08/10/2006 - UT, Canyoneering Dinosaur

We planned on a three day hiking trip.  It was around 25 miles total, so it wasn't a really long hike, but there were plenty of options to climb some other peaks in the area and add some views, elevation and mileage.  There were ten of us going:  Nahum, Dave, Jessica, Scott, Ben, Jen, Patricia, Steve, Mark and I.

We would be starting at Buffalo Pass, near Steamboat Springs, and hiking pretty much along the Continental Divide.  Most of the hike would be around 11,000 feet; and some of us were planning on climbing a bunch of peaks along the way.  Prior to the trip; on Tuesday 8/8, my radiator blew a hole while we were up climbing in Boulder Canyon; which was interesting in itself.  We filled it with river water, to get back down into Boulder.  I got some gallon jugs from a recycling bin in town, and was able to make it back to Longmont.  My schedule was pretty hectic already, so I had a shop replace the radiator on Wed 8/9.  To my surprise, they were able to get it done that day.  Picked it up Wed night, and everything still looked good for the weekend trip.

 

Thursday 8/10/06:

Jen came over and I started my truck to warm it up while we were packing.  Unfortunately, there was anti-freeze leaking, but it looked like it came from the radiator cap.  Drove it up to the shop, and got a new cap.  Took some water along, just in case.  Drove to Boulder to pick up the rest of the people, and it didn't look like it was leaking.  Made us late though.  Picked up Ben, Nahum and Patricia, and were on our way around 7pm.  Got to Scott's in Hayden around 11pm.  Scott was waiting up for us with a fire going; which was very nice of him.  Unfortunately, none of us really wanted to hang out by the fire.  I was exhausted from a long week.  I just wanted to catch some sleep, as we were getting up early too.

 

Friday 8/11/06:

Woke up around 7am, and left Scott's around 8am.  We drove into Steamboat, and people had breakfast and relaxed while Scott and I shuttled his car to the Slovania trailhead.  The plan was to leave Scott's Geo at that trailhead, and when we got out on Sunday, he would shuttle the drivers back to Buffalo Pass.  We got back into Steamboat around 10:30am; gathered everyone and drove out to Buffalo Pass.  The road to Buffalo Pass was much worse than the one to Slovania.  Still not bad; easily drivable by a two wheel medium clearance vehicle, but you would have to be careful.  We got to Buffalo Pass, finished last minute prep, and headed out on the trail around 12:30pm.  A little later of a start than I would have liked, but we were only doing a little over seven miles that day, so not anything to worry about either. 

We hiked along the divide, and stopped for a snack at a beautiful lake around 2pm.  We then hiked the divide more, and took some extra side trips.  One on a ridge/outcropping which had some great views.  We arrived at Lake Elbert around 5:30pm, and set up camp.  This was around an 8 mile day so far with the side trips.  I still wanted to go off and hike some peaks.  The weather was getting a overcast, and some were tired, so most people wanted to stay at camp.  Ben was going to go, but a miscommunication had me waiting for a bit.  After a little, I didn't want to lose any more daylight, so I took off on my own. 

Hiked up another 6 peaks, all of them being over 11,000 feet in elevation; the highest being 11700.  One was a pretty cool rock scramble, could have been class 2, but I was making it fun with most class 3, but some class 4 and lower 5th class climbing. The summit was a 5.5 move on the two boulders, which made up the last little summit push.  Also climbed Mount Ethel.  Fun.  Got back to camp just as it was getting dark; added about 7.5 miles.  A 15.5 mile day was a bit better.  Made some dinner, and we hung out visiting a bit.  This was the best night to see the Persiod meteor shower, but it was a little cloudy; and there was a full moon as well.  Saw one meteor before heading to bed.  That night, it started to rain.

 

Saturday 8/12/06: 

Woke up around 6am, and it was still raining.  Looked around, nobody else was getting out of the tent.  Decided to stay in and hope the rain stopped.  Rested and checked for movement several times.  7, 8, 9am; still nothing.  The rain slowed around 9:30am and we started to make breakfast.  Before we were finished with breakfast, the rain started again; jumped back into the tent.  Went to sleep.  Woke up, still raining.  Noon now, geez, we need to get moving.  Discussed that we should wait for another opening, and get moving.  Regardless, we should move by 2pm.  Got an opening at 1pm, packed up the wet tent and gear, and started to hike. 

