A New Personal Record on Mount Dickinson 6/14
13 mi, 5300' EVG RT
At this point in life I don't quite understand how some climbers can string together 5 peaks with 6000 feet of elevation gain each weekend. My comfortable summer elevation gain range is anywhere up to 4000' with occasional ventures to 4500, in part because many individual mountains in the area don't require that great an amount of gain(it would be different if I lived somewhere near the Sangres) and many multiple peak days require a degree of bushwhacking(which I plan for to be more difficult than it might actually be) so less gain to commit to just works out as a conservative approach. Besides, I like mountains. I'll dissect a tough 6 peak day into two leisurely 3 peak days out of the fear that at some point, the unclimbed mountains in the area are going to run out.
So my record for one day elevation gain was 4850', from Longs Peak Trailhead to Longs Peak Summit. Mike decided last winter that one of his climbs for June would be Mount Dickinson via the long lost Husted Trail. As someone recently remarked, mountains don't looks so tough on maps in a nice warm house in January...or something to that effect. Not until recently did it occur that it would be over 5000' including the pesky reclimb near the end. With that I thought maybe, but decided a few days earlier do go ahead and not view it as an "obscure, unranked 11er" as a recent TR aptly put it, but rather as Longs + 450'.
Then of course there were questions about the route. The Husted Trail appears on older maps but hasn't been maintained in many years, so it has disappeared from recent maps and memory(other trails in RMNP have faced similar abandonment). When Mike hiked to Fox Creek Falls last year he kept an eye out for a possible intersection of the Husted Trail and the North Boundary Trail, which he ended up finding and following pretty easily. How the trail fared farther west of the boundary and into the 2010 Cow Creek Fire burn area was unknown, though we suspected that once out of the trees a trail wasn't going to be necessary. From Dark Mountain the weekend before it was pretty apparent that snow wasn't going to be part of the day, so that was good to know.
Back at the Cow Creek trailhead for the second consecutive week, we turned up the North Boundary Trail and climbed the 600' hill and dropped down the other side(this would have to be reclimbed on the way back, where it's much steeper). West Creek was flowing pretty high for being mid June, and a quarter mile later we hit the intersection with the West Creek Falls spur and climbed up the second hill. I'd never been on this section of trail, and Mike was right that this second hill was neither as steep or long as the first. At the top of the hill we passed a pretty obvious intersection with another unmarked trail that heads east(I'd just noticed it on the map earlier in the week while planning the route for Mount Dickinson). We could see a view across the West Creek drainage towards Mummy Mountain, which sure looked far away. Dropping down a bit in a darker section of forest, stepping over a small seasonal drainage and making an inside turn we were met with a substantial cairn that marks the intersection with the Husted Trail.
Much like the unmarked Fire Trail in Glacier Gorge, the Husted Trail fans out at the intersection before condensing into a single path. About a hundred feet up you can easily see three old trail sign posts, which we theorized were for the intersection, a sign for entering RMNP and one to remind that there was no camping in the West Creek Research Natural Area which the entire trail and route to Dickinson is contained within. The first half mile of the trail is faint as it cuts through grassy meadows in the forest, though some cairns helped to mark the right direction. Deeper in the forest the trail is quite easy to follow for the most part, with some less obvious parts where trees had blown over the trail and rocky areas added confusion. In places where the trail curved, long pine trunks lined the correct route. In many places the trail was better than some of the maintained trails the national park advertises.
As the trail neared the 1.5 mile mark it entered the Cow Creek Fire burn area, where it became little more than a faint cairn path that became hard to follow. The rocky knobs of the lower ridge on Mount Dickinson rose far above, and they sure looked far away. At this point a trail isn't really necessary as the underbrush had been burned away and new growth between the well spaced trunks consisted of large grass clumps in the gravelly soil. Following along the small ridgeline we climbed to point 9485, dropped down 50 feet to a small saddle and climbed the steepest section of the day, a 250' climb of an aspen covered ridge to a large flat bench above. On maps this is where the Husted Trail ends, though we followed cairns up to 10300' where we crossed the upper Fox Creek drainage which was dry. Walking through a burn area might not sound like fun, but as routes go there aren't many easier bushwhacks than what we encountered. The widely spaced trees burned 3 years ago are mostly all still standing, all old underbrush is gone and with the layer of pine needles gone much of the route follows bands of quartz, making for cool black and white cairns. The burn isn't ugly at all, and views in all directions through the trees are pretty cool. Many of the trees appeared to be flash burned, meaning the blackened bark fell off leaving the golden trunks exposed. Not a blackened forest as much as it was a golden forest. The lower, flatter burn area had plenty of mid height grasses and outcroppings had plenty of 3' tall aspens taking over as mentioned, but also there were wild flowers and raspberry bushes filling in spaces between trees. The upper burn had less new growth, but that worked out nicely as climbing steepened. For only just approaching the fires third anniversary, the growth process in the generally dry area was progressing nicely. Wandering around in the burn area would make a good day in itself.
