Maroon Bells, Fravert Basin, Hasley Basin and North Fork drainaige from the Geneva Lake trail.
As some may know, I try to get out west for a backpacking trip each fall. Usually there is a group, but this year all I could muster was Carl Mathews to accompany me. Though a group is always fun, I must say Carl and I had a great time in the high country and those that couldn't make it just plain missed out.
Carl and I have been backpacking together since '92, which was my first Colorado backpacking experience and the start of my addiction to the high passes, tundra, and mountain top vistas of the Rockies. We went back to the exact same trail head as in '92: the West Maroon Pass trail head, Schofield Park (north of Crested Butte) in the Elk Mountains just outside the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area. In '92 we were with three other guys, one of which was from Idaho and on a tight time schedule. That year we had speculated about doing the loop that circumnavigates the Maroon Bells crossing four high passes: West Maroon Pass, Buckskin Pass, Trail Rider Pass and Frigid Air Pass. It was just not possible given the circumstances, and we settled for a three day trip over West Maroon Pass with a camp at Crater Lake at the foot of the Maroon Bells, a day hike up to Willow Pass (miss marked as Buckskin Pass on the Trail Illustrated map I had picked up in Crystal), and back out to Schofield Park the third day. Ever since, I had sworn to get to Buckskin Pass and had eyed the loop hike with envy. (It was even written up in Backpacker magazine this year.)
So, in spite of the large number of people we knew we would encounter in this very popular area, we decided this was the year. I turned 50 and wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to do this stuff, and Carl didn't resist. We planned for a 5 day trip, but knew we had a great deal of flexibility since we had the entire week off. To view the area we hiked and follow the route, see my Trails Illustrated topo map. Most people do the loop starting at Maroon Lake (below Crater Lake and not shown on this map snippet) and go clockwise. We went counter-clockwise starting at Schofield Park, in the southwest corner. .
Maroon Bells, Fravert Basin, Hasley Basin and North Fork
drainaige from the Geneva Lake trail.
First, I must apologize for the poor quality of the pictures. This is what you get when going light weight and carry only a disposable camera with high speed film.
Our departure was to be Friday afternoon September 7th. Normally with a lot of guys we would drive all night and get to Colorado early afternoon. With just Carl and I, we planned to drive into western Oklahoma and throw out a sleeping bag somewhere, possibly a state park. However, the weather forcast indicated a major winter storm was blowing through that very night and there would be storms and high winds across the plains. Carl talked me into a 6am departure Saturday morning.
With just the two of us we decided to take my daughter's hand-me-down '86 Accord with 182,000 miles on it. It did remarkably well, getting an average of 34 mpg. However the wind shield wipers were shot. Since we really didn't see much rain, this wouldn't have been a problem except every time Carl got in to drive he would reach for the gear shift on the column and turn on the wind shield wipers/washers. (Finally in Tulsa on the way back we replaced the wiper blades.) The other problem was the head light switch which is on the left side of the column, and would tend to go off when you used the turn signal -- a bit scary at times.
After 16 hours in the car and listening to all 10 CDs of Jack Kourac's On The Road, we were at the National Forest camp ground at Monarch Pass. It was cold and there was snow around in the shaded spots. We rolled out sleeping bags and slept in the open air under the stars -- oh what stars. (The sky was much darker at Monarch than anywhere in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness.) Water bottles that were left out would freeze that night and for the next few nights, so you had to sleep with them inside your bag.. The next morning, as we drove to Gunnison for Breakfast, we heard that record lows had been set throughout the state.
After breakfast it was north to Crested Butte and then on to Schofield Park via a dirt road. It was rough and caused some concern, but we made it to the East Fork of the Crystal River at the entrance to Schofield Park. (Park here is referring to a large open area that provides a park like setting. There is no official park here and most of the land is privately owned with lots of cabins throughout.) There was no bridge, a deep hole in the creek, and a sign indicating it was 4-wheel drive only from here.. Other high clearance vehicles were crossing okay, but we decided to just park it and cross the creek on foot. The trail head was on just the other side of the creek, and we found a spot we could rock hop just up from the road.
While were getting ready, we saw another large group arrive and heard them preparing to depart as well. They got off ahead of us and moved up the trail quickly. It turns out they were doing the same loop in the same direction as us, though we didn't catch up with them until day 3 at Snowmass Lake. There were six of them (one female) from Phoenix.
