Colorado Adventure 2009

[IntrepidXJ]

This one was posing for me

Storm rolling in

Glacier Ridge from Deer Creek

Headed back down Deer Creek to Montezuma

To be continued...

 

[Funrover]

SO AWESOME!!! This is a great report!

 

[walsnart]

I agree, great report!!

Do you run Lime Creek while you were in the Shrine Pass area?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

I agree, great report!!

Do you run Lime Creek while you were in the Shrine Pass area?

Yes I did...there's photos earlier in the report from that trail.

 

[Scott39]

Do you know why Webster pass was closed? It looked like all the snow was gone from the pics.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Do you know why Webster pass was closed? It looked like all the snow was gone from the pics.

Probably because it wasn't melted off the weekend before, and no one had been up to open it again?

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Day 6: Peru Creek & Middle Fork of the Swan


After making it back to Montezuma yet again, I still had plenty of daylight left and needed to figure out where I wanted to go, as I had completed all of the trails I had planned for the day (and more). Looking at my maps and books, I decided to make the quick trip up Peru Creek. While the sky was cloudy most of the day, it had yet to rain on me. That would soon change...

The road along Peru Creek

I took the short side trip to the Pennsylvania Mine and looped through the area.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Not much left of the roof

Shortly after leaving the mine and making my way up Peru Creek again, it started to rain pretty good. When I reached the Shoe Basin Mine, I was greeted with a locked gate and a closed sign.

Low clouds

Since I was stopped by the gate, I turned around and headed back. I was originally thinking about heading back to run Radical Hill on my way back, but decided against it because of the rain. Instead I figured I would head back up Deer Creek and take the Middle Fork of the Swan River back to Tiger Road. By the time I reached the Middle Fork trail, the rain had pretty much stopped.

Clouds in the background

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Cabin along the way near the top

One cabin left at the townsite of Swandyke

That's it for day 6. Day 7 still to come!

 

[Remote]

Good God man, it sure appears as if your trip balance between desert and alpine is getting a tad out of wack. Even with seasonal consideration.
As "Trip Balance and Geographical Distribution" is an annual statistic, it is going to take a fair bit of desert travel this fall to achieve an acceptable balance for the year. I hope you don't let us down.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Good God man, it sure appears as if your trip balance between desert and alpine is getting a tad out of wack. Even with seasonal consideration.
As "Trip Balance and Geographical Distribution" is an annual statistic, it is going to take a fair bit of desert travel this fall to achieve an acceptable balance for the year. I hope you don't let us down.

I already have a 9 day southern Utah trip scheduled for October :sombrero:

 

[ox4mag]

Lookin' good!

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Day 7: Saxon Mountain, Guanella Pass & Glacier Peak


This day ended up not going as I had originally planned....but in the end it turned out to be a pretty good day.

I started out heading over Loveland Pass on my way to Georgetown.

My original plan for the day was to start out on Guanella Pass, however, when I got to the start of the road, they were just closing it completely for construction. It would not be opening up again until 11am, which left me three hours to find something else to do.

So I ended up heading up...

Saxon Mountain....this has to have been one of the bumpiest trails I have ever been on!

Looking down on the switchbacks of Saxon Road and I-70.

At the top of Saxon Mountain

View down on Georgetown from the top.

After backtracking from the top, I followed the sign towards Cascade Creek, and then took Ute Creek back down to the highway.

 

[IntrepidXJ]

By the time I made it back to Georgetown, it was almost 11:00, so I grabbed a bite to eat for lunch until Guanella Pass was open again. Unfortunately, I was not the only one waiting for the road to open up, and I got stuck in a line of vehicles heading over the pass. That, plus the construction going on made this road less than enjoyable for me. My next plans were to head up to Waldorf and Argentine Pass, but because of the construction and finding out the road would again be closing from 1pm-3pm, I decided to avoid this whole mess altogether for the rest of the day and continue on to US 285.

A few photos from the top of Guanella Pass (A very popular place it seemed.....)

After making it to US 285, I took a right and made my way back to Georgia Pass. Once at the pass I took another right and headed up the Glacier Peak trail.

Great views from an overlook on the Continental Divide near Glacier Peak. There was a cool rock formation I took a few photos of...

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Along the Glacier Peak trail. There were a few pretty off-camber sections.

I stopped at another overlook

Headed down to the Middle Fork of the Swan River.