Well, I was going to post this a while back but never had the time to write up the trip report...
The plan was to do the 35-37 Mile Chicago basin loop from Elk Park to Needleton in the South San Juans above Durango, Colorado. Using various websites such as Stephen C. Grigory's very useful Trainloop Site and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad wilderness information site, we planned on an aggressive five day schedule with a possible 14er thrown in on the 4th day. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, (snowy passes, miles of avalanche debris, raging creeks, afternoon lighting storms, etc), we were slowed down enough that we missed the opportunity climb 14,082 ft Mt Windom on Day 4 and instead chose to hike out a day early, enticed by beers on the train.
Day 0
With a late start and 2 hour delay on Wolf Creek Pass, Kevin and I spent most of the day driving to Durango but managed to arrive just in time for Happy Hour at the Steamworks Brewery. Although Kevin warns me of the extremely strong and most excellent IPA, I opt for one more than I should. After dinner, Kevin and I head over to his girlfriend's property where she has just finished building her house. However, it turns out the house had just been sold and we end up spending the night in her trailer parked out front. It turns out that the new owner has already moved in and gives two somewhat inebriated backpackers-to-be a tour of the property. After going through our gear one last time, we hit the rack early as we needed to be up at the crack of dawn to pack, find a fulfilling breakfast, and catch the 8:15 AM Durango Silverton Express Train Station an hour prior departure.
Day 1
We end up eating a monster breafast at a little greasy spoon called Oscar's in downtown Durango. After breakfast, we are still early for the train so we wander around the grocery store looking for flip flops to replace my very heavy Chaco Sandals which I had originally planned to bring for stream crossing. The whole theme of our trip had been "lightweight backpacking", so a pair of heavy duty sandals just seemed overkill for a couple puny streams (so we thought). Well, no flip flops were to be found at 7AM on a Wednesday morning in Durango so we head over the the D&SNGRR parking lot, shoulder our packs and head out to the train platform around the corner.
We loaded up our packs in the baggage car and took our seats and waited...
About a 15 minutes later, still sitting on the train, we start to wonder why we were told to arrive 1 hour early. After multiple individual trips to Starbucks while the other held our seats, the train finally began to show signs of departure and we finally departed at 0816.
If you have never taken the D&SNGRR, it is well worth the trip but it can get rather long and a round trip ticket would definitely make for a long day of constant shaking and everpresent soot.
The view from the train was totally amazing as it follows the Animas river on its way to Silverton. The Animas was running incredibly high, the 2004/2005 snowpack must have been huge! I almost wished I was there for boating instead of backpacking.
At about 11:15, the conductor stopped by to tell use that we were about 15 minutes from our stop at Elk Park. He asked us what we were planning to do and I told him we were going to circle around to Needleteon, that is, up over the continental divide and back to the Needleton stop. He looked at me for a few moments and then asked if we had ice tools. I looked at “him” for a few moments and said no.. we are backpacking. He then began to tell me how all the passes were completely snowed in and nobody has yet made it on foot this year (without ice axes and crampons that). Needless to say, I started to get a little worried.
About 15 minutes later, we are brought forward to the front of the train as it arrives in Elk Park. Another conductor asks me about our plans and again I mention our route which results in yet another conductor’s disconcerting pause. He then says, “make sure you are on the passes before 10 AM or you will be up to your chest. Not having brought any snowshoes, this sounded like good advice. I believe we ended up hitting about four passes on this trip, not one of which, ok maybe one, were before 10 AM.
The train finally came to a stop in Elk Park which is about halfway between Silverton and Durango, we stepped off and the conductors handed our bags down to us as well as a family of four whom also stepped off the train in Elk Park. It turns out the family was simply going to camp in Elk Park for a few days and then catch the train back to Durango, they didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry.
The plan was to do the 35-37 Mile Chicago basin loop from Elk Park to Needleton in the South San Juans above Durango, Colorado. Using various websites such as Stephen C. Grigory's very useful Trainloop Site and the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad wilderness information site, we planned on an aggressive five day schedule with a possible 14er thrown in on the 4th day. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, (snowy passes, miles of avalanche debris, raging creeks, afternoon lighting storms, etc), we were slowed down enough that we missed the opportunity climb 14,082 ft Mt Windom on Day 4 and instead chose to hike out a day early, enticed by beers on the train.