We got on the trail about noon (we stuck to Central Time throughout the trip, it made it seem like we weren't getting to bed quite so early). I shortly had that panic feeling that I had forgotten something. Where were my trekking poles? Oh yea, I had them stuffed between the side pockets and my pack in the space provided to pack skis. This would be my first time to use them on a lengthy trip and I was looking forward it. (They worked great, thank you Amanda and Sarah.)
The whole first day was familiar territory since it was the same route we had traversed in '92. We had no problem hiking up the East Fork valley. We noted the trail junctions to our left where the Hasley Basin trail came in and much later and higher up the Fravert Basin trail. Our loop would be completed by either of these trails.
Schofield Park is about 10,400' and West Maroon Pass is about 12,400'. Less than a mile of the trail is in the timber, so practically all afternoon we were above timberline and bathed in sunshine. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. Here is a picture of some snow covered mountains near by (I don't recall which direction, possibly Bellview Mountain just north of the pass) and Carl with the East Fork valley and Schofield Park behind him. This is a shot looking back at Frigid Air Pass.
We encountered two couples from Crested Butte/Gunnison who were day hiking with their dogs, and we ran into several more people at West Maroon pass. Here is a picture of the crowd at the pass, including a dog with his own backpack, a view of the other side looking down West Maroon Creek valley with Pyramid Peak looming overhead, and a cragy view of the pass with Carl resting but not bothering to take his pack off.
We continued, now going down and on the West Maroon Creek trail. Once we got into some scattered timber we passed a large group setting up a camp. We passed an older man hiking solo, who we would again meet up with on day 4 at Geneva Lake and who would confirm the events of September 11th. (This was Sunday, September 9th. We were both doing the loop, but in opposite directions). Then, most interesting, we meet a leaderless group of 5 or 6 8th graders from Aspen that were on a school backpacking trip. Seems one student had to be taken back (to the parking lot at Maroon Lake), and these kids were hanging out until the leader returned. They said they were supposed to have left on Saturday, but had delayed their trip a day because of the cold front. I believe they were planning to come out at Crystal, two passes over and below Geneva Lake. Shortly after passing them we met the leader and another youngster coming up.
We found a campsite amongst some trees about half way down the valley. Carl taught me about picking a site away from any standing dead trees since you never know when they will decide to fall. We had plenty of time to make camp, gather firewood, and dine. Since we knew the weather was going to be clear (and cold), I didn't bother pitching my tent. Carl didn't pack a tent. Instead he brought a tent rain fly which he pitched using my treking poles. (One pole that night, later we figured out how to do it with two so he didn't have to worry about knocking the single pole over.) We were in the sack early after our first day: about 6 miles, 2000' ascent and 1000' descent.
We were up at day break, had a fire, ate, packed up, and hit the trail. I don't believe we saw anyone until we neared Crater Lake when we passed a lone hiker who asked if we had seen the Maroon Peak trail. We hadn't, and I didn't even know there was one. Carl thought it was a technical climb, and this guy didn't look prepared for that.
We wondered through the maze of camp sites and criss crossing trails at Crater Lake until we were almost to the junction of the Maroon Snowmass trail we would take to Buckskin Pass and on to Snowmass Lake.. There we meet two packers from Wisconsin coming down. They were still high on the mountain. They told us they had camped just below Buckskin Pass right at timberline in a cozy site just above the trail, how it had been down to 15 and the creeks had frozen, how they had to cook some soup in their tent in the middle of the night to stay warm, and how amazingly beautiful it all was.
There were lots of day hikers and backpackers on this segment. Maroon Lake, a mile or so below Crater Lake, is where most people enter the Wilderness Area. Many of them are day hiking up to Buckskin Pass. One middle aged lady passed us jogging up the trail with only a fanny pack. We never saw her again, so I speculated she went over the pass and out the Snowmass Creek trail, a trip total of probably 18 miles. The trail goes up steeply on the right hand side and above the Minihaha Gulch, across which is North Maroon Peak -- quite a site. We lunched while still in the timber and were feeling the effects of the altitude and the packing of the last 24 hours. It was early afternoon when we came to the campsite the two Wisconsin men had described and I tried to coax Carl in to staying there for the night, but he wanted to get Buckskin behind us so we pushed on and upward. Here is a picture of the trail heading up to Buckskin Pass, one looking down Minihaha Gulch with Pyramid Peak in the background, and another looking back at the trail with North Maroon Peak still barely visible.
