PT. 13,691
PT. 13,688A
September 29, 2010
By Tim Briese
10.8 miles, 3800’ elevation gain, 8:20 roundtrip time
For the third morning in a row Brian and I drove southwest from Lake City on the Cinnamon Pass Road for the climb today. We passed the popular Silver Creek Trailhead and continued 0.75 miles to a point where the road crosses Cooper Creek. From this crossing we went 50 yards further up a slight hill and pulled into a parking area on the left side of the road, per excellent directions in Beth Dwyer’s trip report for these peaks.
We began our hike at 7:45 on this cold and frosty morning. We made an easy bushwhack 200 yards north along the west side of Cooper Creek and picked up an excellent trail that we followed on up the valley. It was a mystery to us why this nice trail, which appeared to be an old 4WD road, didn’t go straight out to the road where we had parked, but perhaps private property concerns or mining claims had dictated its original placement. After 1.5 miles the trail crossed to the east side of the creek and then back to the west side at 2.4 miles. Shortly after this the valley forked and the trail left the creek and climbed steadily north toward the fork that curves westward up to Cooper Lake. We paused to admire a nice view of Handies Peak back down the valley as well as vibrant fall colors in the surrounding tundra. We left the trail and crossed a creek at around 12,000 feet and continued north up a steep grassy slope to a saddle on the ridge above at 12,850 feet. We arrived at the saddle at 10:30 and took a welcome break.
From the saddle we followed the curving ridge eastward toward Pt. 13,691. It was a pleasant surprise to find a helpful climbers trail all the way on the ridge. There were fine views of Uncompahgre Peak off to the north from the ridge. We went over Pt. 13,484 and continued on to Pt. 13,691, where we arrived at 11:45. We were blessed with perfect conditions and unlimited visibility for the third day in a row! We sat and relaxed in the shirt sleeve weather for half an hour before departing for Pt. 13,688, which lay a mile away to the southeast.
We scooted down the ridge on a nice climbers trail to the saddle between the peaks and hiked the gentle and easy ridge on over to Pt. 13,688, where we arrived at 1:10. The hike from one peak to the other took a little less than an hour. We spent another half hour or more on this peak as well, relaxing in the balmy conditions and gazing about at the fine views of nearby Redcloud and other peaks.
Eventually we left the summit and returned back down the ridge part way to the saddle. We left the ridge and made a fast and easy descent on gravel and then grass into the eastern fork of the Cooper Creek drainage. Although there was a faint trail in places, we mostly bushwhacked down the grassy and gentle valley back to the main trail we had come up in the morning. The afternoon heat in the lower valley was quite stifling as we tramped back down the trail. It felt more like July than late September! We arrived back at the truck a few minutes after 4 and sat on the tailgate enjoying a celebratory Coke before heading back down the road.