Day 0
With a late start and 2 hour delay on Wolf Creek Pass, Kevin and I spent most of the day driving to Durango but managed to arrive just in time for Happy Hour at the Steamworks Brewery. Although Kevin warns me of the extremely strong and most excellent IPA, I opt for one more than I should. After dinner, Kevin and I head over to his girlfriend's property where she has just finished building her house. However, it turns out the house had just been sold and we end up spending the night in her trailer parked out front. It turns out that the new owner has already moved in and gives two somewhat inebriated backpackers-to-be a tour of the property. After going through our gear one last time, we hit the rack early as we needed to be up at the crack of dawn to pack, find a fulfilling breakfast, and catch the 8:15 AM Durango Silverton Express Train Station an hour prior departure.
Day 1
We end up eating a monster breafast at a little greasy spoon called Oscar's in downtown Durango. After breakfast, we are still early for the train so we wander around the grocery store looking for flip flops to replace my very heavy Chaco Sandals which I had originally planned to bring for stream crossing. The whole theme of our trip had been "lightweight backpacking", so a pair of heavy duty sandals just seemed overkill for a couple puny streams (so we thought). Well, no flip flops were to be found at 7AM on a Wednesday morning in Durango so we head over the the D&SNGRR parking lot, shoulder our packs and head out to the train platform around the corner.
We loaded up our packs in the baggage car and took our seats and waited...
About a 15 minutes later, still sitting on the train, we start to wonder why we were told to arrive 1 hour early. After multiple individual trips to Starbucks while the other held our seats, the train finally began to show signs of departure and we finally departed at 0816.
If you have never taken the D&SNGRR, it is well worth the trip but it can get rather long and a round trip ticket would definitely make for a long day of constant shaking and everpresent soot.
The view from the train was totally amazing as it follows the Animas river on its way to Silverton. The Animas was running incredibly high, the 2004/2005 snowpack must have been huge! I almost wished I was there for boating instead of backpacking.
At about 11:15, the conductor stopped by to tell use that we were about 15 minutes from our stop at Elk Park. He asked us what we were planning to do and I told him we were going to circle around to Needleteon, that is, up over the continental divide and back to the Needleton stop. He looked at me for a few moments and then asked if we had ice tools. I looked at “him” for a few moments and said no.. we are backpacking. He then began to tell me how all the passes were completely snowed in and nobody has yet made it on foot this year (without ice axes and crampons that). Needless to say, I started to get a little worried.
About 15 minutes later, we are brought forward to the front of the train as it arrives in Elk Park. Another conductor asks me about our plans and again I mention our route which results in yet another conductor’s disconcerting pause. He then says, “make sure you are on the passes before 10 AM or you will be up to your chest. Not having brought any snowshoes, this sounded like good advice. I believe we ended up hitting about four passes on this trip, not one of which, ok maybe one, were before 10 AM.
The train finally came to a stop in Elk Park which is about halfway between Silverton and Durango, we stepped off and the conductors handed our bags down to us as well as a family of four whom also stepped off the train in Elk Park. It turns out the family was simply going to camp in Elk Park for a few days and then catch the train back to Durango, they didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry.
Kevin's with the train departing Elk Park in the background.
We had about 10 miles of uphill to do that day so we proceeded to unpack our food bags for a quick lunch. After scarfing down a quarter of a loaf of Hawaiian bread, sausage and cheese, we headed off looking for the trailhead. According to the map (Note: we did not bring the actual USGS quads as something like 5 or six separate quads are required, so we each bought one of the waterproof maps they sell at stores like REI. Not quite as detailed but we figured the trail would be well marked…), the trail followed the river, so we headed to the junction of the Train Tracks and Elk Creek and started hiking up Elk Creek. Needless to say, this was a mistake. We got about a half mile up Elk Creek before we realized just how deceiving our glossy REI map really was compared to an actual USGS 7.5 Quad. In fact, Kevin’s map was slightly different and showed the trails not on my map and vice versa that would later prove to be a real pain up near Hunchback pass. Anyway, we decided to hoof it back to the spot the train dropped us off at to get a fresh start when we happened to stumble across the Elk Creek Trail. I had immediate déjà vu as I realized I had been in this exact same spot nearly 16 years ago when I had gone to Colorado for a 30 Day Outward Bound Course in this area.
