By Gary Swing
General Description: A long, horseshoe shaped ridge hike over four bicentennial peaks with a return trip down to a basin, back up to a high saddle, and down a gulch.
Trip Date: July 12, 1997 Trip Report Written: December 11, 1998 My Hiking Distance: About 22.4 miles round trip Hiking Distance from Trailhead: About 17 miles round trip My Starting Elevation: 9,760 feet Trailhead Elevation: 10,744 feet My Elevation Gain: About 7,050 feet Elevation Gain From Trailhead: About 6,100 feet Difficulty: Easy Climbing, Class 2 7.5 Minute Maps: Garfield, St. Elmo, and Mount Antero
Garratt and Martin's guidebook, "Colorado's High Thirteeners," suggests that "six summits in the southern Sawatch Range Mount Mamma, Mount White, Grizzly Mountain, Cyclone Mountain, Carbonate Mountain, and the unnamed 13,870-foot summit can be combined for climbing in various ways." I set out on a solo hike one July morning to try for a personal best six high peaks in a single day. My record previous to this was hiking five fourteeners within a 26-hour period (San Luis, Redcloud, Sunshine, Handies, and Uncompahgre). For the July trip to the southern Sawatch Range, I planned a route connecting the six peaks listed by Garratt and Martin.
On the evening of July 11th, I drove out towards the standard trailhead used for climbing Mount Tabeguache. From Maysville, Colorado on U.S. Highway 50, I turned right on Chaffee County Road 240. From here, it is about eight miles up the North Fork to the Jennings Creek Trailhead, and about 0.6 miles further to the former town site of Shavano. The various guidebooks say that the North Fork road is rough, but passable for passenger cars. I found the road too rough for my low-clearance Dodge Colt, and parked three miles short of my intended trailhead, at about 9,760 feet. I pulled into a parking space, pitched my tent, and went to bed.
I awoke about 4:00 am, ate some breakfast, and started on my hike by 4:30. I walked up the rough jeep road for three miles, past the Jennings Creek Trailhead to the site of Shavano. A few vehicles passed me on the way, and several climbers had already started up Tabeguache and Shavano peaks. Once I passed Jennings Creek, I didn't see anybody else for several hours.
It was getting lighter outside as I left the vehicle road at Shavano town site, the suggested trailhead for climbing Cyclone and Carbonate. From this point, Garratt and Martin write that it is a 7 mile round trip hike to climb Cyclone and Carbonate with 3,300 feet of elevation gain and "easy climbing". I tried to follow their route, but diverged from it a bit. The route starts up a former jeep track, which I believe had been closed off to vehicles. The track soon becomes a trail. The trail was faint and sketchy. I quickly lost it. Garratt & Martin says the trail switches from the east side of Cyclone Creek to the west side within a mile. I didn't see the crossing, but stayed on the east side, occasionally following a faint trail through the woods there. I angled gently up the slopes northeast to treeline, then followed the broad talus-filled gully northeast to the 13,260 foot saddle between Cyclone and Carbonate. I set down my pack here, drank some water, and headed southeast up the easy ridge to the 13,663 foot summit of Carbonate carrying only a breakfast bar. I rested there on Colorado's 165th highest peak to have a snack and survey my proposed route. I hoped to make a large semi-circle on the long, high ridge around the head of the Browns Creek basin, before returning directly across that basin. I was also planning to add a substantial ridge hike west and north to reach Grizzly Mountain and Mount Mamma. It would be an ambitious undertaking.
I retraced my steps to retrieve my pack and continued from the saddle up to the 13,596 foot summit of Cyclone Mountain, Colorado's 192nd highest. Stopping here and heading back to my car would have made a nice, easy hike. Instead, I continued north up the ridge line, either following the ridge top or skirting it to the right to avoid lingering patches of snow. I skirted two minor ridge points, then topped out again at Point 13,591. From here, I continued northwest to the end of the broad, fairly flat ridge top, where I reached another point at about 13,540 feet. At this juncture, one connecting ridge heads northeast to "North Carbonate" while another connecting ridge heads west to Grizzly Mountain. I turned left towards Grizzly, but didn't go far.
According to my trail notes at the time, "the connecting ridge to Grizzly is very narrow, precarious, and exposed on both sides." I figured that I could probably manage to do the traverse. However, it looked like it would be treacherous and time-consuming. Taking the time to do that would have made it less likely for me to reach "North Carbonate" and White on my long hike. It seemed prudent at this point to choose just one ridge and rule out the other. The horseshoe shaped route over to White made more sense, so I chose that way. Grizzly and Mamma would have to wait until 1998. This decision still didn't rule out the possibility of hiking six ranked peaks in a day. I could have added on Tabeguache and UN 13,712 on the return, if I felt up to it.
