MT. WHITE
(13,667')June 23, 2007
By Tim Briese
I left home at 3:45 a.m. with my two labs and drove to the Browns Creek Trailhead southwest of Buena Vista. The sun rose shortly before I reached the parking area, casting its early morning glow on Mt. White and nearby peaks in the Sawatch Range. I left the trailhead at 6:20 and hiked up the fine trail a mile and a half to a junction with the Colorado Trail. My plan was to hike up the Little Browns Creek Trail to the peak and then loop around and return via Browns Lake and the Browns Creek Trail, in order to explore as much as I could of this area that I had never visited before.
At the Colorado Trail junction I consulted my map and then turned to the right and hiked a quarter mile until I reached a signed junction for the Little Browns Creek Trail. Here I turned left and followed the trail as it climbed up through the woods, rounded a ridge, and contoured into the Little Browns Creek drainage. After a mile or so the trail took me to the north bank of the creek, where my dogs stopped for a welcome drink of water. The trail gradually climbed higher to timberline, where I encountered a few lingering banks of snow. I continued on the trail nearly all the way to a gentle saddle at 12,800 feet, as the slopes of Mt. White loomed above to the left. About a quarter mile short of the saddle I left the trail and bushwhacked up to the left in the general direction of the summit. I managed to stay on grassy slopes up to about 13,300 feet, then continued on modest talus up to the summit ridge. At this point I had hiked about six miles from the trailhead.
White has two summit points a short distance apart, and I checked out the northeastern one and then the southwestern one, concluding that they are very close in elevation. I wished I had my hand level along to make a precise determination of which one is higher. I arrived on top about 11 a.m. and lounged around for 45 minutes enjoying the fine views of Shavano and Tabeguache, Antero, and the Carbonate group off to the west. It was a remarkably warm day, nearly 70 degrees even at this high elevation.
After my pleasant summit sojourn I took my leave and began to descend the west ridge. There was a climber=s trail of sorts on the ridge, indicating it was the most common way to reach the summit, even though the terrain was rougher here than on the north slopes that I had come up. My next objective was to reach Browns Lake, which I could see in the valley to the south 2000 feet below. A direct descent was not feasible so I continued west down the ridge looking for terrain friendly enough to permit a descent into the valley. I saw a herd of mountain goats frolicking on the tundra nearby, as well as climbers in the distance to the north ascending an old jeep road toward Antero. I could have continued west a considerable distance to a jeep road on which to descend into the Browns Creek Valley, but I hoped to find a shorter route. At about 12,800 feet I found what I was looking for, a scree and talus slope that permitted a safe descent. I rapidly descended to the floor of the valley and got on a jeep road about a half mile west of the lake. It was very hot in the midday sun and my thirsty dogs sprinted to water in the nearby creek.
Browns Lake lies in a beautiful setting, and I noted splendid camping areas in the open woods west of the lake as I strolled by. I hiked to the east end of the lake and found a nice spot to sit under the shade of a big tree and enjoy this special place. After resting for nearly an hour I continued down the scenic Browns Creek Trail. A lot of water was roaring down the creek at this season. I took a side trail about a hundred yards to check out a pretty waterfall along the way. There were a few other hikers on the trail today, mostly families and couples. The temperature became hotter and hotter as I descended. Eventually I reached the Colorado Trail junction where I had been in the morning, and turned right and hiked the remaining distance down to my truck. It took me about two and a half hours to hike the six miles from the lake to the trailhead. I reached my truck at 4:40, and eagerly jumped in and turned on the air conditioner to cool off. The entire loop hike took me just over ten hours, and involved about 15 miles of hiking and 5000 feet of elevation gain.
