleasant day.
 |
| Hiking through open nothingness |
With the cool air from the storm, I ended up not drinking much and was carrying way more water than I needed. By late afternoon the clouds finally broke. Overall it was a crappy day with lackluster trail, rough footing, and bad weather. When I had a cell signal, I called Puma to check in and told her I need motivation. I just wasn't feeling it on this day.
 |
| Baldy Lake |
The trail descends to a series of forest service roads as it approached Highway 114 and Lujan Pass. I passed a guy that appeared to be camping by the road. Just like that my luck changed. He had a sign that read "Trail Magic". The set up came courtesy of Goat, a PCT thru hiker that lived nearby in Gunnison. He had a table with various snacks, beer and soda, and a grill to cook brats. My mood changed and it was perfect timing for trail magic. A couple other hikers showed up behind me.
As I was ready to set off, another pair walked down the road informing us they just set up and have trail magic ahead. This set up was maybe 100 yards down the trail by Jolly Rancher and Derrick. I was the first hiker to take part in their set up and they couldn't wait to give me food. By the end of the night I had about five pieces of pizza and a hamburger. As the evening progressed another four thru hikers and three bikepackers showed up. They had a fire and we ended up camping in the meadow by the set up. In the morning they made breakfast burritos as a sendoff. Before the trail magic, I was having probably my least favorite day on the entire hike. Not only one, but two trail magic setups came at the perfect time.
Leaving the trail magic behind, the trail traverses a long stretch of dirt roads through sage and scrub. The high mountain views were not to be seen. Just open range. The couple of small creeks I used to gather water were not the cleanest looking with lots of cattle crap nearby and weak flows.
The rain and thunder did its thing like clockwork in the early afternoon with several showers throughout the day. None of the showers lasted too long. I actually spent the better part of the day hiking with Dan, Indy, Jeff, and Alex (the group that hiked the PCT). At times you could walk down the roads five abreast.
The rain had picked up when we were gathering water from the unappetizing Ant Creek. We were going to wait out the rain, but it was slow to let up. We ended up camping in a aspen grove by the creek. The area was full of cow crap. At least the rain stopped in the evening. Lots of coyotes yipped in the night.
 |
| Cows grazing |
 |
| Following a road through the sage |
 |
| Hiking on the open range |
Leaving Ant Creek in the morning was the beginning of the end of the bad water sources and lackluster scenery. After six or so miles of dirt roads, the trail follows the strong flowing Cochetopa Creek on actual singletrack. Cochetopa Creek was the only ford on the entire trail that was a wet crossing with knee deep water. With nice sunny weather and a proper water source, I took a dip in a deeper section to rinse some trail funk off me.
 |
| Aspens along the trail |
 |
| More open range approaching Cochetopa Creek |
Leaving the creek, the sky looked pretty clear. That changed quickly. Clouds moved in relatively fast. By 1240 a thunderstorm moved in. The trail traveled mostly in an open meadow for the long stretch it followed Cochetopa Creek. There was no real cover. Hail fell for a good chunk of the storm. I don't think the rain lasted more than an hour, but it was enough to leave me pretty wet.
 |
| The trail above Cochetopa Creek |
The trail leaves the low sage land and starts climbing into more mountainous terrain as it enters the La Garita Wilderness. By the time I entered the Wilderness, the sky cleared and I began to dry out. I also enjoyed seeing alpine mountains again up close.
 |
| Entering the La Garita Wilderness |
 |
| Starting to see mountains again |
I had mostly dried completely by the time the next storm rolled in about two hours later. More hail fell with this storm. I was able to seek refuge for the worst of the rain under dense tree cover and wait out another total soaking.
 |
| Hail and mud on the trail |
 |
| Enjoying the approaching mountains |
 |
| Mule deer |
The trail dried out and sky cleared after the second storm. About two hours later a third storm moved through with more thunder, lightning, and hail. The thunder seemed to be quite loud. I still had a decent amount of tree cover and waited out the worst of the rain under some fir trees.
 |
| Clouds building for another storm |
 |
| Gaining elevation after hiking the low lands |
The third storm was relatively short lived. I encountered a trail crew that told me of great camping ahead just below treeline at the last crossing of Cochetopa Creek .When I reached the creek crossing, I was disappointed in the spot. It had great views of the surrounding mountains, but was far from flat and fairly exposed. I made due with the spot. I was joined by an older woman that was thru hiking the trail that was equally disappointed in the promise of a great camping spot.
As I cooked my dinner, more weather moved in. I finished cooking soon enough to get out of the rain and eat dinner under my tent fly. Fortunately the rain only amounted to a relatively short shower with a little wind but no thunder and lightning.
