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A chicken chipotle pizza at Steamworks, a fabulous room at the Rochester, and an hour of repacking into backpacks capped off our last evening in civilization. Art from Durango Transportation picked us up after breakfast and we were soon at the Transfer Park Trailhead meeting the rest of the group. From left to right: Jerry, Dana, John, Angie, Theresa, Pete, Vince, and Sharon. We were in excellent hands. After packing everything we would need for four days, we were off into Weminuche.
Pete Turner, owner of Colorado Mountain Expeditions, has trusted mules in the mountains for years. It took us only days to develop complete confidence in these magnificant animals. Calm and sure footed, mules are perfect companions for travelling the steep and rocky trails of the Weminuche. Our first day blossomed into a crisp, sunny nine mile ride. After a lunch stop along Lime Mesa, we crossed through Virginia Gulch, over Silver Mesa, and into Missouri Gulch to our first camp. We pitched our tent on a small bluff surrounded by the 12,000 foot ridges of Silver Mesa. Sharon's dinner of grilled chicken, Orange Roughy and wild rice kept us warm throughout the cold night. Despite the clear sky and billion stars we saw at bedtime, we awoke around 3 am to mixed rain and snow and surrounded by grazing mules. It was a unique experience.
We hit the trail after a hearty breakfast and blazed a path up to the head of Missouri Gulch. We stopped for a snack just below 12,800 foot Trimble Pass near an abandoned mine. Sitting atop my trusty mule Mandy, so far removed from the reality of my midwest life, it is hard to imagine the life of the miner who tried to claw out a living from this harsh land, high above the tree line. It is equally hard to imagine that, sitting atop her trusty mule Strawberry, Angie was almost 500 feet above her personal altitude record.
Once across Trimble Pass, the trail traversed the face of a steep ridge defining the end of Vallecito Gulch. Angie once again pushed the limits of her courage as Strawberry safely took her down a path she would have never taken on foot. Clouds and beams of sunlight dancing across the mountains and vast valley floor below us challenged the camera to make a believable image, and I was unable to accurately portray the angle of the face we were traversing. Rocks Jerry cleared from the trail as we made our way carefully across the face tumbled down hundreds of feet until they blended into the talus fields near the valley floor. Man, was I grateful for Mandy's flawless footwork!
If capturing the grandeur of the Vallecito traverse was difficult, capturing the feeling of crossing Colombine Pass was impossible. Imagine climbing to the top of a 12,725 foot ladder, then stepping over the top platform and climbing down the other side. To make it more interesting, cover the treads of the ladder with gravel and loose sand, and climb the ladder riding a 15 hand mule. The crest of Colombine Pass is about four feet wide and sits in a saddle between high points on a ridge that forms the end of Chicago Basin. You can see the pass in the image above directly over the ears of U.S. (Jerry's horse). While the steepness of the slope gave Mandy cause to gape, she was again flawless and delivered me safely down the switchbacks to the basin floor.
The summit was of Windom Peak was hidden in the clouds when we first saw the mountain from Trimble Pass and the decent from Colombine Pass drew our entire attention. Our base camp in Chicago Basin however, afforded many clear views of Windom, including this image of the summit amid threatening late afternoon thunderheads. Windom is the 14, 083 foot peak scraping the clouds and framed by the pine trees. The prominent peak on the left side of the frame is 13,400 foot Peak 18. There were 3,000 vertical feet between our camp and the summit of Windom Peak.
That afternoon we relaxed, explored, drank tea and dined on exotic cuisine in a bag from Backpacker's Pantry. Evening greeted us with a sunset featuring warm rays peeking under the cloud cover illuminating the ridges around us. The nervousness that accompanied the threat of thunderstorms while crossing the two 12,000 foot passes earlier in the day gave way to confidence as we went to sleep below the mountain.
