It's a Conundrum

July 11, 2011  Conundrum Creek  trail     11.6 miles hiked                                Total miles 29.6

Starting elevation is 8824  Elevation at pond is 10200

If yesterday was all about adventure then today is all about wonder and beauty.  Not much adventure and a day full of dry boots!

You might be wondering if I have the name of the trail correct.  I do.  The name is said to come from a mining tale of there being some source of gold up this creek.  Miners worked the valley creek bed looking for the Mother Load source of flakes of gold that they could pan out of the creek bed.  No mother load was ever located and caused a Conundrum…    On the hike you can see lots of evidence of mining talus, parts of the mining road that miners once used to get to the back valley and even an old log cabin that is slowly melting back into the earth.

The road to the trail head is very easy to travel until the last half mile.  This half mile the road is just wide enough for one car.  Hilly, twisty and curvy, I am not sure how one would possibly pass another car that was trying to leave the trailhead.  God most certainly helped with traffic control as we did not have to try to figure out how to maneuver any passing cars during this half mile when arriving and leaving.  I think had we rented the Ford 150 the wheels of the truck would have been off of the road on both sides…  At least with the Dakota truck we had at least four inches on both sides of the vehicle to maneuver J

We find some parking but we are glad that it is Monday as I am thinking that this place must have been hopping during the weekend.  At the trailhead we see an unusual sign.  Upon further reading I see this trail is a total pack in and pack out trail.  And I mean TOTAL.  They even provide you with collection and pack out supplies and as an added plus, directions to pack out your poo…  I guess with all of the visitors and people spending more than one night here, they feel the conditions are too difficult to have the short summer weather compost what ever people would be leaving behindJ

As we start hiking we are walking right along the rushing creek.  Since the valley is still melting out, the creek is running fast and high.  The water is clear and has a blue tint to it.  Forget about carrying on a conversation while hiking close to the creek as the water is moving so fast that the noise blocks out all conversation.  We walk about the first mile and a half saying very little, just enjoying the views of hiking and watching the rushing creek. 

As the trail moves further back into the valley it moves further away from the creek making it easier to talk.  We are both amazed at how dry the trail is after yesterday’s adventures.  We enjoy the flowers and views of the surrounding mountain range.  The valley is steep and there is evidence of many avalanches that wipe out all of the trees, making the views spectacular!  Ok, before I go any further I will explain that we are in no danger of being part of an avalanche.  During the winter when the Aspen/ Snowmass area received some 600 inches of snow, the snow just piles up. Since the walls of these mountains are at such a steep angle the snow just releases itself and avalanches itself off of the mountainside down to the creek taking any trees right along with it.  This opens up the trail for some spectacular views up and down the valley.  So it is like going from a little forest to a beautiful meadow filled with flowers. We saw wide geraniums, columbine, Iris, Blue bells, purple bells, and purple crown vetch. Yellow aspen sun flowers and a bunch more that I do not know the names of. 

We also spotted two doe and one bounding buck in velvet.  We heard pikas but did not see any.  We also heard the bird that I love to hear in the mountain.  I do not know the name, but I think it sounds like the bird is singing into a tin can…

It took us 3 hours and 5 minutes to hike all the way back to the Silver Dollar ponds.  We would have really liked hiking up to the hot springs to take in the scene, but the trail was flooded and the last river crossing was well let’s say challenging  or maybe extremely dangerous…  Imagine fording across a creek which is running fast.  The depth would be somewhere around waist high, and to help you go across someone has strung a black rope across so you can sort of hang on with your hands and hope for the best…

We didn’t need that type of adventure just to see a pool of sulfur water at a constant temp of 102 degrees.  Well, maybe since clothing is optional, it might have been interesting, but not if it meant crossing while trying to hang on for dear life.  We certainly did not bring any climbing harness and I did not hear that any one was gong to belay us across the creek.  We had already had a creek crossing that was on a tree the size of a toothpick.  So we sat down at the ponds and had a wonderful peanut butter and jelly lunch.  The skies were the best that we have had since arriving.  Temps were in the 70’s.  We actually sat down on a rock and took in the beauty for a half hour.

The trip back we talked about how this trail might have been what Oh Be Joyful might have been like if we had not been walking with our heads down…  We just really found this hike to be a special hike.  It was just right in every way.  Today’s hike offered views galore, flowers, trees, smells, sounds and history.  All the ingredients of a perfect day!

Got back to the car at around 2:48 and drove into Aspen. (In case you are wondering the truck continues to bing it’s change oil warning every time you turn it on.  I wonder how many times we will start this truck before we can ignore the distracting bing?)  We walked around downtown Aspen and decided we did not make enough money to be walking around down town Aspen…

But since Aspen is a Star studded town at least I tried to see if I could recognize anyone… No such luck.

What a hike, beauty, history, environmental science…A hike of natural balance !