There were several trails at the pass and somehow we ended up crossing up above the actual pass. I suspect it is an alternate route used when the pass is still snow covered. My pictures from the pass include: a view of the trail ascending to Buckskin Pass; a view to the west of Snowmass Mountain in the center, Snowmass Peak and Hagerman Peak to the left, and Capital Peak to the distant right with Snowmass Lake barely visible at the base of Snowmass Mountain; my pack and trekking pole on Buckskin Pass (the lichen on the rock was beautiful but doesn't show up well in these pictures); and Carl standing on Buckskin Pass. I was disappointed that there was no snow on Snowmass Mountain. It is so named because there is usually a year-round snow mass on the slope extending down to the lake. Another hiker said it has been absent for the last two years.
The descent to Snowmass Creek was long and we were growing weary. Though we sort of wanted to make Snowmass Lake, we would have taken the first good campsite we found. There were a few camp sites once we reached timber line, but they were too close to the trail so we pushed on. Once we were directly in the Snowmass Creek valley it was too steep to camp. Here is a picture looking up at the head waters of Snowmass Creek with the backside of Maroon Peak visible. At the creek we found a large camp site and we took it. We were bushed after approximately 9 miles with a 2500' ascent and 2700' total descent. We had seen signs of horses on this segment, and sure enough two riders (hunters) rode by heading up the valley. (These were the first people we had seen since leaving Buckskin Pass, quite a change from the opposite valley.) Here is a picture of the meadow we camped above with Maroon Peak in the background. I pitched my tent and slept in it that night, actually getting hot in my bag.
We had decided that with four passes and 5 days, we couldn't do a pass a day or we would finish our loop too soon. Since Monday had been a hard day, we figured we would hike the mile or so Snowmass Lake and lounge around there all day. This we did. There were sevral groups at Snowmass Lake including the Phoenix six I mentioned earlier. When we arrived, there were several excited guys with binoculars trying to track their friends who were climbing Snowmass Mountain, 14,092'. There were several climbers from two different parties. The guys watching had started up, but recognized it wasn't for them and turned around. We couldn't see the climbers so we scouted around. Snowmass Lake is way over camped. I went way up the Geneva Lake trail we would be taking the next day and found a great site 300'-400' above the lake. We decided we would fill all our water bottles and hike up there in the late afternoon. To convince Carl, I offered to hike down in the morning and get water plus told him there were no large dead trees to worry about.
We played backgammon, read the Readers Digest and Conservative Chronicle Carl had packed in, ate lunch, and relaxed. A group of 8 to 10 senior day hikers strolled up to the lake. We were aghast, where had they come from? My first guess was that they had hiked up the Snowmass Creek trail, about 10 miles. But no, they had come from Maroon Lake over Buckskin Pass. My guess is that that was about 7.5 to 8 miles, at least a 2800' total ascent (you pickup another couple hundred feet in the ascent from Snowmass Creek to the lake), and a 1400' descent. And then they were going to turn around and go back. Some of these folks were in their 60s! Most impressive.
We were playing backgammon when one of the men that had climbed the mountain came down. He had called home from the peak and said he was sorry to have to tell us some tragic news: planes highjacked and crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and somewhere in Pennsylvania and all air traffic suspended. We were in shock and disbelief, and wondered if it was some kind of cruel joke he was playing on us there in the wilderness with no way to verify the story. Of course we knew it wasn't when we realized how quiet the skies had been.
I hiked around the lake and took this picture looking back at Snowmass Lake. Here is the lake from our camp site looking back to the north and Snowmass Mountain with my hat in the corner. It was another clear beautiful night and I slept out in the open again.
Trail Rider Pass was another short, step ascent all above timberline. This was the Geneva Lake trail which would take us all the way to ... Geneva Lake. Here is a picture to the east with Buckskin Pass and the Maroon Peaks still visible and one more look down at Snowmass Lake.
At the pass we crossed paths with a couple and another pair of hikers. Here is a picture I had Carl take of me standing on Trail Rider Pass and one looking Southwest and down the Crystal River drainage. We were a couple of hundred yards down the other side of the pass when I realized I had left my sun glasses on the pass. We dropped packs and I had Carl wait up while I went back for them. When I got there the Phoenix six were beginning to arrive, though we had never seen them climbing up from Snowmass Lake. A couple of miles down the trail I turned and took this picture looking back at Trail Rider Pass.
