Temperatures in the upper 90's drove me out of the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park in Utah and I wandered over into Colorado and made my way to Silverton, an old mining town and a National District Landmark.
Heading north towards Molas Pass I turned off onto a forest road just 2 miles above Silverton and was treated to a nice surprise. Several 12-13000 foot peaks rise up from the South Fork of Mineral Creek completely enclosing a narrow valley. Even the exposed peaks were covered in snow at that level and snow came down to about 10000 feet in amongst the trees. Two large designated (free) campgrounds and a smaller one lie next to the South Fork with only a couple people in them.
The first day I drove to mile 4 and parked by the fee based campground to walk the last 2-3 miles to a couple of trailheads to make sure I'd be able to drive it. Good thing I did. 1/4 mile brought me to several feet of snow covering the road. Avalanche territory. A high, long wall sits on top of steep slopes and all the snow had tumbled down for as far as I could see. Just little stretches of road could be seen here and there. I hiked on top of the snow for 1.5 miles or so before the legs gave out and I turned back.
The next day a 69 year old man asked me if I wanted to climb a peak with him. The Ice Lake Basin Trail and the Clear Lake 4WD road were both snowed in. He had spotted a chute clear of snow all the way to the top. I said sure and off we went. The goal was to go as far as either of us wanted.
Well, I had never even been on a trail that steep, somewhere between 45-60 degrees. Every step had to be planted carefully so as not to slide back. Half the time it was climbing with hands as well as feet. 30 minutes into the hike it started snowing and blowing and it was really coming down. We kept going, up over a small bluff and it never leveled off a bit. I was amazed at all the elk droppings and quite a few bear droppings too... everywhere you looked. I guess the grass and growth on the chute provides the best grazing in the area.
I lasted about an hour under those conditions. I think I'd gone somewhere under a mile and 1000 feet. I turned back and carefully inched my way back down and fell only once and that was almost at the bottom.
I got back to camp and turned my Coleman propane heater on after talking to my hiking partner's traveling partner. An hour later he came over quite concerned the guy hadn't returned yet because conditions had worsened. I started the hike with a T-shirt, a regular shirt, a Polartec vest and a rain jacket. He had started out with a T-shirt and condescended to put on a shirt on the way up. He thought the exercise would warm him up.
I didn't know what other gear he might have had in his day pack. We discussed going into Silverton to contact the National Forest Service and decided to wait another hour. We both drove back to the bottom of the chute and there he was in his truck warming up. He had made it 2500 feet to a false summit and couldn't go any farther.
Quite an interesting man. He planned to spend the summer backpacking up the various peaks in the Silverton area. He claims there are so many peaks he will never do the same one twice.
The weather got the best of me and I headed back to Moab, Utah via Grand Mesa up near Grand Junction, CO. I had hiked in this area before and thought I'd check it out on the way. I ran into a near blizzard at 10000 feet. Grand Mesa was still covered in many feet of snow, it's 200 lakes were still frozen over and the snowmobilers were out in force. Not for me.