Snowmass Lake…no… Buckskin Pass

July 15, 2011  Snowmass Lake…no… Buckskin Pass   4.3 + 9.6        Total miles 74.7

Today we started thinking that we were going to see a new area of Snowmass.  We started our day with a blood pumping drive down a ski hill.  Yes, once again we were on one of those “4WD”roads.  With Kathi’s hands firmly placed in her personal steering wheel divots and my feet braced against the floor board we dropped some two miles down what could only be steep enough to call a double black diamond ski hill.  Around these parts they refer to the double black diamond trails as “gonzo abusive” or in kinder language “what was I thinking?”  All is well we survived the trip down.  The hike that we are on today is supposed to lead back to some epic lake sitting at the base of Mount Snowmass. Perfect.  It is a long 8.6 mile hike out there, but has such a small amount of elevation gain that it should be doable. 

The Ranger at Aspen said it is just like hiking at Conundrum Creek with lots of views.   This hike also passes through private land so make sure to close all gates as there will be livestock in the area. Within 2 tenths of a mile we were closing our first gate and tromping through the heavily wooded area only to come upon a herd of horned beef cattle.  Mothers with there 300 pound calves all stopped mid-chomp and stared at us.  Kathi words were, ahh, what do we do?  I said let me handle the lead on this.  With some slow moving and herding ‘emmm boss’ we were able to move the momma’s and babies off of the trail enough for us to pass through.  Of course I did not tell Kathi that chances were pretty good that the Big Boss Bull could quite possibly be in this same fenced in area as us.  Why worry about it, we might not see him and better yet Big Boss Bull might not see us J  I’m sure he is tame as people walk through here all of the time.  Right?

After our third gate we are some 2 miles back into this hike and all I can think about is, why the heck did the Ranger think this was like the Conundrum Creek trail.  This hike is as about as deep in the forest as you can get.  It is perfect blue skies.  Not a cloud to be seen, which is if we could even see enough of the sky to check that out.  My thoughts are wishing that we had done something else today.  Kathi finally put voice to what she was thinking and amazingly it was the same as me.  This is a waste of a beautiful day.  Since the elevation is not going to change much we will be seeing spruce and aspen trunks for about 16 miles. 

We stop and hold a caucus.

            Will this hike open up?

            Do you want to spend the day doing this type of hike?

            What else do you want to do?

            By the time we get back to the Maroon Bells it will be after 9 am, can we still get in?

            If we have to take the bus can we get up and back by 5?

The caucus ends with the decision to quick hike it out and get us some views?  What took us one hour to hike 2 miles, open and close three gates, and chase a herd of cattle off of the trail; it took us 35 minutes to undo.  We were back in the car jiffy quick.  And no, in case you were wondering, no Big Boss Bull chasing us.  I am thankful for that!

Now we get to take the bull by the horns and drive up the ski hill of a road which we came down earlier.  As we drive up I am thinking that the map makers should put some sort of diamond rating system on the 4WD roads around this area.  If they can rank the ski hill runs, they should be able to classify the roads using the same system!

On the drive over to Maroon Bells, I call the Ranger station to ask if we can still get in the park without having to take the bus.  And if not where we might find this bus station?  He said if we had a pass it was good for 5 days and it did not matter when we went through the gate after we possessed a pass.  This is good news for us as we are sure that we will now have time to get up to Buckskin Pass and back down at our leisure without worrying about missing the last bus.  We are still a bit tentative as we drive up to the entry station.  We are worried as the information coming from the Ranger Station is sometimes ‘not correct’.  When we flashed the pass, the guy said we were good!  Yipee!  We feel free!

Snow Corness

Since we are now two hours past what we would normally be traveling up this road we are surprised by all of the road bicyclers.  We played biker dodge all of the way up to the top.  The bikers here take up the whole lane.  There are signs for them to stay single file, but they do not follow that suggestion. (I guess I am guilty of ignoring traffic signs too; driving 55 is my most frequently ignored sign.)  All of these bikers are old enough to be carrying their ARP card.  (I know they are old enough because I received my first invitation to join ARP this year!)  Anyway I am guessing the reason they are riding two by two or three across must be they are checking in with each other to see how much further they must go before they are to the top or where the next oxygen station is located. 

