Backpacking the Four Passes Loop

Just before the 4th July holiday weekend got into full swing, friends Twyla Gingrich, Greg Tibboel, and I headed out to backpack the Four Passes Loop in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness. The loop is a combo of trails, circumnavigating the Maroon Bells and topping out four times at over 12,000 feet on Buckskin, Trail Rider, Frigid Air and West Maroon Passes. At around 26 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing total it’s most easily broken up into a three night - four day trip. It can also be done in much shorter stints including a day. We chose the backpack experience since Greg and Twyla are shortly headed to Mumbai, India for two years and deserved a full on and extended immersion in the Elk Mountains before hitting the big and not so sweet city. On a side note Twyla was reading the Geography of Bliss on this trip which describes Mumbai as if “a wet smelly diaper was being wrapped around my head”. Of course nothing could be further from our experience.

In case you are wondering - yes, we did really carry books. For me, reading in the outdoors while sitting in camp or resting on a mountainside is one of the beauties of backpacking, and hence one of the reasons for extended time on the trail. My choice of reading material was Sir Edmund Hillary’s account of his summit of Mount Everest , High Adventures, a book I highly recommend for its humble report of a groundbreaking ascent and its deep love and respect for big mountains. Along with the book I also loaded my pack with other so called luxuries, a pair of Chaco’s and a litre of wine, which in fact I consider necessities for true camp relaxation. Despite these heavy items, and as a result of paring down in other areas, my pack weighed in at less than 30lbs making for a relatively light load.

Anyway I digress. Having run and hiked various parts of the loop before, but never the whole enchilada, I was really looking forward to an extended version of the Four Passes Loop. We weren't disappointed. It’s hard to condense a multi day experience into a blog post so here are the highlights and other standout moments, in the order in which they occured:

Camping at Snowmass Lake, falling asleep in my tent, looking up at the craggy peaks surrounding the lake and listening to the roar of the creek. Not too amused at being awoken by a porcupine at 4:30 a.m. who I believe was raiding the Jagermeister chilling in the creek. However an hour later I was thankful to said porcupine after watching the alpenglow creep down Snowmass Mountain from the shores of Snowmass Lake at sunrise.

 Hiking in Fravert Basin – a high alpine utopia where the intense green of the floor contrasts with the vivid red rocks of the surrounding mountains.

Tacking on a visit to Geneva Lake which added an additional 3 miles to our second day. The lake was beautiful but halfway through the detour we arrived at a rowdy creek which was too high and fast for us to cross safely. Instead of returning the way we came (and climbing back up over a thousand feet) we elected to build a bridge. Bridge building takes a while and the adrenalin ran high as we shimmied across our rickety structure.

The brief porcupine visit the first night morphed into full on porcupine warfare at our second camp in Fravert Basin. Greg spent most of the night awake defending the supplies of Jagermeister and Goldfish. Or so he thought. In the end we believe they were just after the bark on the trees, but as to why they chose the trees around our tents, I have no idea.

Condensing the trip from four days into three. On the soon-to-become, but not-originally-planned, final day we departed camp at 7 a.m., concerned about thunder storms. We met our first rain by 9 a.m. and continued hiking through to Crater Lake. Ostensibly we were worried about our camp activities (how can one read, drink and sunbathe when it’s raining?) and decided to hike out. In reality the call of martinis in a dry bar was too strong. That would be dry as in not raining, of course.

Overall it was a fantastic trip. I took a ton of photos and put together a little slideshow of the adventure. I hope you enjoy it.

Flat Tops Wilderness

Wow!

My thoughts exactly when I first saw the Chinese Wall upon pulling into the Trappers Lake campground late one evening. How could I have not been here before? How could I have lived ten years in Grand Junction and never visited the Flat Tops Wilderness only a few hours drive to the north east? Because I thought it was just like the Grand Mesa - flat, watery and full of mosquitos on steroids. And what a silly notion that was. Just like the Grand Mesa is so much more than is typically believed, so are the Flat Tops. This past weekend I got only a minimal education in this stunning and huge area, but sufficient to know that this will not be my last visit.

To start out our exploration Chad and I decided to run the Stillwater trail from Trappers Lake up the Chinese Wall and onto the Flat Tops. Since there would be plenty of water along the way we decided to take Tikka who loves a good trail run as much as I do.

Trappers Lake is the second largest natural lake in Colorado, formed by and situated in the glacial moraines at the base of the Chinese Wall.

In 2002 the area around Trappers Lake was seriously burned in a massive forest fire. While the dead trees seem harsh to the eye the views were opened up along the hike and the new growth was fairly teeming with flowers.

