One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: July 21, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1985_0727-28_SnowmassMtn.htm)
(Originally posted to internal newsgroup:
hpfcla:hpnc.general/ajs / 4:04 pm Aug 6, 1985)
On Saturday (Aug 3), Dave Landers and his brother John Landers took a bunch of SEEDS up Longs Peak. I nearly went on that one, but didn't make it, so no report. (You'll just have to climb it yourself, and find out the hard way :-)
But on Sunday (Aug 4), Dave and I did a nice hike in the Indian Peaks Wilderness west of Boulder, for Pawnee Peak and Mount Toll, one worthy of a trip report. (In hindsight it's mind-boggling that Dave was in good enough condition for another long hike the day after Longs!)
To get to Brainard Lake we turned on a paved but worn road just north of the town of Ward on Colorado highway 72. It was about five miles to the lake, and a little more to one of the two trailheads. We arrived at the Long Lake trailhead at 0920, and just barely got a parking space along the road near the parking lot. This place always filled up early!
We started up at 0935 from about 10440', and didn't make our first stop till well above Lake Isabelle. Total time to Pawnee Pass (12541') was 2:10 (4.3 miles). Past the lake the trail was rather rocky and worn, but not especially steep except for a short section. The wind was blowing very hard, perhaps 80-knot peak gusts. Oh well, better wind than clouds.
It took us another 25 minutes to climb the 400' north to the top of Pawnee Peak (12943'). There was no trail to the top, but it was an easy climb, not very steep or impressive. Our total time from the trailhead was just 2:35 for about 2500'.
Once we left the pass we encountered only two other small parties before returning to a trail much later. We lounged on top (behind a windbreak!) from 1210 to 1325 and had the summit to ourselves. There was a nice view of Longs Peak from the south, and most of the tall peaks in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area, such as Audubon, Paiute, Toll, Apache, Navajo, Shoshone, North and South Arapaho. (It helped to have a topo map!)
Next we dropped 400' to the north, to the saddle with Mount Toll, in 25 minutes, then climbed north to Toll (12979') in another 25. The drop to the saddle was no harder than the climb up Pawnee. Toll was steeper and sharper than Pawnee, so a little more interesting to climb. Like Pawnee (but unlike most of the Fourteeners for some reason) it had an impressive rock-wall shelter on top. We couldn't see Longs from here (Paiute Peak was in the way), but we looked across to Mount Audubon (13223'), and down to Blue Lake and Mitchell Lake.
We fantasized crossing another saddle north up to Paiute Peak (13088') and then a mile east to Audobon. Well it was late enough and we'd already done 3100' vertical, so we headed down at 1435. The crossing to Paiute looked almost technical, certainly a tough 580' descent then a rugged 690' climb. From there it was an easy mile to Audobon, another 500' drop and 650' climb. It looked like the way to do Paiute was from Audobon, or perhaps directly from Blue Lake.
Coming off Mount Toll to the southeast I found a nice steep snowfield which made for a quick glissade, about 800' drop. We traversed slowly across the rocks high above the south side of Blue Lake. This area was unusually pretty, a combination of granitic shield rocks, mosses, ponds, lots of cracks, ledges, and small challenges. It reminded me of the area southeast of Bowl of Tears, below Mount of the Holy Cross. Slow but interesting hiking, fascinating topology and route-finding.
We departed Blue Lake on the trail at 1630 and made it to the "other" trailhead an hour later (2.5 miles), from which it was another 15 minutes to the car at the first trailhead. Total time for the loop was 8:10 for about 10.5 miles. This was a long but not terribly difficult day. It certainly had many rewards -- a variety of spectacular views.
This time of year wildflowers abounded between Blue Lake and Mitchell Lake. If you were looking for a short, easy hike (though the trail was rocky), you'd do the 2.5 miles to Blue Lake and back, with an optional cross-country loop up and around the lake (as high as you might want to go).
Alan Silverstein
(Next trip report: 1985_0809-11_NorthMaroon.htm)