Taylor Park

We drove out for the weekend to see the Fords at their place in Taylor Park. Greg and I coached together for one season at Boulder High. Since then, we have become friends. We were only living about 3 hours away, so we left after school on Friday to drive to Taylor Park Reservoir where Greg and Fern have a house and a business that they run in the summer. The drive was longer than we expected as we ran into a bit of rain and cows on the road. We made it to their house a little after eight where they had dinner waiting for us. The house use to belong to Fern's mother. We visited with the Fords that evening. The next morning after breakfast, Greg and Fern took us to an abandoned old mine. 

This area was big mining country. There were so many pieces to this old mine being a place where ore was processed. We continued up the same road until we were forced to stop. Then we followed an abandoned road up from there. This took us through the trees until we eventually reached treeline. This was not hard to do being that Taylor Park was located at 9300 feet already. The seasons were short here and we could already begin to see the Aspen's changing on the slopes on the other side of the mountain. You could tell that we were all acclimated because no one had trouble with the elevation even though at one point we were walking on the Continental Divide Trail. 

Even Jacqueline was doing fine regardless of the fact that she was now a week pregnant (still unknown to us at this time) with our daughter Zyla. Our end goal on this day was an old mine. We could see it across the mountain and we eventually made our way up to it. It was rather interesting with old engines from a vehicle, tailing everywhere, and lots of old parts. You could tell that at some point in history this mine was rather productive. I believe it was a copper mine because we were able to find the turqouise colored rocks scattered about the scenery. We had lunch there and went up to the old mine entrance. 

We could not go in because it was long ago closed off. We were only a few hundred feet below the continental divide at this point, but that was not our goal on this day, so we headed down. Greg and Fern took us up the road a short ways to an old town call Tincup. They had a cabin there. This town was located above 10000 feet and was only accessible in summer and by snowmobile in the winter. It seemed like a very relaxing place where it would be easy to just kick back. From there we headed down the road to check out the reservoir and watch the fish jumping at the bottom of the dam. Back at their place for a night of hanging out and watching replays of UW's victory over USC. Go Huskies. We left the next morning to get prepared for the school week, but we sure had an enjoyable experience spending some time with the Fords in Taylor Park

Flat Top

When Jacqueline showed up in Norwood, we immediately made our way out for a hike that weekend. Unfortunately, our camera was out of battery so we did not get any pictures. We made our way high up into the mountains nearly to Navajo Lake from the Woods Lake Trailhead. It was a great hike where I was recovering from a cold. I got the sniffles when I climbed Mt. Sneffels. Lots of beauty, but no pictures. We went back out that same weekend thinking that we might want to return to get some good pictures. Instead, we decided to take another trail that left from the same trailhead. Strangely, this trail was named the Lone Cone Trail, but we were nowhere near Lone Cone Peak. 

Instead we were heading off in a direction that I was unsure about and so was my GPS as the trail was not on my map. It had rained the night before so everything was wet on the ground. Luckily we had a good trail that we figured must go somewhere, so we followed it. It lead us through a beautiful Aspen forest. In fact, much of the hike was enjoying the gorgeous Aspen trees that rose all around us. We came to junctions in the trail, but each time we took the one that went uphill. It soon began to climb steeply. When the trees finally opened up, we were able to get some excellent views. We were able to see right to the area that we were at a couple of days earlier as we were right above treeline along the peak that rose in the front of the range right behind it. 

We continued to climb until we came to a spot where our good trail changed into nearly non-existent with lots of trees down all around. We fought through the trees and then decided to forget the trail anyway as we were right on the saddle between some peaks. The peaks to our left were massive, but the one to the right was close. The name of the peak was Flat Top and while not a very exciting name, it still was a mountain with a name which to me made it seem interesting enough to climb. We began to head up through the trees. We followed the trees on the ridge for as long as we could until it turned to rock. Jacqueline started to get a little nervous with the loose rocks, but she did not have much time to get nervous, because almost immediately we popped out on the summit. We got some great views from this truly Flat Top Mountain. We could see Little Cone rising off to the south with a summit that looked fun and not too difficult to get up to. We could see our previous conquest Lone Cone to the west. We had great views all around us with a wind free and peaceful summit to enjoy. We could see mountains all around us that were yet to be climbed (by us that is). As we watched the afternoon thunderstorm clouds start to roll in, we quickly ate some lunch and wandered back down the trail. We ran into only one other person on this day and we were quickly learning that we were lucky to be in this beautiful area where many others were not lucky enough to be weekend warriors in. We took no detours on the way down; seeing the same scenery as on the way up just at a faster speed with a little less oxygen being inhaled. The only major wildlife sighting we got was in the campground where our car was parked. Rummaging through the camp hosts site, which was vacated that morning as we saw a speeding motorhome on the dirt road, was a porcupine. Jacqueline and I were both pretty stoked about it because we have seen tame porcupines, but never one that was wild together. For me, this was only the second one that I saw. It was a great hike on a late summer's day.