The trail following Stillwater Creek required more than two thousand feet of climbing and the first of my preconceived notions was quickly dispelled. Despite our plans to run we ended up hiking as the day before I fell hard while running at the Lunch Loops and my knees were swollen and sore. 

Up on top there was indeed plenty of water and it was flat.

Tikka enjoyed wallowing like a water buffalo even in ponds that had blue ice and snow along the edges. Labs just love the water!

The views on top were truely amazing. The area is vast and would take weeks to explore. 

We had hoped to make it over to the Devils Causeway - a rocky spine which makes for a fun balance beam type of hike - but the clouds were building fast. The Flat Tops are no place to be caught in an electric storm so at the first rumble of thunder we hightailed it out. There's nothing like a good crackle in the air to get me running, sore knees or not. Soon enough we were out of danger and in fact the sun was still shining down at Trappers Lake.

We stopped to watch native cutthroat trout spawning in the inlet. There were dozens of trout but it was a challenge to get any good photos as we crawled along the bank trying not to be seen. The clouds rolled in again and we made it back to the trailhead just as the heavens opened.

That evening the skies cleared and we were treated to another incredible sunset.

The next day I rested up my knees and rowed the boat while Chad fished. The cutthroat were beautiful and he caught six of them, some over 20 inches long - huge for a high alpine lake.

What a special place indeed. Even if the mosquitos are on steroids (and they were) so is the scenery and the fishing, more than making up for the pesky insects. I can't wait until our next visit to the Flat Tops - hopefully we can make it back in July when the wildflowers are at their peak.

Bears

We spent the weekend doing our usual roam around the mountains. Every weekend we can push it a little higher though there is still plenty of snow out there. We made it up to 12,100 foot Avalanche Pass and from there traversed west along a ridge of unnamed 12,000 feet humps for several hours. The ridge line scrambling was fun but the highlight of our trip was in the meadows below where we happened upon a bear and her cub. As the 20 mph wind was blowing away from them they never had any idea that we were in their 'hood. We sat and watched them forage for at least 10 minutes. At one point the cub disobeyed his mama by running up the hill towards the trees. She came after him and gave him a good cuff around the head. He squealed and went back to the meadow!

It was so amazing to see these bears. I wonder how many times I have passed close but, with adequate warning, the bears have kept out of our way. Judging by the amount of scat and prints I see, probably many.

Here are some more photos of our mountain wanderings. The flowers are really starting to pop as the snow melts:

I have never seen this flower before. If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.

Beautiful views from the ridge line:

Traversing mountainsides:

In the woods down low the skunk cabbage is coming out in force:

Many mountain areas are home to sheep herds throughout the summer. Tree carvings dating back many decades can be found:

Farmers Market

It is no secret I love my food and of course I'm addicted to the outdoors. It therefore almost goes without saying I heart the farmers market! In my opinion it is the ultimate outdoor shopping experience. The downtown Grand Junction farmers market is just one of many in our area and takes place every Thursday evening. Being within a cherry pits throw of my office I try and go every week. It's huge with many local farmers and orchards selling their produce along side an eclectic mix of other foods, jewelry, bags, clothes, solar systems and so on. Entertainment is also a big part of the scene with the hundreds of market goers enjoying music from  DJ's, live bands, belly dancers and a drum circle!

Despite it being early season and harvesting delayed by the our cool spring, there was still plenty of produce available. As I was strolling around stuffing my shopping bag with zuccini, peas, cherries, asparagus, pickled garlic and numerous other earthly delights I snapped a few shots.

As we progress throught the season the bounties will only increase with peaches and fresh fire roasted green chilis crowning a glorious summer of local produce. Make sure you get out enjoy it all! 

Rain

As I should have expected, given the propensity for the weather to be somewhat unconventional this spring, this weekend's outdoor plans were thwarted by rain in the valley, snow in the mountains and plenty of dangerous electric storm activity everywhere. All the same, coming off a week where heat records were broken, it was still a shock to find temperatures 40 degrees cooler and buckets of the wet stuff pouring from the skies. 

I did manage to squeeze in a trail run before the heavens opened up, but not the ski or big hike I had been hoping for. The desert, of course, is in much need of a good dousing so I paddled around and reveled in the moisture.

"Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather." - John Ruskin

"The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"A rose must remain with the sun and the rain or its lovely promise won't come true." - Ray Evans

"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby." - Langston Hughes

"Falling Down, pooling up,
Out of the sky, into my cup.

What is this wet that comes from above,
That some call disaster, and others find love.

The harder it falls, the less it is nice,
The colder it falls the harder the ice.

The rain has an art that I may not get,
So I stand still here and get soaking wet."

The Art of Rain - Mitchell D. Wilson