As we headed up the Elk Creek trail, we stopped and signed the trail register which I looked through to see if anybody had made any note of doing the loop from Needleton. No luck, however, there were a few interesting entries. One party had a member who hurt their back about 7 miles up the trail and had come back out to catch the train. Another party had spotted a black bear and marked the GPS coordinates. There was also a sign indicating a foot bridge was out on Vallecito Creek due to an avalanche and that the river and debris field was not passable to Pack animals. At the time, we didn’t really think anything of the bridge being out, so we would have another stream crossing, big deal….
Several miles up Elk Creek trail, we passed a little clearing next to the creek where I was struck be Déjà vu again, though it cannot be considered Déjà vu as this was a distinct memory, I had spent 3 days in that exact spot while on my Outward Bound solo trip. In fact, it came back so clearly that I distinctly remembered picking raspberries just to the north of the trail and lo and behold, there they were.
After several hours of tortuous uphill hiking in the heat, we finally stopped for a rest next to a couple of beaver ponds, downed some power bars, decided we had only been hiking for about two hours and had maybe made 3 or 4 miles. It was going to be a long day.
At about 1500 we had just broken out of treeline and decided to stop for a break, get a snack and a little go juice (chai tea). During the 20 minutes or so we were resting, some serious thunderclouds started rolling in from the East and the wind started to really pick up. Although we figured we were only a couple of miles from where we wanted to camp at Eldorado lake, we also figured it would be best if we were a little less exposed during the lighting storm. So we headed back down the trail a couple hundred yards and began to setup camp in the midst of a howling wind. Around 1630, the wind died down and we cooked an early dinner.
After dinner, we proceeded bear bagging our food and had to hike even further down the trail to find a suitable tree. Needless to say, our bear bag that night was pretty pathetic and I’m embarrassed to say that the process of getting a line up and over a single usable branch in two trees was even more pathetic. In Colorado, especially above treeline, the trees simply are not suitable for proper bear bagging. Kevin and I have found that the easies way to do get our food at least 10 feet off the ground is to find two trees relatively close together and for each of us get our own 50’ of P-Cord over a branch tie the ends together in the middle, attach our stuff sacks containing our food and haul on the ends, heaving at the same time. You really need 100’ of cord to do this right so we both carry a 50’. Hauling the food up is the easy part, actually slinging a limb that is about 15 to 20 feet of the ground is the hard part.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had a visitor to our camp while we were eating dinner. It must have been the biggest Mountain Goat I have ever seen. Actually, it was the only mountain goat I had ever seen but it was definitely large. It turns out they like to eat the foliage upon which humans have urinated, probably for the salt. Needless to say, this guy was doing circles around our camp. Where we had marked our territory, he was gobbling it all up.
Day 2
The next morning, our visitor was back and getting a bit more aggressive about looking for food. As I was umm, taking my morning constitutional, he started heading my way and I was not exactly in a position to start running. Just then, he lets out a snort and bolts off into the bushes. It turns out that Kevin had been trying to scare him off by lobbing a few rocks in its direction when he actually nailed the goat right between the eyes as it was eyeing me. I felt a little lucky it didn’t head butt me not to mention a little pissed at Kevin.
Our Visitor. This guy was huge, I swear. The funny thing is that we actually saw packs of them on Day 4, apparently there is a ton of them in Chicago Basin where they are a real nuisance due to the proximity of a billion campers.
The hike up to hunchback pass was probably one of the more enjoyable sections on this trip. It was as green, open, and a cloudless sky as far as you could see. Although there were not as many wildflowers as we had seen in the Maroon Bells, it was still beautiful to see them in waves between the snow drifts. Not exactly what we had expected based on conversations with the train conductors.
We were up and over Hunchback pass by noon and had a quick lunch just over the top alongside what appeared to be the headwaters of Vallecito Creek
For the remainder of the day, we hiked down the Vallecito trail at an expeditious speed. Around 4pm we crossed rock creek and were coming around a corner when we were stopped in our tracks by a huge black bear directly in front of us. We weren’t really sure if we should start backing away, it clearly did not see or smell us. A little nervous, we decided to stand tall and started talking in a deep voice, “how ‘bout them bears, eh? The bear immediately stood up to its full height, looked around, spotted us and started trotting away. At this point we realized we had a camera and tried to snap a photo but by the time we got this shot, the bear was already getting out of site.