The day before I had convinced Carl that we should stretch our trip out to six days, getting back to the car Friday morning. Then we could immediately hit the road, sleep somewhere along the way Friday night and be back at a decent hour Saturday. Plus, we wouldn't feel like we had to find something to do (another hike) in Colorado with the extra day. So given that plan we decided to hike to Geneva Lake to camp Wednesday night then to Hasley Basin for Thursday night. That is exactly what we did. Geneva Lake was maybe 4 or 5 miles from the Pass, but after the steep ascent we were ready for camp once we arrived. There were many overused camp sites right at the lake, but fires were prohibited there. So we spent a bit of time scouting around before we found a site on a hill back up the creek from the lake. It was certainly more than the required 1/4 mile from the lake, so we had another evening and morning fire to take the chill off and add that special touch to the camping experience.
As were hiking out the next morning, I got this picture of Geneva Lake. Note the clouds. We knew scattered showers were forecast for Thursday afternoon and evening (Carl had also packed a weather radio), but we were determined to stay the extra day anyway (at least I was and Carl didn't object).
There was a section of the trail between Geneva Lake and the North Fork Cutoff trail that is just gorgeous. It meanders along the edge of the ridge overlooking the North Fork of the Crystal River. Looking down the valley you could actually see the glitter of cars at the parking lot at the edge of the Wilderness Area near Crystal. Looking up you could see Hasley Basin and the beginning of Fravert Basin. Words cannot describe it, and unfortunately neither can a disposable camera. The picture at the beginning of this report was taken looking up the valley with the Maroon Peaks in the background.
The North Fork Cutoff trail drops down to the North Fork very steeply. I shared a trekking pole with Carl so we would each have something to help us maintain our footing. (I love my trekking poles.) We actually passed through some Aspens along the South facing slope -- the first Aspens we had seen since we had been (and still were) above the elevation where they normally grow. We also noticed how the Aspen and other tundra vegitation had taken on more fall color since we had arrived on Sunday. The tundra grasses were just brilliant, as I had remembered them from '92 but not as they had seemed on Sunday.
We meandered up the valley on the north side of the North Fork with eyes out for the fork in the trail that would take us up Hasley Basin. The main route used by most hikers is through Fravert Basin and over Frigid Air Pass back into the East Fork drainage and to West Maroon Pass. Since we were heading back to our car at the West Maroon Pass trailhead, it was shorter for us to go through Hasley Basin. We were surprised when the trail came to a crossing of the North Fork, an obvious wet crossing. This was the first time we would have to get our feet wet, though it was just ankle deep. We took off our boots, each used a trekking pole (did I mention I love my trekking poles), and wadded across with just the pain of the ice cold water on our feet.
On just the other side of the creek was the fork in the trail with the Hasley Basin trail clearly visible. There were also lots of camp sites in this vicinity, all way over used and an obvious a favorite for horsemen. We had lunch here and soaked up the beauty of the valley. The trail up was heavily used by horses and we expected to run into some hunters on horseback, but never did. The bottom of the basin was thick timber and the trail was steep. Further up the trees spread to the steep sides and were scattered and in clumps while there was an open meadow area up the center of the creek.
When the trees began to thin out we started looking for a camp site. This was the most difficult time we had finding a camp site. Carl and I split up. He went up the trail and I crossed the creek to scout the trees on the opposite side. I found a couple of small sites which hadn't been used in years, and a nice water filled compass (it was made that way with a floating direction indicator). I got back to our packs first and decided to filter water while waiting for Carl. He showed up coming back up the trail indicating the only site he found was back down the trail, but it had been heavily used by horses. He also said there was another group coming up, so we decided to grab that site first. It turns out the group was the Pheonix six and they were planning on hiking over the pass and out that day. The camp site was too horsey for us with horse smells and lots of loose dusty dirt. Given it was going to rain and we would be dealing with mud, we decided to make do with one of the smaller sites I had found on the other side of the creek.
