Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, July 2007

Camping in a wide valley of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness

In December of 1998 Vic, Scott, Andy, and I decided to do a winter "hike" in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness of the Colorado high country. We had anticipated sub-freezing temperatures and possibly a brushing of snow, but did not expect the 3 feet of fresh powder and <10F temperatures that we encountered. The trip quickly turned into a hard lesson in winter survival, and Vic has never let me live it down for almost the past decade. So in the summer of 2007, to both exact a bit of revenge on the Collegiate Peaks wilderness and show Vic what it is like to actually enjoy a multi-day alpine hiking trip, we decided to again do a trip in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. We were a group of seven in total - Vic, Cecilia, Paul, Steve, Veronica, Andy, and I. It was also a ground-breaking trip for both Veronica and Steve, as it was their first time spending multiple nights in the backcountry. The 4-day hike ended up being one of great memories, providing great campsites, very few other hikers, a successful summit of a 14000+ peak, rivers, lakes, snakes, and other exciting wildlife. A brief review of the trip is as follows....

Day 1 - Starting at Cottonwood Pass
We parked our car at Cottonwood Pass at a little over 12000 feet, and started the slow downhill trek westwards under clear blue skies. We spent the next several hours skirting the Cottonwood Pass road, hugging to the south side of the valley, and eventually crossed over and started northwards along the Continental Divide Trail (CDT). Our downhill trend ended as we intersected another large valley to the north at the small but scenic Texas lakes, where we hung a right and started eastwards following a river along a wide and flat valley floor. We had celebrated the clear skies earlier in the day, but as the mid-day sun beat down on our backs we wished for clouds and even talked of how nice a little rain might feel :). We crossed the river in the late-afternoon then made camp in the middle of the clear valley floor - we had views in all directions, and in retrospect it was my favorite of all our nights in the backcountry. We pitched tents next to the river, which gave us easy access to water and the soothing sounds of a bubbling stream, which would negate any snoring or other typical camp sounds during the night. The only real surprise of the day came when I setup the campfire - there was a small firepit from another party who had camped there in a previous year, and when I started picking up the logs and rocks to clear the overgrowth I unearthed a sleeping ball of at least a dozen small snakes. They looked like harmless grass snakes, but in any case gave me a good scare as they scrambled to find new cover throughout our camp. We struggled to chase them all out of camp, and to prevent them from re-burroughing under the nice cover of the tents.

We made a fire and enjoyed our first dehydrated meal of the trip, after 10+ miles of hiking everyone was pretty tired, and we were all asleep by 9:30pm. A few good images from the day:

The trailhead at Cottonwood Pass	Map discussions
Texas Lake

Day 2 - Up the Valley
We woke up early and continued our eastward trek up the valley. We continued to skirt along the river, including a few interesting crossings throughout the morning. We arrived in our next camp in the mid-afternoon, again with views both up and down the wide valley. We decided to leave our heavy packs and do an afternoon day-hike up one of the north side valley in search of a small alpine lake, which lay at a little over 12000 feet in a small cirque to the west of Mount Harvard. Our campsite was at approximately 10900 feet, so it was no trivial day-hike up another 1100 feet, and it became even more challenging when the trail became non-existent halfway up the valley. After a bit of bush-whacking and marsh-crossing we eventually found the lake in a beautiful small cirque with ricky peaks on all sides. We also had our first real wildlife sightings of the trip - Paul ran into a pack of friendly marmots just below the lake, and Steve, Vic, and Veronica surprised a large female elk relaxing in a small plateau also just below the lake. We made it back to camp by 6pm, in time for another night of dehydrated dinners, and again were asleep by 9pm at the latest. A few good images from the day:

Steve dunking a foot on a river crossing	The valley cirque
Vic contemplating life at camp	Veronica on the trail

Day 3 - Over Brown's Pass
We anticipated Day 3 as the most difficult of the trip, as the primary obstacle was the 12100 foot Brown's pass, which allowed us to cross back over the mountains to the south, to the same valley that contained the Cottonwood pass road - our final destination. Under clear skies we moved slowly but steadily up towards the pass, eventually passing just above the treeline with views back towards our entire route of the past two days. We reached the pass at mid-day, where we found an abandoned mine and small wooden house. We had lunch just below the pass, then descended down to just before the junction to the Mount Yale climb, which also put us only miles from the road and our final destination. A few images from the day:

Making pancakes at camp	Raising a flag at the pass
Miners cabin	Damsel in distress on a mining rail

Day 4 - Mount Yale and the Hike Out
With 14200 foot Mount Yale looming only a few miles above and to the east, and with the weather behaving so well throughout our trip, Paul, Andy, Cecilia, and I decided to do an early wakeup to attempt a summit of the mountain. We woke up at 5am, and were on the trail shortly thereafter. We climbed through forest until just below 12000 feet, when we left the treeline and proceeded to switchback steeply up the east face of the mountain. Thanks to our early start we climbed in the shade of the peak for the entire morning, and only saw the hot sun once we reached the final summit ride at 14000 feet. We were on top by 8am, and with clear skies we had a 360 degree view over all of the surrounding peaks and mountains, including all of the other 14000 foot collegiate peaks. We were the first on top, and had the ridge to ourselves where we enjoyed a brief snack before starting the descent. On our way down we crossed another dozen or more hikes just starting the ascent under full sun - it would be a hot day for them. We were back in camp by 11am, and we quickly packed up and did the ~1 hour hike to the road. Steve, veronica, and Vic has hiked out an hour or two before us, and had already gathered the two cars to the trailhead, and had even bought ice cold sodas which we had discussed or four days previous. For me it was the perfect ending to a great 4-day hike! A few images from the day:

Early breakfast before Mount Yale	On the summit ride
On the summit	Andy on the summit rid

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