We had around 9 miles to go that day to get to our next lake we were going to camp at.  Several of us took a direct route to climb Ethel; and we hit a bunch of un-named sub-peaks.  We called them Ethel 1, Ethel 2, etc.  Funny.  Ben and I added five other peaks, as well as five sub-peaks on Ethel.  Our total that day was around 14 miles.  Nahum, Mark, Steve, and Dave added a few of the peaks too.  The days views were beautiful, especially the views from Mount Ethel, where we had clouds blowing up the valley, and cresting over where we were sitting.  There was also a cool section where a forest fire had burned a section of small trees that were leaning from the wind.  Cool pictures.  We got to the lake around 7:30pm.  It was very cloudy, and thunder was rumbling.  We hurried up and set up camp, and started to cook dinner.  It started to rain before dinner was even ready.  The worst of the rain missed us, but it again rained late into the night.  We were hoping it was going to clear up, as we had a big day planned for tomorrow.  I walked around in the rain to all the tents, so we could finalize the plans for the next day.

 

Sunday 8/13/06: 

Woke up at 6:30am to a beautiful day.  The sky had cleared.  We had breakfast, and some of us packed up camp.  Ben, Dave, Nahum and I were going to try to climb Zirkel, and Ben and I wanted to climb the ridge to Big Agnes as well.  Ben, Nahum and Dave packed up and left around 7:30am.  I was slower in finishing packing, and making sure everyone else was all set and knew the plan; then left around 8am.  I had some catching up to do.  The plan was that we would start early, and do extra peaks.  The rest of the group would leave at 9am, hike to the trailhead; which for them would be around 8 miles.  They would get the other vehicles, and shuttle them back to Slovania while we were climbing the extra peaks.  I hiked at a pretty good pace, around 3mph.  Caught up with Ben and Nahum at the Three Island Lake trailhead.  I ended up passing Dave when he was taking a break, and didn't even see him.  We all regrouped, and talked about the plan.  On one of the passes, I was able to see the ridge between Zirkel and Big Agnes.  It looked pretty gnarly, and we didn't have technical gear with us.  I decided on an alternate route to add three other peaks on a big loop, following the Continental Divide, ending at Mount Zirkel.  Nahum and Dave were just going to do Zirkel; we talked them into joining us.

We started up a ridge to an unnamed peak, and saw deer near the summit.  We made that summit and took some photos.  We then hit another small connecting summit.  From there, we backtracked past the first summit and traversed a ridge with loose rock.  Nahum and Dave didn't like the ridge, so they climbed down to a lake, where Dave could also fill up on water.  I told them we would wait on Flattop Mountain.  Ben and I continued on the ridge, down into Ute Pass.  It was a fun class 3 ridge.  At the pass, we headed up to Flattop Mountain.  On Flattop, I only had about half a liter left of water.  Would be an interesting finish, as there was still a long way to go.  Probably wouldn't be water available until well after Zirkel. 

Ben and I waited about a half hour on Flattop for Dave and Nahum.  We were able to mostly dry out our shoes (which were still soaked from the rain the previous night and hiking through the wet brush.)  We hiked across Flattop, hitting the small peaks, and then down the loose steep slope to Red Dirt Pass.  The weather was getting worse, looking like rain. 

At Red Dirt, Nahum decided to just hike down the Red Dirt trail to Slovania.  Ben, Dave and I continued on to Mount Zirkel.  Dave dropped his pack to go fast.  Ben and I carried ours up to the summit.  At the summit, it started to rain.  Dave headed back down to Red Dirt Pass.  Ben and I decided to try to climb an unknown ridge down to Gilpin Lake.

The ridge was pretty solid, with a steep loose section to get to a second ridge.  The descent from there was again steep and loose, with some cliff bands.  Great views of Agnes, Zirkel and Gilpin Lake though.  The brush on the descent and especially on the traverse to the trail was pretty thick.  Luckily, the rain was intermittent and usually only a sprinkle.  At the trail, we filled up our water from Gilpin Creek, and hiked out to the trailhead.  Our mileage was 18 for that day.  A total of 47.5 miles for the 54 hour period.  Not bad.

We made it to the Slovania trailhead around 5:30pm; Mark was there waiting.  The second group got to the trailhead around 2pm, and four people left to shuttle the vehicles back around 2:30pm.  They should be here anytime.  After several unsuccessful predictions on when they would arrive, they finally showed up around 6:30pm.  They had some trouble with my car, they set the factory alarm by using the power door locks.  They tried to shut it off by disconnecting the battery, fuses, etc.  All they needed to do was to use the key in the door lock.  Oh well; food for thought for next time.  We drove to Steamboat to try to all have dinner together; but couldn't get a table at the place we were trying to eat at, as it was self-service and it was packed.  We decided to just head home and get something fast on the way.  The Boulder folks all met and ate at Wendy's and made the drive home.  I got home around 1am.  Long, but very fun weekend with great views and great company.

 

Hope you enjoy the photos!

A.J.