The site was small, but I thought there were two decent places for our tents (my tent and Carl's rainfly). What I failed to notice this time was a large dead tree amongst the trees or our campsite. Given that failing (falling), Carl scouted around to find a tent spot in a meadow area a short distance from the main site. (I just slept with thoughts of the tree falling on me.) We had to dig out a level area for both tents, but they worked great in the subsequent rain with the loose soil easily soaking up the water so that we staid dry. A light rain started before we even had the tents up. It fell off and own for maybe an hour, but was always light. Under the large fir trees it was amazingly dry, though for a while we just stood around with our rain gear on. It cleared up later in the afternoon and early evening. I climbed straight up the side of the mountain several hundred feet to just soak in my last afternoon in the high country. The mountain side was criss crossed with game trails and horse trails, though I never saw either.
We got dinner and had a nice camp fire. We needed the fire because we ran out of fuel just after we fired up the stove. We had only taken one large fuel bottle, which would have been perfect if we had hiked out that afternoon as originally planned. It took a while, but we were able to heat water over some coals. We were tired and decided to crawl into our tents a bit earlier than normal, probably 9:15 CDT. Good thing too, because as soon as we were in it started raining. It continued through the early morning hours and was much heavier than the afternoon before. Too keep from being too hot, I had to unzip my sleeping bag from the bottom and the top.
At day break the rain had stopped and I was able to get a fire going with some kindling that had been left under the trees which was amazingly dry. Since this was our last day we didn't bother with careful packing and just bundled everything up wet planning to dry it all out when back at the car. We waded across the damp meadow back to the muddy trail and hiked up to the unnamed pass at the top of Hasley Basin. I'm not sure why it is not named. It isn't quite as high as Frigid Air, but at approximately 12,100' it is a decent climb. Here is my last picture looking down Hasley Basin and across the North Fork valley with Trail Rider Pass and the peaks to the north (Snowmass Mountain, Snowmass Peak, and Hangerman Peak) hidden in the clouds.
We wondered around a bit at the pass because we were not sure about the trail. There was one main trail, but our maps showed a second trail that went to the south and stayed high up on the ridge above Schofield Park. Plus there were numerous game trails that confused us. Finally we got oriented and followed the main trail. We never did find where the other trail, so indicated on our maps, cutoff. We didn't stop again in our push back to the trailhead. When we got there we realized we might have trouble crossing the East Fork because of the rain the day before. The creek was certainly up and we could not cross at the same spot we had chosen on the way in. But Carl found some rocks and logs right at the road that made it simple. In fact, the hole that had been in the road was gone and now we saw a shoal of gravel -- someone had done some work on the road. Given the condition it was in then, we could have driven across it in our low riding Accord.
We barely had time to get things organized in the car, slightly cleaned up, and ready to go before it started sprinkling on us. Good thing we hadn't dawdled on the way down. The dirt road back to Crested Butte seemed to take forever. Plus we bottomed out once and started hearing a new rattle that made me worry, but the car seemed fine once on the highway. At Gunnison we stopped to phone home and got the complete report on the events of September 11th. Of course we had been listening to the radio and soaking up everything we could, but it was all for an audience that had been media saturated versus us news starved wilderness trekkers.
Since we hadn't had a chance to dry our stuff, we decided to do that at the campground at Monarch Pass. It was probably after 5pm by the time we got there, but it was sunny and windy. We spread and hung out tents, ground clothes, panchos, and sleeping bags. While it was drying we fired up the stove and ate some good canned stew. Then it was back on the road. We decided to look for a state park where we could get showers and sleep for the night. The only one I found that would be near us at around 10pm was in Trinidad, so we headed for it going down I25. It was a little difficult to find and a bit out of the way, but we got there. It was full of RVs and and plenty of signs indicated we needed to register and all. We decided to use the shower facilities and get back on the road. From there we went over Raton Pass and into New Mexico where we turned east heading for the pan handle of Oklahoma and Hwy 412.
About 1am we passed a roadside picnic area that already had a couple of cars stopped. We pulled off, through out a tarp in some high grass, and got a little bit of sleep in spite of the constant traffic and a single train that roared by on the nearby tracks we had failed to notice. We were back on the road at 6am and stopped at a nice city park in Boise to use their facilities and heat up some oatmeal. It was cloudy and there were light showers much of the way back. After having to deal with the poor windshield wipers we finally got replacement blades in Tulsa. We were so bored, and didn't like the other books on CD I had gotten, we started listening to On The Road again, skipping over the boring parts. We arrived back in Fayetteville around 6pm, completing another great fall backpacking trip. Now the question is, who will go and where will we go in 2002?
You are visitor 2,688 since Aug 13, 2008.