During the night I could see lightning most of the night. Most of the night it stayed clear of where I camped. One more short lived thunderstorm hit the campsite about 230AM, the fifth storm in less than 24 hours.
 |
| Last rays of sun on the mountains |
I originally planned to take a sidetrip to 14er San Luis Peak in the morning. The peak sits only about 1.5 miles from the Colorado Trail, just over a mile from where I camped. Unfortunately the skies looked terrible in the morning. Many of the surrounding mountains were in the clouds and dark clouds were approaching.
 |
| Low clouds in the morning |
 |
| clouds rising up the mountains |
I encountered strong, gusty winds as I crested the pass below San Luis Peak and had no desire to climb into worse weather. I soon encountered lowering clouds and sections of dense fog. If nothing else the vegetation was surprisingly green for Colorado. It looked more like the Cascades than the Rockies with the bright green and low hanging clouds. At one point I even spotted a small herd of 8-10 elk run off below the trail.
 |
| Then the clouds settled on the trail |
 |
| Climbing away from the clouds at a pass |
 |
| Clouds lingering on the summits |
The trail through the La Garita's stays quite high. It runs above treeline for about twenty miles. Much of it stays above 12,000'. Low and dark clouds lingered for most of the morning. It felt like it could rain at any point. The views were a continuous sea of endless alpine mountains.
 |
| Lingering clouds floating below the trail |
 |
| The peaks are endless in the La Garitas |
 |
| Passing through willows |
 |
| Looking over an alpine basin |
 |
| Hiking over high tundra |
 |
| More tundra |
 |
| You stay in the tundra for long stretches |
Despite the ominous sky, the rain held off for the morning. Because the trail was so exposed, I didn't want to linger too long anywhere with the dark skies. I finally took a lunch break after dropping over the last ridge above 12,700'.
 |
| Crossing a pass |
 |
| Hiking through an alpine basin |
After crossing the last ridge, the trail drops onto Snow Mesa. I thought this would be safer than the high ridges, but that's not the case. The trail travels on the top of Snow Mesa for several miles. The mesa stays well above treeline. Since it's a mesa, it stays completely flat. On the Mesa, you are the highest object. I could see storms moving around me. I didn't want to be stuck on the exposed mesa with no cover and picked up my pace. At times thunder and lightning seemed quite close. I could see some scary looking lightning bolts in the distance and hoped they didn't find the mesa. Although I encountered a few short showers, the worst of the storms stayed clear.
 |
| View from a high pass |
 |
| Snow Mesa, my last photo before my battery died |
I could see impressive lightning across the valley as I started to drop off the mesa. The skies became increasingly dark and I could no longer see the nearby peaks. Initially the terrain is pretty open as you drop off the mesa. That's when a storm started to move in close to me. After a few nearby lightning strikes, I started to count the time between lightning and thunder. Lightning: One Thousand, BANG! Just like that I was in the thick of the lightning and was way to close to the lightning than I wanted to be. Surprisingly it wasn't raining too much, but the lightning was frequent and close.
I was getting pretty close to the road at Spring Creek Pass. At the road I was going to hitch into Lake City for a resupply and night in town. I hoped I could get to the road, less than a mile away, and get a ride before the rain moved in- or worst case, wait out rain in a bathroom at the trailhead if I had to.
I made it within a 1/4 mile to the road. I could see the road and parking lot when the sky started dumping hail and heavy rain. I hunkered under a large spruce for cover to stay dry and avoid the pounding hail with some success. The air smelled nice of spruce that was damaged from the hail. Car alarms in the parking lot were going off as they took a beating from the hail.
The hail started to accumulate. The hail dammed the trail as the rain fell. Eventually the hail dam broke and the trail became a creek. The barrage let up some and I rushed down to the trailhead for the last 1/4 mile or so. The trail had inches of water that was obscured by floating hail on the surface, quickly soaking my feet. I made it half way to the road when the rain and hail picked back up. I ran to a covered kiosk for cover. The bathroom was too far. Another hiker was already there trying to wait out the storm. We waited out the hail for at least an hour until it finally let up. At its worst, about two inches of hail covered the ground. The road looked like it needed to be plowed.
When it finally stopped, I went out to the road and the first vehicle stopped within a few minutes giving me a ride into Lake City. I think they took pity on me being stuck in the weather. They were also hikers that had just climbed San Luis Peak the day before. I don't know their names but am very thankful for their kindness offering me a ride in the bad weather. The road looked like snow for a few miles.
 |
| Hail covering the ground |
 |
| Parking lot at the trailhead with hail |
I originally planned on spending one night in Lake City. A campground in town lets you tent there with showers and laundry. It ended up raining overnight. With a stormy forecast and a soaked tent, I took an unplanned zero day in Lake City. It was a much needed reset after the hectic several days of weather. Lots of hikers were in Lake City and its nice to find camaraderie with others that went through the same conditions and can relate.
No comments:
Post a Comment