Hagerman Pass to Minturn

No more water diversions, please!
My guardian aphid awakens on my water bottle.
I woke up in the cozy camper on the back of Curly and ate cookies for breakfast while I looked at my maps. When I got up I fired up the truck, turned on the radio to some country music station, and rolled down the Pass to Lyle Creek to get some more water. A 4-inch brook trout lived in the pool I sat over while I pumped water through my filter. It would swim slowly around under my legs then dart back under a mossy boulder, and then cautiously swim out again.
With all of my water bottles filled I rolled back up to the Pass, parked, loaded up and got hiking. I followed the high, lonesome ridgeline for a while, traversing below the subtle summits. The wind was howling again today and my left (windward) ear was beginning to hurt. To escape the battering of the wind I dropped into the top of the Middle Fork of Homestake Creek and followed it down to Homestake Lake. I rinsed out my t-shirt, shorts, and socks, took a bath and then sunbathed on a rock until my clothes dried out.
I hiked on down to the very low Homestake Reservoir then turned up the steep creek coming down from Paradise Lakes. I clawed my way up the trickle of water amongst smooth angular boulders. Half way up I came across a ridiculously over carined trail. The steepness slackened and the creek made many fine pools.
I set up camp near one of the lakes in the lee of a clump of trees and bathed and rinsed my clothes again. I caught a few brookies for dinner. It was hard to eat it all--my stomach shrinks under heavy exertion. I also think my digestion slows down a bit at high altitude. Many elk wandered through my camp after dark. I hope they were elk!
It was windy in the morning and I got going slowly. Clouds were moving overhead more consistantly now. The monsoon was coming back. The land sure needs it!
I headed up grassy slopes to a pass above Paradise Lakes. The descent into the valley on the other side was very steep. I scrambled along ledges and came to a few dead ends, but eventually found a route down.
A short ways further I came to Brady Lakes. It rained lightly. I tried to make a high traverse to Missouri Creek, but I kept running into impassable cliff bands. I headed down the valley to where a diversion sucks water out of Sopris Creek, then followed a road about a mile to the Missouri Lakes Trailhead. It seems to be a favorite among Denverites and Vailites. I'm all in favor of getting as many people out into the wilderness as possible. People who appreciate and understand what it is will help protect it. And the more the better!
There were pamphlets in a box raising awareness about future tunneling and diversion plans for the few remaining free-flowing creeks on that side of the range--the final phases of the Homestake Project. So far the project has been stopped in the courts.
I hiked up the beautiful trail amongst the crowds. The thick forest and slot canyons gave way to a broad, high valley holding large lakes and well irrigated meadows. I hiked up and over a pass into the even grander Cross Creek Valley. An Aspen couple coming the other way recognized me by my sandals. Then up and over Fancy Pass on an old mining road and down to Fancy Lake. I traversed around the mountainside and passed a struggling, spread out group of middle aged men all with large 35mm cameras around their necks. They looked like they must be upstanding white collar professionals when they were at home in Conneticut, but the wilderness and the exertion at altitude had reduced them to a pathetic state. Like a young childen in the back seat on a road trip they asked me "Are we almost to Fancy Lake?"
I soon arrived in the ghost town of Holy Cross City, established in 1870 at 11,400 feet. It is a popular 4wd spot with rusting relics and delapidated buildings from the mining days.
I traversed the mountainside further over to French Creek and found a camp site at the top of a large meadow. I rinsed off in some of the last rays of sunshine before the sun was blocked by the mountains to the west. I saw plenty of fish in the creek, but didn't have the energy to go after them. I confirmed my love of ramen noodles at dinner while the setting sun lit up large thunderheads to the east over the Gore Range.
I got up early and off for a big day. I hiked up and over Fall Creek Pass, down Fall Creek, made a turn to the west a mile or so later and followed the waterfalls up to Tuhare Lakes. What a spactacular place this would be in non-drought time when the waterfalls were pumping! I climbed bench after bench until I was at the high lake, traversed its shore and then headed up to the Holy Cross ridge and point 13,831. Storm clouds were building. I figured I could make the traverse up to Mount of the Holy Cross in time. I could see people on the summit. A boom of thunder from a storm to the south got me moving. I was exhausted and nervous when I reached the summit. I grabbed a sip of water and snapped a few photos and got out.
I passed a few folks on the way down. One guy was on a small radio playing "Everest Expedition Leader" with the remnants of his crew who did not make the summit and were having trouble making it back down. Talked to another guy who gave me the low down on the fires. Fire evereywhere! The Trapper's Lake area had burned up and there was another fire near Steamboat that they feared would head into the blowdown areas and go nuts in all the deafall.
I stopped for lunch just above tree line. A gap in the storm clouds shot beams down on the peak above.
I headed on down and down to East Cross Creek, sampling the berries along the way. I followed a steep, faint trail down toward Cross Creek. On a granite ledge I stopped near the bottom for a break. I took several photos of a baby tree growing out of the rock. I erased the photos that did not work out, but forgot to lock the pictures from earlier in the day and erased them too. Damn!!! I was just tired and a little euphoric from a long and successful day and I got careless. I was thrown into a tailspin. I lost the trail for the short way down to the creek but didn't care. I was heading for a meadow on the creek I'd spotted from above, but turned the wrong way when I reached the creek. I thrashed around in the miserable forest for more than an hour wishing I was relaxing in a sunny meadow. I finally found it, only 100 yards from where I made the wrong turn. I set up camp and caught a few brookies for dinner.
I awoke and groaned, looking at the dark and unfriendly sky. I had been making good time and figured I could make the loop across to East Lake Creek and back to Hagerman Pass without a resupply. I headed downstream a short ways and then headed up the Grouse Mountain Trail. It started to rain lightly. I stopped for a snack under a large douglass fir. It started to rain a bit harder, but I pushed on. The sky got darker and darker and it became a full on downpour. I decided to turn around because I could not see myself making it around Grouse Mountain and Turquoise Lakes to East Lake Creek in this kind of weather. After seven miles of hiking down Cross Creek I emerged on US Highway 24 near Minturn.
What was left of Homestake Reservoir.
My route up to Paradise Lakes.
Looking across the head of Cross Creek Valley to Blodgett Lake.
Beams of evening sun.
Looking down on Tuhare Lakes from the Holy Cross Ridge.
Looking south down the Holy Cross Ridge.
A baby spruce getting a start the hard way.
An evening in the Cross Creek Valley.
A shy snowshoe hare.