PT. 13,811 and PT. 13,832
July 11, 2005
By Tim Briese
These two gentle summits west of Lake City are usually climbed from the Silver Creek approach off the Cinnamon Pass Road. I had done the initial part of that route before when I climbed Redcloud Peak, and preferring to explore something new, I decided to climb them from the seldom-used Williams Creek approach.
I left Lake City and drove to the Williams Creek Trailhead with my wife Teresa early in the morning on a beautiful day in early July. We began hiking up the Williams Creek Trail with our lab Jorie a little before 7:00 a.m. We would have typically started earlier on such a long hike but the forecast called for perfect weather today. After following Williams Creek for three-fourths of a mile, the trail left the creek and went up a side drainage to the west, past several charming beaver ponds and along the snout of a talus slope.
After crossing a meadow the route turned north and climbed up through groves of shimmering green aspen trees. Teresa and I reveled in the beauty of the distant views that began to open up through the trees as we climbed higher. Jorie, meanwhile was having a delightful day romping all about through the woods. The day remained sunny and beautiful, without a cloud in the sky.
We reached a fine viewpoint just above timberline at about 12,100', where we paused to admire a nice view of Sunshine and Redcloud off to the west. From here we could also see the rest of the route to Pt.13,811 and Pt.13,832.
After a short break we descended to a small saddle and continued north for a half mile on a nice trail. At 12,500' we left the trail and bushwhacked up a grassy slope toward a flat area at 13,100'. We admired nice patches of purple and yellow flowers here and there, but they did not seem as profuse as I had seen in other places in the San Juans. When we reached the top of the slope we spotted a herd of elk grazing in a high meadow a few hundred yards ahead. It didn=t take long for them to notice us and our dog, and they immediately began trotting off to safer pastures and were soon out of sight.
We headed up a grass and gravel-covered slope to the northeast and reached a small saddle on the west ridge of Pt. 13,811, then hiked up the ridge an easy 150 yards to the summit. We arrived about 12:30, and sat around for half an hour enjoying the surrounding grandeur. There was a fine view of Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre off to the northwest. The sky was still clear, and visibility was sharp and crisp. There was no sense of urgency on our climb today because the weather was not a threat at all.
After we lounged around for a while we began our descent. Teresa decided that she had had enough climbing for today and elected to hike back down to the saddle at 12,100' and wait for me while I hiked on over to Pt. 13,832. She took Jorie with her for companionship. I watched the two of them recede into the distance below as I clipped off to the west at a rapid pace along the south side of the gentle ridge toward Pt. 13,832. Along the way I traversed around the south side of the intervening Pt. 13,632 to a small saddle, then climbed a half mile up a rocky ridge to my goal.
I arrived on top about 2:30, and spent 15 minutes resting there. I gazed back to the east at Pt. 13,811, and admired a fine point blank view of Redcloud to the west. I couldn=t help but marvel at the remarkably good weather we were blessed with today.
I rapidly descended a long slope directly toward the saddle where Teresa waited for me, descending 1500 feet in a scant 30 minutes. I contoured around the upper end of a drainage at the bottom of the slope and soon intersected the trail that we had gone up on at the saddle. I began to look around for Teresa, but Jorie had already spotted me and was running toward me. Teresa said that Jorie had sniffed the air and anticipated my approach several minutes before, when I was still probably over a half mile away.
We headed back down the easy trail in the afternoon sunshine, rather fatigued from the long hike. At about 6 p.m. we finally arrived back at the truck. I estimated that I hiked about 14 miles and climbed nearly 6000 feet of elevation gain today on our 11 hour hike. Teresa had done almost as much, too. We eagerly looked forward to a hot shower and dinner in Lake City.
