Trekking in Colorado - Never Summer Wilderness

Never Summer Wilderness 8/9-8/13. 40 some miles, fairly difficult.

At the trailhead we made dinner and packed our packs. The weather was beautiful and we only had a few miles to go that night to Bowen Lake. We used the Trails Illustrated RMNP map for this trip, it was adequate but not great. We finally hit the trail near 6:00 which heads up over 1000 feet, steeply in some places, to Wolverine Trail along blue ridge. This was only my second day in CO and I was feeling the elevation at 11,000", Kid was in better shape. The trail along the ridge into the lake is easy, fairly flat and with good views all around. The time was perfect as the sun was setting to the west. A good omen. We took our time crossing the ridge and finally made it down to Bowen Lake when it was nearly dark. After fiddling around finding a campsite we had to set up camp and hang the food in the dark. There were two other guys at the other end of Bowen Lake

The next morning I got up early and got out with my camera. I got a new Olympus Stylus Epic for this trip that weighs in at under 6oz. I took over 10 rolls of film. The morning was crisp, the day was clear, and I watched the sun come up on the mountain face across the lake and finally come over the trees in the picture on the left. The beauty of these mountains if of the whack you upside the head with a baseball bat kind, it will amaze you. Kid finally got up much latter and missed the sun rise. We had breakfast and got on the trail not too late.

Our plan for this day was to make it about 15 miles or more to Lake Agnes just outside the north side of the wilderness. The climb up to Bowen Pass at 11,500" was nearly a 1500 foot gain though some old growth forest and beautiful meadows. The old growth up in the mountains is interesting, the trees aren’t nearly as large as in the temperate forests of BC, but they are quite big considering the elevation and the forest floor and character does have the characteristics of an old growth forest, just not as dramatic. From Bowen pass the trail goes down to 11,200 or so and then climbs straight up to cross over Farview Mountain at 12,000" before heading down to Parika Lake (Photo above). This is the climb that really got me as the altitude struck home. Parika Lake however is quite pretty. There was a family there on a day hike who we passed on our way up to Baker Pass. In the photo you see Parika Lake with Mount Baker and Mount Stratus directly behind it and a view of RMNP to the right.

The trail to Baker Pass was somewhat difficult to find and not heavily used but fairly flat. At Baker Pass the trail we were searching for goes straight eventually hitting the Silver Creek Trailhead. However, through the meadows it was very grown over and very difficult to find. I recommend a good map and we also turned on the GPS and let it make a track just in case. The trail here goes up and down a lot trying to avoid the talus slopes that make up the west side of the mountains (basically following the tree line in the photo above, the ridge straight back is Baker Pass). The mountains here are rugged decayed granite. At the end of this section the trail heads steeply up another pass and then very steeply down a talus slope. From here it isn't long to a lake, at which point I was dead and we certainly were not going to make it any further. The day ended up being difficult mostly because of the elevation and trouble finding the trail. Also, when crossing a huge talus slope a lightning storm moved in and Kid and I thought it best to go a few hundred yards off the trail and get below tree-line. On the way I took a fall on the wet talus which seems to be the place where I put a nice sized hole in my pack. More on the pack below.

For the next day our plan was to head over Mount Mahler, bushwhack a short distance down to Lake Agnes if possible, and then head via the Michigan Ditch around and up over Thunder Pass and into RMNP. Then we were shooting to take the Grand Ditch through the park and camp all the way back at Baker Gulch, over a 20 mile day. I was doing much better with the elevation this day and we headed up Mahler with little problem after finding the trail. The Silver Creek Trailhead is not marked on the map although there is an indication of some kind of road. It does not look accessible by low-clearance vehicles. The hike was pretty and we saw a whole herd of elk. You wouldn't know it from the map but the trail really winds around Mahler and finally appears to end much further north than indicated on the map. At this point you have a good view of the valley and Lake Agnes and the dramatic Nokhu Crags and Mount Static across the valley, the trail gets little use although there is some horse use which has lead to erosion. From this point we started bushwhacking down the mountain but very quickly came to a trail that was headed up which we must have missed somewhere. We followed this down and had a time negotiating the old logging roads to find our way across this valley to the Michigan Ditch.

The trail up to snow lake was crowded with people, but the numbers of people lessened dramatically as we crossed Thunder Pass and headed down to the Grand Ditch. A storm passed us as we tried to hurry off the pass down below tree-line. Hiking along the Ditch was a definite disappointment. A very long hike, easy but boring as most of the way any view was covered with trees. It is also a good environmental lesson, it makes you incredibly angry to see how all the streams flowing out of the mountains are channeled into the ditch and left completely dry. Leave it to the Park Service to do this in the middle of one of the most used National Parks. Finally towards the end of the ditch it goes right along the side of the mountain probably 1000 feet drop to the floor below. This portion is quite dramatic anyways. After pushing hard to make it to the end my brother found that one of his knees was in some serious pain. We stopped at a campsite right at the end of the ditch that night.

Despite taking anti-inflammatory meds he was still in pain the next morning so we decided that I would make the 8 mile or so hike out to the car and he would head just a few miles down to the park road using the service road. The climb back up to Parika Lake was beautiful through more flower covered meadows and forests. I meet a few people along the way and saw a man and daughter camped at the lake. The hike back up Farview Mountain and over to Bowen Pass was fairly painless this time, I'd finally adjusted to the altitude. From Bowen Pass I followed the CDT south along the west side of Cascade Mountain. The trail is poorly marked often on very steep slopes. It was here that I believe I hurt my knee which started hurting pretty bad when I was making the final decent to the van. The picture above is of Bowen Lake from the ridge, Cascade Mountain is directly behind the lake to the left and Bowen Mountain is in the distance. All in all this was a really beautiful trip, very few people and a great place. We had a good time together although the knee problems were a little frustrating.

Never Summer Wilderness Links