PT. 13,580B
June 19, 2008
By Tim Briese
12 miles, 4800' elevation gain, 12:30 roundtrip time
This Bicentennial peak in the Sangre de Cristos is best accessed via Willow Lake, one of my favorite scenic spots in this part of the state. When I asked my wife Teresa if she would like to join me for this one she eagerly agreed because she had been to the lake with me before and knew what a treat it would be.
The trailhead is on the west side of the Sangre de Cristos, a long distance from our home north of Colorado Springs so we left early at 3:20 a.m. to drive there. The full moon shone in the southwestern sky and after a while we were treated to a grand view of it setting over the mountains. We drove to Buena Vista and then south into the San Luis Valley to the quirky village of Crestone, before driving the final few miles up a dirt road to the South Crestone Creek Trailhead. It took us about three and a half hours to get there from our home.
At 7 a.m. we struck off up the Willow Creek Trail with our lab Allie through stands of junipers, pine, and aspen. It was a clear and beautiful June morning. Soon we passed a group of 17 teen and adult hikers from the Horn Creek Camp on the other side of the range who told us they were on their way to climb Challenger Peak today. We hiked up the beautiful valley, reveling in the scenic splendor surrounding us. When we reached a point where the trail crossed Willow Creek we proceeded with great care because the creek was raging with snowmelt. We switchbacked up a headwall to a more level stretch of the valley where we were greeted by our first view of Pt. 13,580B. As we hiked the final mile up to the lake we admired impressive rock walls towering above to the south. We passed a herd of about 20 bighorn sheep grazing in a meadow nearby. When they saw Allie they seemed to panic and bolted uphill to a rocky outcropping on the other side of the trail, which was seemingly a more comfortable place for them from which they merely stood and watched us stroll past.
We reached Willow Lake at 10:30, after climbing about 2700 feet of elevation in four and a half miles from the trailhead. The beautiful lake lies right at timberline, at about 11,600 feet. We sat on the shore for a while and gazed at the waterfall spilling over the cliff on the other side of the lake while we took a break. Our pace was a little slower than I expected today, but it was our first major climb of the season and we were not in top condition yet. Teresa considered just relaxing at the lake while I climbed the peak but in the end she decided to go up with me, for which I was glad.
From the lake we bushwhacked up a steep grass slope north of the lake, admiring the splendid view of the lake far below as we climbed higher. We climbed about 500 feet up into a charming basin below Mt. Adams and gradually ascended northeast toward Adams for a ways. At about 12,500 feet we curved around to the southeast and followed a minor drainage up toward the Point. We managed to stay on grassy slopes all the way up to about 13,200 feet before finally engaging a talus slope for the final 400 foot climb up to the summit.
We arrived on top at 1:30 and spent a wonderful hour and fifteen minutes relaxing and enjoying the spectacular views from this vantage point. Willow Lake lay far below to the west and the Horn Creek drainage dropped away to the east. Across the valley I gazed at all the snow on the north slopes of Kit Carson and Challenger and I wondered how the party of climbers we met earlier was faring. I kept a watchful eye on the clouds but nothing seemed to threaten us yet.
At 2:45 we finally left the summit and decided to head down the north ridge of the peak to avoid the talus slope. When we neared the saddle between the Point and Mt. Adams we turned to the west and headed down into the drainage we had come up. We filtered water in the basin and proceeded back down the grassy slopes to the lake, where we arrived at 4:45. After a break on a rock outcropping on the shore we headed back down the Willow Creek Trail. We were getting tired by this time and the trail seemed to stretch on forever. Sangre climbs seem to have a way of beating me up, but I love them anyway! The clouds drifted away and the early evening light on the surrounding peaks and forests was quite enchanting.
We tramped back to the trailhead at 7:30, twelve and a half hours after we had left. We set a rather leisurely pace today and took a lot of breaks, enjoying everything to the fullest. We were treated to a beautiful sunset drive back up the San Luis Valley and we enjoyed the last rays of sunlight shining on the peaks in the northern part of the range in the clear evening air. Later on after dark we saw the moon come back up on our drive home. You know it is a long summer day when you witness the rising and setting of both the sun and the moon! We arrived home at 11:35 p.m., completing a wonderful 20-plus hour day, our longest such outing ever! We may be crazy for doing such things, but the memory of this day is one I will never forget.
