Tim's 1st Colorado Trip 3 14'ers and a Softball Tournament

[Davis2001R6]

Our annual Ammo A.F. softball tournament was to be held in Colorado Springs this year and I couldn't let the trip go be without any hiking. With original plans of going to Chicago Basin on the Durango Silverton Railway and climbing the 3 14'ers there, but couldn't get any takers.

So instead I found an easy 14'er that I could do on the drive up there before playing softball. With the help of some people on 14'ers.com Mt. Sherman was recommended. I just wanted something easy, well it's easy. After driving in 6 hours of rain I found myself in Fairplay, CO. Fairplay is also part of South Park, where the show was named from. It's the 5th highest city in Colorado at 9953'. It's a small town, but I found a bar and grill to get a burger at 8pm. It was still pouring outside and I was unsure how far I would be able to drive up the mountain in these conditions. To my pleasant surprise I was able to drive in the rainstorm all the way to 11,700ft, there was a small turnout there for a parking area. I was a bit worried about being up that high for a couple of reasons, it was still storming outside and after driving up from Phoenix, didn't want a killer headache in the morning from the altitude.

With the cold rain I had no intention of setting up the tent, so I slept an uncomfortable night in the car. Woke up and it was pretty clear, but dang cold out. Scott, you didn't tell me it was cold in the morning I drove to the next parking spot at 11,900' I tried to get up the hill a few hundred feet but the rocks were loose and the civic was telling me no. SO I backed down and parked. 5 minutes later a AWD Subaru did the same thing I did and then parked next to me.

The hike climbs up through some old mining ruins. With a few buildings and some equipment still left up there. There are some switchbacks with take you to a saddle between Mt. Sherman (14'er) and Mt. Sheridon (13'er), I start heading up the ridge to Sherman. The clouds are really coming in now and soon I can't see much while climbing up the ridge. Another 15 minutes and I'm on the summit ridge, the actual summit was just another 5 minute walk so made my way over there. I was the first one up on this Friday morning and signed in up top. I couldn't see anything so headed back down. Soon the group that parked next to me made it up too, we snapped pictures of each other and I kept heading down.

The weather looked to be getting worse on the way down so I decided against heading over to Sheridan as well. Plus I was supposed to be meeting some friends 2 hours away at the Coors Brewery in a few hours. I took a different way back down to check out another set of mining buildings. There were now about 20 people on there way up the hill. Of course once I got down to the car it was starting to clear up and my friends decided against the brewery tour after there 15 hour overnight drive up from Phoenix. So I headed to Colorado Springs to meet up with them.

Well after a Friday night pre-softball party bash and 2 more days of tiring softball we all woke up slowly on Monday. Everybody else headed back to down and the second half of my trip was beginning.

The drive from Colorado Springs to Lake City where my next trailhead was near was absolutely amazing. Part of the drive took you through the Royal Gorge, then up to Gunnison were Western States College is, then finally down what is possibly the most scenic road I've ever driven. Colorado 149. Once I made it to Lake City I found a place to eat. It's called Cannibal Grill and Packer Bar. The place only holds about 30 people, but they are absolutely friendly. Everybody was on a first name basis in there, it was like an episode of Cheers. Had a great 1/2lb buffalo burger that hit the spot.

After dinner I headed up the road to the Trailhead, it's a shelf road that one lane wide with thousand foot drop off all over the place. I made it in the Honda without too much problem, did bottom out once or twice. I slept in the car again, had a great idea of folding down the back seat and sleeping with feet in the trunk, well great idea, uncomfortable an as all heck. I did have a great window seat to view the meteor shower though. Woke up and it was cold out, didn't bring that much cold weather gear, just rain gear. So I slept another hour and risked getting chased off the mountain by the daily afternoon thunderstorms.

Once on the trail the effects of playing softball all weekend were really taking there toll on my. I was sluggish, tired, sore and this was the beginning of the hike. I just kept at slowly and took a lot of breaks, the weather seemed to be cooperating although a bit windy. The goes from forest to meadows next to flowing streams with wildflowers and marmots everywhere to finally climbing the switchbacks up to the ridge. First you climb up to Redcloud Peak at 14,036' then you go off the backside of that down to a saddle and climb Sunshine Peak at 14,001'. Once I was up on the ridge I actually felt a bit better. It took me about 45 minutes to get over to Sunshine from the summit of Redcloud. The views were amazing to say the least. I took about 30 minutes on the top of Sunshine and had the place to myself. For that matter only saw about 10 people the whole day and always had the summits to myself.