Near the obvious saddle with the 10400' contour we headed pretty much right up the side of the hill and out of the burn. Here the forest is shady and deadfall is easily navigable to tree line. At the first large knobby outcropping we took a break, Mike put on his jacket though I was happy in shorts despite the wind. The last bit of climbing above treeline is on good granite rock and flowery tundra. Passing through the upper outcroppings the climbing slowed, and a few false summits taunted me. The true summit is obvious, and a small stick/lightning rod marks it. Views in all directions are great; because Mount Dickinson can be seen from many places, many things can be seen from Mount Dickinson. Despite the haze from the recent fires(though no smoke from the nearby Big Meadows Fire could be seen, oddly) visibility was pretty good, and had it not been for the Black Forest Fire Pikes Peak probably could have been seen. Black Mountain and maybe Diamond Peak could be seen to the north, Pingree Park Road, Greyrock, the northeast expanse of Larimer County, a bit of the Medicine Bows, the eastern plains, Big Thompson Canyon, Boulder's mountains, bits of Estes Park and of course all of the big mountains of RMNP. Views of the Rowes and No Names were the best, Lake Husted, Lost Lake and Kettle Tarn could also be made out. The register was pretty torn up and damp, and the single pen had run out of ink sometime in late 2012, when the last entry was recorded. Thankfully I had some paper and donated my pencil to the greater cause of mountaineering history. I'm guessing we were the 3rd and 4th to summit in 2013.
Heading down went pretty quick despite tired legs. The one problem with the burn area is its low elevation and lack of shade, so the heat and dust kicked up was kind of a pain. Upon reaching the North Boundary Trail again we were both pretty tired having dropped 3300 feet in about two hours. My feet hurt pretty bad going down the gravelly trails, and when we reached West Creek again I sat down on the bridge and dangled my feet in the water while watching the little fishies below. I started the day with 5 liters of water and finished having drunk 5.5, good thing Mike had his water filter. The last gain of the day, putting us over the 5000 mark, went by surprisingly well(it hurt less to climb up than walk down at that point). From car to car, a time of just under 12 hours, we had seen zero people.
At this point in life I don't quite understand how some climbers can string together 5 peaks with 6000 feet of elevation gain each weekend. My comfortable summer elevation gain range is anywhere up to 4000' with occasional ventures to 4500, in part because many individual mountains in the area don't require that great an amount of gain(it would be different if I lived somewhere near the Sangres) and many multiple peak days require a degree of bushwhacking(which I plan for to be more difficult than it might actually be) so less gain to commit to just works out as a conservative approach. Besides, I like mountains. I'll dissect a tough 6 peak day into two leisurely 3 peak days out of the fear that at some point, the unclimbed mountains in the area are going to run out.
So my record for one day elevation gain was 4850', from Longs Peak Trailhead to Longs Peak Summit. Mike decided last winter that one of his climbs for June would be Mount Dickinson via the long lost Husted Trail. As someone recently remarked, mountains don't looks so tough on maps in a nice warm house in January...or something to that effect. Not until recently did it occur that it would be over 5000' including the pesky reclimb near the end. With that I thought maybe, but decided a few days earlier do go ahead and not view it as an "obscure, unranked 11er" as a recent TR aptly put it, but rather as Longs + 450'.
Then of course there were questions about the route. The Husted Trail appears on older maps but hasn't been maintained in many years, so it has disappeared from recent maps and memory(other trails in RMNP have faced similar abandonment). When Mike hiked to Fox Creek Falls last year he kept an eye out for a possible intersection of the Husted Trail and the North Boundary Trail, which he ended up finding and following pretty easily. How the trail fared farther west of the boundary and into the 2010 Cow Creek Fire burn area was unknown, though we suspected that once out of the trees a trail wasn't going to be necessary. From Dark Mountain the weekend before it was pretty apparent that snow wasn't going to be part of the day, so that was good to know.
Back at the Cow Creek trailhead for the second consecutive week, we turned up the North Boundary Trail and climbed the 600' hill and dropped down the other side(this would have to be reclimbed on the way back, where it's much steeper). West Creek was flowing pretty high for being mid June, and a quarter mile later we hit the intersection with the West Creek Falls spur and climbed up the second hill. I'd never been on this section of trail, and Mike was right that this second hill was neither as steep or long as the first. At the top of the hill we passed a pretty obvious intersection with another unmarked trail that heads east(I'd just noticed it on the map earlier in the week while planning the route for Mount Dickinson). We could see a view across the West Creek drainage towards Mummy Mountain, which sure looked far away. Dropping down a bit in a darker section of forest, stepping over a small seasonal drainage and making an inside turn we were met with a substantial cairn that marks the intersection with the Husted Trail.