If you look really, really, close, you can see the bear just to the Right of the big grey rock. I know, I know, it may as well have been bigfoot but I assure you, that is a gigantic black bear! Click on the picture for a larger view (and user your back button to return to this page).
We hiked for another two hours or so until we spotted what looked like a primo camping spot on the East Side of Vallecito Creek (which was now a raging torrent and a little scary to think about crossing with full packs). It turns out that others had apparently the same idea in previous years, in fact, it looked like some sort Outfitter’s campsite with horse tethers, rope, tarps, horseshoes and bones everywhere.
Note: Hiking down the Vallecito Creek trail, it seemed as though we were about as remote as possible in the mountains of Colorado which is why I was startled to round a switchback and nearly stepped on a hiker sitting on the ground resting. I said Hi, wondering if the guys was Ok and he simply said Hi, so we continued on without another word. After we returned to Durango, we were headed over to get some pizza and as we crossed the main drag, I swear to god, I spotted this same dude walking the opposite direction. Except this time, he seemed to be all “scratched” from head to toe as if he had “crawled” through all the avalanche debris.
Day 3
We saw some serious mileage on the previous day and our late start on day 3 was the result of the aches incurred. However, once we got on the trail, we again attained a pretty fast cruising speed, only to be slowed down by several avalanche debris fields. At one point, we were jumping from trunk to trunk through the debris and later had to walk several hundred yards uphill in order to circumvent some impassable sections. In all, I would estimate that we trudged through about a mile of avalanche debris but it was so time consuming, it definitely seemed to be a bit farther.
At about Noon, we were thrilled to find our bridge over Vallecito Creek intact as we were headed up the Johnson Creek Trail. We had remembered the sign at the trail register indicating a bridge out but couldn’t remember exactly what bridge that was! We ate lunch at the bridge and met a guy leading a group of about 7 College or Senior high School kids whom had already been out for 17 days.
The hike up Johnson Creek trail was pretty grueling but certainly had some amazing views higher up the trail. Despite a number of stream crossing which would simply have been rock hopping in previous years, we still made pretty good time. However, by the time we broke out of tree line, we decided to start looking for a campsite as we did not want to get too exposed as we were starting to get the usual afternoon thunder and lightning and if we continued on, we would simply start climbing up to Columbine pass where we certainly did not want to be at that time.
Day 4
We got an early start as we felt Columbine pass was going to be a real ass kicker. In fact, my heart went into my throat as I saw tracks going off to the south to another pass and which passed over some seriously steep snow fields with unforgiving run outs. Fortunately, we quickly determined this was Trimble pass and not Columbine pass and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief.
View looking up at Columbine Pass from Johnson Creek DrainageOn the last push up Columbine pass, we encountered a husband and wife with their 10(?) year old son whom they were taking on his first backpacking experience. Apparently they were doing the loop in the opposite direction and were extremely interested to hear about trail conditions. We said goodbye and within minutes we were standing on top of Columbine Pass where it was all downhill from there.
We had two itineraries when we originally set out. According to the aggressive plan, we should have camped in Chicago Basin the night before and climbing a 14er on Day four. However, getting slowed down by stream crossings, avalanche debris and playing it safe with the afternoon thunderstorms had put us behind schedule by about 3 or 4 hours. As a result, we did not arrive in Chicago Basin until about Noon on the day we were supposed to be climbing Mt Windom.
While eating lunch we contemplated making an attempt on Mt Windom or … setting up camp and hiking out the next day. We were pretty beat and I said, I could sure use a beer about now. So Kevin says, we may be able to make the 2:30 Train if leave now which gives us a little over two hours to hike the seven miles down to the Needleton stop. Needless to say, we flew down that trail, stopping only briefly to talk to the poor saps trudging up until the though of beers urged us to politely excuse ourselves and continue the run downhill.
We arrived at Needleton just a little after 2PM. We washed up in preparation of rubbing shoulders with the tourists again and waited for the train. Unfortunately, the train does not make a 2:30 stop at Needleton and despite a bunch of poser backpackers (liquored up and carrying trashbags full of empty beer cans and brand spanking new (and matching) gear) waving their arms off trying to stop the train. So… we waited another hour at which point the train stopped and we got on despite a little fiasco with the conductor on being a day early.
Once back in town, we had pizza, coffee, a six hour drive back to Denver and a whirlwind of memories from the last four days.