The climb back down to the saddle made the climb back UP to Redcloud seem tall again. If I was counting it would be 3 14'ers in my book. I didn't spend anytime back up top and just headed down this time. Once back down in the basin I took another break and just soaked in the views. It was a great day. Made it back to the trailhead in a roundtrip time of 7 hours 45 minutes for 12 miles of hiking. Once there I went to cook a late lunch. Man was I getting swarmed by hundreds of flies and some mosquitoes, boiled the water outside but had to go in the car to eat. Chicken and massed potatoes it was. It was cool enough to hang out outside, but in the car needed the AC on. After eating and it only being 4pm I didn't really want to hang out there all day and night. I had planned on climbing Handies the next day, but decided to come back a day early instead.

The rest of the drive down CO 149 was equally amazing, it crossed the continental divide then down into some valleys where the Rio Grande Starts. Views all day long and a perfect clear sky. Starting chasing the sunset when I filled up in Pagosa Springs and think it finally set just before Durango. Starting sealing a lot of dear in the next few hours, made the 1 lane 65mph roads with oncoming traffic and deer watch a little harder. Made it to Kayenta where I slept for a few hours then drove to Yuba City. Once on 89 I found a dirt road to pull off on and sleep for another hour or two. Saw more of the metior shower on the drive over as well. After sunrise headed down into Flag and back the familiar road home.

The highlight of the last part of the drive is I finally got 500+ miles on one tank of gas. From Pagosa Springs,CO to the gas station next to my house. 509.5 miles on 11.95 gallons of gas. 42.6 MPG. It only took 85,000 miles of driving the civic to finally get a 500 mile tank. I know I'm weird, I got excited over this.

You can look at my pictures Here

So if anyone is planning a trip to climb some 14'ers in CO, let me know if you want some company. There are 52 other mountains calling my name now.

-TIM-

[Desert-Boonie]

Sounds like a nice adventure Tim. Seems like you did the 14er's I would love to do now, shorter hike and great views. There certainly are some great roads to drive up there as I was treated to the same thing 2 weeks ago for the first time. I can only wish to get 500 miles on a tank of gas. Good job.

Go Cubs Go
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~Never Satisfied~

"If I can't be my own, I'd feel better dead"

[sbkelley]

Sweet story Tim. 14ers are addicting, be careful what you wish for

Forgot to warn you about that shelf road, but sounds like your Civic made it up another rough dirt road. And nah, Handies doesn't fall into the revenge hike category...
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Mountains complement desert as desert complements city, as wilderness complements and completes civilization. - Ed Abbey

[Suz]

Tim, looks like a great trip. What was that little critter?

[Davis2001R6]

Those were Marmots, I hear they love to chew up anything you leave around camp. They eat stuff for the salt. I was hoping to see some Mountain goats, but no luck.

As for the roads I was actually pleasantly surprised, I think they were both better than the road to Browns Peak. After all isn't that the standard to compare all dirt roads?

[Canyon Dweller]

Sounds like you had a great trip. THought you would of done Pikes Peak, being right next to it. Even though Shermen is not real difficult, I did find that one was really neet to do.
Coming down Sunshine you should of taken the the "Dangerous descent." I found that was a really exciting way down.
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Mountains are there to be climbed!

"Meaningless! Meaningless," says the teacher, "Utterly Meaningless, Everything is meaningless."-Ecclesiastes 1:2

[Davis2001R6]

Yeah Sherman was an easy one, but with only having a few hours and zero time to acclimate it was perfect for me. All the old mining stuff was pretty cool too. Can you imagine working mines between 12-13k feet? As if it's not a hard enough job to begin with.

Screw that route down to the South Fork of Silver Creek, that looked like a scree filled hell route, I did see 2 people going down it, it was slow going for them. It there was a storm approaching I wouldn't have thought twice about it though.

Too many people on Pikes Peak, maybe I'll drive to the top of that one.

[Arizonaheat]

Scott is right,they are addicting. I was there Aug 9-16 around Buena Vista in the Sawatch Range, we could have hooked up.

I went down the escape route two years ago to avoid weather, definitely steep.

Suz, Tim's Marmot is also known as a Woodchuck or Whistle Pig (beacause of the high shrill whistle type noise it makes)
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Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

[gpsjoe]

[Arizonaheat]

Just missed you Joe. I went to gold rush days on Saturday and headed to Albequerque Sat. around 2:30.

I will have a write up and pictures up soon, with my intinerary.
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Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life.

[Davis2001R6]

Already planning the next trip, afraid it will have to wait till next summer though.