Sneffels

For starters, do not ever camp at the Blue Lakes Trailhead at the end of August. That is a bad decision. I got there on a Friday night after finishing up a week of teaching. Jacqueline was still working in Zion, so I had to entertain myself in some way. I took a short walk and as soon as it was dark, I got myself to bed. I figured that would be a good decision to get some sleep. There were so many hunters(?) there with their ATVs that they were driving around right near my tent until 10pm and then again starting at 4am. Needless to say, I was up early and a little frustrated. Right as I was getting ready to set out on the trail, a guy with a big truck stopped to ask me if I knew where something was. 

I told him that I just moved here and have no idea, but who was he looking for at 5 in the morning. I left that scene behind me and was soon out on the trail. I was moving quickly as the trail started out in a wooded area on the side of a big ridge. I wondered when I would get a view of Mt. Sneffels considering I had no idea what peak it was. I was starting to see some mountains as dawn light was crawling its way across the skyline. The Blue Lakes was a short hike from the trailhead and I was beginning to approach it at 7am. There was a big waterfall pouring down so I knew I was getting close. 

There were many campers asleep as I came upon the lakes. I figured that this would be a good place to camp if I was to venture up here again. I had breakfast at the lower lake. It was pretty with the peaks rising right out of the cirque that the lake filled. There was a bit of snow left on the peaks above. I wondered what the blue color was as looking at the lake in the early morning hours did not make it look particularly blue. I found the trail from the campsites and made sure to not disturb the parties fast asleep. This is where the trail began to climb steeply. The trees started to melt away and soon I was hiking through the high alpine scrub. 

The trail was bomber at this point as I approached the middle lake. It looked very undisturbed so I made sure to throw a rock in it. Just around the corner from the middle was the upper blue lake. This seemed to be the largest and it also was in a large cirque. From here the trail climbed steeply. Switchbacks after switchbacks and as I looked above, I wondered how the trail could manage to be built on such a steep area. I quickly realized when I got there that it was not very well built. The trail became very small loose scree that took much effort on my part to avoid slip sliding away as Paul Simon would say.

 I was actually a little bit wrecked in the nerves when I finally got to the Blue Lakes Pass. This put me right at a great vantage point to check out Mt. Sneffels. I could not figure out what was the right way to go from here. There was a jagged ridge that climbed directly above where I was and there also looked to be a steep scree slope on the other side of the mountain. My three choices were to either climb the ridge directly in front of me, go down and climb the scree slope, or go back from where I came and say screw climbing this peak on this day. I chose option 1 after considering each one after I saw a party with yellow helmets climbing above me. I figured I would follow them. 

This was definitely the more dangerous decision as there were some places where I was actually climbing, climbing. I believe this would be either considered 3+ or 4th class. I figured out soon enough that I was taking a different option to get to the top of this peak. Eventually I caught up with them and talked to them for a bit. They were a nice couple. I broke away from them since they were moving much slower, but eventually bumped into them again when I took the wrong route. I was able to pick my way through until I hit the normal route. From there it was smooth sailing to the top where I carved a place from the mass of people. Up until I reached the summit, the only people I saw on this day once I hit the trail were these two people with yellow helmets. The summit was filled with people as I hit the summit at 10:30AM. I enjoyed the view from the top of this 14+ summit which was awesome. The San Juans offer a multitude of craggy peaks to gaze upon. 

I got one of the many to take my picture and then was on my way down. I chose to go down the easy route and this was a good choice. While also steep with lots of loose rocks and a lot more people, it was definitely the safer alternative. The other way I felt at times that I had to reach the summit so that I could get down this easier way. It proved to be the greater choice even though at the bottom I still had to go back up to get to the Blue Lakes Pass. I knew that the rest of my day would be relaxing once I got past the steep sections on the trail. I was successful by sometimes butt sliding and other times moving inch by inch. From there it was speed hiking as it was all downhill. As I passed the upper two lakes, I got to see the lower lake in full blue. I could see why this would be a popular destination. I enjoyed my lunch as I sat on a big rock and soaked in the scenery.
It was only ten after one as I made my way through the campsites and down the three mile trail to my car. I was back home by four thirty and the afternoon as I appreciated the beautiful areas that surrounded my new home in Norwood, Colorado.