Much like the unmarked Fire Trail in Glacier Gorge, the Husted Trail fans out at the intersection before condensing into a single path. About a hundred feet up you can easily see three old trail sign posts, which we theorized were for the intersection, a sign for entering RMNP and one to remind that there was no camping in the West Creek Research Natural Area which the entire trail and route to Dickinson is contained within. The first half mile of the trail is faint as it cuts through grassy meadows in the forest, though some cairns helped to mark the right direction. Deeper in the forest the trail is quite easy to follow for the most part, with some less obvious parts where trees had blown over the trail and rocky areas added confusion. In places where the trail curved, long pine trunks lined the correct route. In many places the trail was better than some of the maintained trails the national park advertises.
As the trail neared the 1.5 mile mark it entered the Cow Creek Fire burn area, where it became little more than a faint cairn path that became hard to follow. The rocky knobs of the lower ridge on Mount Dickinson rose far above, and they sure looked far away. At this point a trail isn't really necessary as the underbrush had been burned away and new growth between the well spaced trunks consisted of large grass clumps in the gravelly soil. Following along the small ridgeline we climbed to point 9485, dropped down 50 feet to a small saddle and climbed the steepest section of the day, a 250' climb of an aspen covered ridge to a large flat bench above. On maps this is where the Husted Trail ends, though we followed cairns up to 10300' where we crossed the upper Fox Creek drainage which was dry. Walking through a burn area might not sound like fun, but as routes go there aren't many easier bushwhacks than what we encountered. The widely spaced trees burned 3 years ago are mostly all still standing, all old underbrush is gone and with the layer of pine needles gone much of the route follows bands of quartz, making for cool black and white cairns. The burn isn't ugly at all, and views in all directions through the trees are pretty cool. Many of the trees appeared to be flash burned, meaning the blackened bark fell off leaving the golden trunks exposed. Not a blackened forest as much as it was a golden forest. The lower, flatter burn area had plenty of mid height grasses and outcroppings had plenty of 3' tall aspens taking over as mentioned, but also there were wild flowers and raspberry bushes filling in spaces between trees. The upper burn had less new growth, but that worked out nicely as climbing steepened. For only just approaching the fires third anniversary, the growth process in the generally dry area was progressing nicely. Wandering around in the burn area would make a good day in itself.
Near the obvious saddle with the 10400' contour we headed pretty much right up the side of the hill and out of the burn. Here the forest is shady and deadfall is easily navigable to tree line. At the first large knobby outcropping we took a break, Mike put on his jacket though I was happy in shorts despite the wind. The last bit of climbing above treeline is on good granite rock and flowery tundra. Passing through the upper outcroppings the climbing slowed, and a few false summits taunted me. The true summit is obvious, and a small stick/lightning rod marks it. Views in all directions are great; because Mount Dickinson can be seen from many places, many things can be seen from Mount Dickinson. Despite the haze from the recent fires(though no smoke from the nearby Big Meadows Fire could be seen, oddly) visibility was pretty good, and had it not been for the Black Forest Fire Pikes Peak probably could have been seen. Black Mountain and maybe Diamond Peak could be seen to the north, Pingree Park Road, Greyrock, the northeast expanse of Larimer County, a bit of the Medicine Bows, the eastern plains, Big Thompson Canyon, Boulder's mountains, bits of Estes Park and of course all of the big mountains of RMNP. Views of the Rowes and No Names were the best, Lake Husted, Lost Lake and Kettle Tarn could also be made out. The register was pretty torn up and damp, and the single pen had run out of ink sometime in late 2012, when the last entry was recorded. Thankfully I had some paper and donated my pencil to the greater cause of mountaineering history. I'm guessing we were the 3rd and 4th to summit in 2013.
Heading down went pretty quick despite tired legs. The one problem with the burn area is its low elevation and lack of shade, so the heat and dust kicked up was kind of a pain. Upon reaching the North Boundary Trail again we were both pretty tired having dropped 3300 feet in about two hours. My feet hurt pretty bad going down the gravelly trails, and when we reached West Creek again I sat down on the bridge and dangled my feet in the water while watching the little fishies below. I started the day with 5 liters of water and finished having drunk 5.5, good thing Mike had his water filter. The last gain of the day, putting us over the 5000 mark, went by surprisingly well(it hurt less to climb up than walk down at that point). From car to car, a time of just under 12 hours, we had seen zero people.
