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Base Camp
Up
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- Statistics:
- Date Hiked: August 11, 2005
- Miles Hiked: 10.5
- Elevation Gain: 4,462'
- Hiking Partner(s): Dan Robbins
- Description:
- I woke around 5:15 am to dreary weather.
I wandered around outside for a while as Dan wondered if it was
time to get up or I was just relieving myself.
After he spoke up, I told him it was time to get up, but the
mountains were socked in and fog was starting to infiltrate the valley.
We assessed the situation with pessimistic opinions.
We are both pretty much fair weather day hikers, so a day getting
soaked didn’t appeal to either one of us.
Had we been at our homes and experienced these conditions, we
would have immediately gone back to bed.
However, we were here to hike, so we started up the trail at 5:45
am.
- The previous day, we contemplated our route to
Redcloud and Sunshine and initially discussed going up Sunshine’s
north slopes to eliminate some distance.
However, with the questionable weather, we decided to play it
safe and stay on a trail as much as possible.
As we hiked up Silver Creek, the distance and elevation went
slowly in the thick clouds. We
took our first break not making nearly as much progress as we had
anticipated. The next leg
was extremely quiet as we felt the drizzle continue to weigh us down
physically and mentally.
- The conditions and our spirits improved slightly
as we turned the corner and started to ascend towards the saddle
northeast of Redcloud. We
quickly gained the saddle at 13,020’ where we took our second break
and donned our shell jackets. The
air was as thick as soup now and visibility was obviously limited.
The next 1,000’ to the summit went fast because the trail
becomes fairly steep. We
made the summit in 3 hours and 25 minutes and only stayed 10 minutes
because the views were terrible.
- I remembered my pack cover, and Dan used a wind
jacket of mine to cover his pack. We
were wet, but not bad enough to stop us.
We made short work of the traverse to Sunshine where we broke for
30 minutes. The weather was
still palatable, so we decided to drop off Sunshine’s northwest ridge
and head over to Sun Dog. The
descent was straight forward with a climbers trail and cairns to point
the way. Sun Dog’s
southeast ridge looks more menacing than it actually is, but it was
still the highlight of the hike. After
a short section of class 2+ scrambling, you find yourself on the flat,
moderately exposed ridge. It
is easy hiking on the undulating ridge before reaching the summit.
- Once on top, the rain really started.
We put our shell layer on both top and bottom.
We rapidly dropped off Sun Dog’s north ridge and tried to avoid
the rain. It was of course
impossible, and we both got pretty soaked.
The rain let up as we reached tree line.
We worked our way back to Silver Creek through the trees and the
rain started in once again. We
put our shells back on and simply slopped our way back to camp.
After hastily packing all of our gear into the vehicles, we drove
into Lake City, Colorado. It took us 3 hours and 25 minutes to
hike to Redcloud. The traverse to Sunshine was 55 minutes.
It was 1 hour and 10 minutes to climb Sun Dog, and the descent to the
trailhead was 1 hour and 50 minutes.
- After a pizza at Poker Alice’s, we decided to
get a cabin in order to dry all our gear.
With the rain still falling consistently throughout the afternoon
and into the evening, we felt it would be difficult to dry out the
equipment for the next day outside.
Town Square Cabins charged us $50 for a crappy room, but it was
good enough for us. We
cranked the heat, turned on the fans, opened the windows, and hung our
gear from every possible hook in the joint.
Dan even set his tent up in the middle of the room.
Getting a room was a wise decision as the rain continued to fall.
We hung out all evening watching the 100 greatest hard rock
artists on VH1. Led
Zeppelin was number one.
- Before crashing, another executive decision
needed to be made. We hade
originally planned on Wetterhorn and Matterhorn for day 4. This would leave a quick hike up to Uncompahgre on day 5
which would get us both on the road early.
However, Dan called Matt Bullard, a co-worker in Boise, to check
the weather. Matt reported
that conditions on Saturday were supposed to be better than Friday. With this information, we thought we’d hike the easier
Uncompahgre first in case of more rain and leave the more difficult peak
for clearer weather. A fine
strategic move, at least we thought so.
- Maps:
- Click
here to view a 2D
map of the area where this hike is located.
- Photographs:
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