weekend hiking
Jul. 4th, 2018 06:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaWe decided to do a spontaneous micro-vacation last weekend and get out of our smoky town, driving our Sportsmobile east to Wolf Creek Pass to hike on the Continental Divide Trail. If you've got all summer, you can start at the Mexican border and hike all the way to Canada, but with only a weekend we just did out-and-backs, going south on Saturday and north on Sunday.
The CDT south starts at the pass and immediately climbs up the ridge on the back side of the Wolf Creek ski area, which is regionally famous for (usually) having the deepest snow in Colorado, though the few times I've skied there it's been only okay, and in any event we get Purgatory passes every year, and that's a lot closer. But it was interesting to look over the edge at the ski lifts and to walk by these huge pipes that we figured must be snowmaking nozzles. ETA: Apparently they are an avalanche control system called Gazex! That bump I'm walking toward, by the way, is Alberta Peak, which at 11,870' is the highest point in the ski area.
The hillsides around this area are thick with Englemann spruce, which unfortunately has become overwhelmed by spruce bark beetles over the past fifteen years, so pretty much all the tall trees are dead. (Baby trees are growing among them, though, and they still look happy and green - probably because they're getting plenty of sunlight.) The problem with dead trees, though, is that they tend to fall over, and when they fall across the trail, hikers need to either climb over, crawl under, or forge a new trail around them. There are a lot of downed trees across the trail, and the Forest Service has basically stopped cutting them out (or doing any trail maintenance at all), presumably due to budget constraints. We ran into several mountain bikers - this part of the forest is not wilderness, so it's legal - and one of them carried a small saw that he was using to trim the spiky branches of the fallen trees, to make it easier to step over. But our worry is that as it gets more and more difficult to hike (and bike) on the trails, people will just stop coming to these wild places - and then the Forest Service will say, "nobody goes hiking there any more, might as well cut roads/log/remove wilderness protection" and the ATVs will come roaring through...
On the ridge, though, we were above treeline, which made for easier going - as well as lovely views. Unfortunately, as the afternoon wore on, the smoke from the 416 fire drifted across the mountains, and the farther ridges disappeared in the smoke; it was actually kind of pretty, in a soft-focus way, but of course we prefer our Colorado blue sky!
We turned around after we'd hiked half of our allotted time. On the way back Britt spotted a few people on top of Alberta Peak, and we decided we should climb it, too, so we diverted from the trail to ascend the direct rocky ridge. Not only did the summit provide a lovely view, it also had several beautiful bunches of blue columbine, Colorado's state flower. (In general, the wildflowers on our hikes were outstanding!)
Heading down from Alberta Peak on the other side we got a good view of the ski area:
We camped at the Lobo overlook, which is also the northbound CDT trailhead. The next morning we headed out along this part of the trail. We saw quite a few dayhikers, and a few backpackers; in addition to being part of the CDT, this is the beginning of the ~100 mile Highline Trail which can be walked to Silverton, north of Durango. (Britt hiked this many years ago.) Again there were a lot of dead and downed trees, but also lots of lovely wildflowers.
Our first day's hike was 13.6 miles long (roundtrip), our second day 11.8, and lots of elevation gain/loss both days. It was nice to get out, and we were tired and happy by the time we pulled back into Durango on Sunday night.
All the photos, none of the blah blah at Flickr
The CDT south starts at the pass and immediately climbs up the ridge on the back side of the Wolf Creek ski area, which is regionally famous for (usually) having the deepest snow in Colorado, though the few times I've skied there it's been only okay, and in any event we get Purgatory passes every year, and that's a lot closer. But it was interesting to look over the edge at the ski lifts and to walk by these huge pipes that we figured must be snowmaking nozzles. ETA: Apparently they are an avalanche control system called Gazex! That bump I'm walking toward, by the way, is Alberta Peak, which at 11,870' is the highest point in the ski area.
The hillsides around this area are thick with Englemann spruce, which unfortunately has become overwhelmed by spruce bark beetles over the past fifteen years, so pretty much all the tall trees are dead. (Baby trees are growing among them, though, and they still look happy and green - probably because they're getting plenty of sunlight.) The problem with dead trees, though, is that they tend to fall over, and when they fall across the trail, hikers need to either climb over, crawl under, or forge a new trail around them. There are a lot of downed trees across the trail, and the Forest Service has basically stopped cutting them out (or doing any trail maintenance at all), presumably due to budget constraints. We ran into several mountain bikers - this part of the forest is not wilderness, so it's legal - and one of them carried a small saw that he was using to trim the spiky branches of the fallen trees, to make it easier to step over. But our worry is that as it gets more and more difficult to hike (and bike) on the trails, people will just stop coming to these wild places - and then the Forest Service will say, "nobody goes hiking there any more, might as well cut roads/log/remove wilderness protection" and the ATVs will come roaring through...
On the ridge, though, we were above treeline, which made for easier going - as well as lovely views. Unfortunately, as the afternoon wore on, the smoke from the 416 fire drifted across the mountains, and the farther ridges disappeared in the smoke; it was actually kind of pretty, in a soft-focus way, but of course we prefer our Colorado blue sky!
We turned around after we'd hiked half of our allotted time. On the way back Britt spotted a few people on top of Alberta Peak, and we decided we should climb it, too, so we diverted from the trail to ascend the direct rocky ridge. Not only did the summit provide a lovely view, it also had several beautiful bunches of blue columbine, Colorado's state flower. (In general, the wildflowers on our hikes were outstanding!)
Heading down from Alberta Peak on the other side we got a good view of the ski area:
We camped at the Lobo overlook, which is also the northbound CDT trailhead. The next morning we headed out along this part of the trail. We saw quite a few dayhikers, and a few backpackers; in addition to being part of the CDT, this is the beginning of the ~100 mile Highline Trail which can be walked to Silverton, north of Durango. (Britt hiked this many years ago.) Again there were a lot of dead and downed trees, but also lots of lovely wildflowers.
Our first day's hike was 13.6 miles long (roundtrip), our second day 11.8, and lots of elevation gain/loss both days. It was nice to get out, and we were tired and happy by the time we pulled back into Durango on Sunday night.
All the photos, none of the blah blah at Flickr
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