We manage to not hit any bikers and see that in fact most of them make it to the top of the road. Ok, off to the pass.  On the drive over we are still wondering if we should go up Willow Pass or Buckskin Pass.  I had time to read out loud the write up in the book and we are thinking we will hold out making that decision until the last moment.

The decision to ditch out of the wooded trail and trade it for this was a great one! Even while getting out of the car we were greeted by incredible views.  We do a reset on the gps, grab our packs and poles, and get on the trail.  Once again the trail up the Buckskin is not for sissies.  It is up and lots of it.  I think there are only two sections that we get some flat so you can get a rest.

This is really steep

Shortly after taking the junction from Crater Lake to Buckskin/Willow pass we meet a guy who is heavily laden with a huge pack on his back and then all packed up the front to.  We asked him if he had come over the pass.  He said he hiked up to 11,800 and set up camp.  Then at midnight he got up and hiked up to the top to take moonlight panoramic photos of the whole area.  Well, now there is a new sport!  We asked which pass he might recommend.  He said Buckskin was prettier.  Ahh at last we know where we are gong!  Thanks!!

 After about a mile and a half I needed a mole skin time out.  My big toe was thinking about getting a blister. So we sat down in a nice shady spot and Kathi snacked while I retro-fitted some mole skin in a shape of a heart.  The heart shape fits the big toe perfectly when wrapped half on the top, half on the bottom.  While we are sitting there a guy passes us in a good pace up the mountain.  Here we thought we had a late start, but he is behind the clock on us.  Back on with the shoes and off we go.  By the time we catch up with the guy who passes us he is standing at the snow bridge that Kathi and I played Snow Bridge Rock hurl at yesterday.  He is wondering how to cross or if it is safe.  We told him that we crossed yesterday and one should take a more upwardly crossing pattern.  As we are crossing he is telling us that he is hoping to get up to the pass, but can only hike until 2o’clock as he has to meet his wife down at Maroon Lake at 4 o’clock.  He gets ahead of us on the trail and is trying to get in as much hiking as he can in a hurry.  Kathi and I are in no big hurry as the weather looks like it will hold.  We sit down on a large rock and have a half of a lunch.  We watch people coming over the pass and watch to see how they are negotiating the snowfields.  Some go down and around, others just walk through.  . 

We can get glimpses of 2 O’clock man as he heads in and around the switch backs.  We slog it up to where the snow began.  There are patches that are very easy to get through and others involve a bit more planning.  Our eyes are on the left of the snow cornice as we are going to go over the top at the point.  We see some person off on the right side of the pass on some rock cropping.  He is coming down…  We look at each other and wonder if that is 2 O’clock man?  Sure enough we met up with him and he said he made it to the top.  Sat down took a few pictures and now needs to fast foot it back down.  I really don’t think he can make it in two hours; this trail is way too rocky. 

Wonder what the story is with this saddle sitting out just off of the trail.  But we can make up our own story starter.

I have never seen one of these signs before.

How about this for a quick scramble down.

Kathi and I scramble up the left side of the last portion of snow.  We find the side of the mountain has clumps of what will soon be wild flowers holding the dirt on the side.  We use those as stepping stones to take four or five steps, stop and look for the next four or five steps.  This part of the trip is seriously steep.  But stay in the moment and don’t look down, because it would be a fast exit plan.  We make the top of the pass in four hours after we started the second part of our hiking day.  From the top we are getting great views of Snowmass Lake and Snowmass Mountain.  What a great choice of a way to spend a day!  While sitting at the top we can see where 2 O’clock man went down.  That sure looks like a better exit than the one we came up on.  We trekked over to it and hand scrambled down.

On my last note for today the snow bridge had developed a hole that could only be seen by coming down the mountain.  We took a very high trip back over so we were not even close to the hole.  We of course hurled some rocks at the bottom of the snow bridge to knock off the end of it.  We also met a guy who was coming to go up the pass and we directed him away from the hole. While we were telling him, two other guys were filtering water from the creek and said they did not see the hole until it was too late.  They did not fall through but felt the bridge was very uncomfortable and wobbly.  Yikes! 

4 hours up, 3 45 minutes to hike down. 

Back home to pack up so we can move to Estes Park