I returned to the 13,540 foot ridge point and ran down the soft snow on the broad, low angled ridge northeast to the 13,229 foot saddle southwest of "North Carbonate." From here, I followed the easy ridge 640 feet up to the summit of the state's 75th highest mountain. I was already feeling the effects of the high elevation. I felt nauseous and weak. I tried to eat some food, but lacked the appetite for it.
This 13,870-foot mountain is officially unnamed, but is commonly known as "North Carbonate." Garratt & Martin recommend climbing it from the north, via either Baldwin Creek or Baldwin Gulch. However, this peak can be approached from many different directions. From the summit, one can see Tabeguache Peak to the southeast or watch the endless stream of jeeps climbing 14,269-foot Mount Antero to the northeast.
Following a short break on "North Carbonate," I descended the mountain's east ridge. Hiking atop a line of snow on the ridge made this a soft, fun, and rapid descent. Below and to the right were some established jeep trails, whereas people seem to have made up their own jeep trails all over the mountains in this area. The area surrounding Mount Antero is a popular mineralogical district where the local sport is hunting aquamarine and quartz crystals. I encountered two rock
hounds pursuing their quarry just above a 12,820-foot saddle. This was the first time I had encountered any other people on my hike since I left the North Fork road. It was also the first time I had dropped below 13,000 feet since before reaching the Cyclone-Carbonate saddle.
I crossed over the 12,820 foot saddle, then contoured around the easy, grassy ridge to the right until I intersected a jeep road rising from Browns Creek. About 3/4 mile east of the saddle, I left this jeep road and turned right (east) on another trail which heads toward the broad 12,800 foot saddle between Antero and Mount White. From this saddle, I headed to the right up a jeep track which climbs a couple of switchbacks to the west ridge of Mount White. The road continues to about 13,360 feet. Several vehicles were parked within 300 vertical feet of the summit. The landscape in this area is scarred with criss-crossing jeep roads. A fairly good number of people were wandering all over Mount White, looking for gems. I hiked up the north slopes from the end of the road to visit each of the twin summits. The southwest summit appears to be higher. Although numerous people visited Mount White's summit that day, most were probably more concerned with looking for gems and minerals than with reaching the state's 164th highest peak.
By this time, I was pretty tired and had pretty much given up on the prospect of doing six mountains in a day. The sky was starting to cloud up and I was developing a bad headache. From here, I would make a bee-line back to my car, but not without significant obstacles. I would have a long walk across the Browns Creek Basin, descending to 11,800 feet, with an 800 foot climb blocking the way to my car. I was dreading that short climb after a 1,900 foot descent, and worried about possible lightning danger. It was already mid-afternoon.
I retraced my steps to reach the jeep road which drops below the 12,820-foot east saddle of "North Carbonate." Shortly after I started walking downhill on this road, an open-topped vehicle packed with people on a paid jeep tour stopped alongside me. A woman on the tour who had binoculars said she had seen me hiking on the ridge of Cyclone Mountain (which she pointed to). She was amazed that I had walked so far, and wanted to know where I was headed. I explained my route, traced the semi-circle ridge line, and pointed out the saddle I still had to cross over.
They continued on their way, and I walked on west down the road. I followed a switchback to the east and descended to about 12,320 feet by the time the next vehicle come along in my direction. This time, I stuck out my thumb and hitched a ride in the back of a robust pickup truck. They gave me a rough ride down to the first trees on this rocky road. Not far, but every little bit helped at this point. Next, I contoured southwest along the upper tree line to cross a wet, muddy tributary of Browns Creek, then headed south to reach Browns Creek itself near a small pond. I crossed over to the east side of the creek on some rocks and followed it to about 11,870 feet, where I turned left (south) to walk up some snow lingering in a drainage. As I ascended the snow, a coyote ran across my path, just a few feet in front of me. At about 12,400 feet, I turned right (west) and began angling toward the 12,610-foot Tabeguache-Carbonate saddle. There were dark, ominous clouds overhead by this time, and I was very tired.
I passed over the saddle and began a descent from its southwest side into the Jennings Creek gulch. I found the next part of the hike rather unpleasant. The gulch was rough in some areas, and there was some disagreeable talus and scree. There were scattered rumors of a trail, but nothing well-defined until much lower in the gulch. For those interested in climbing Tabeguache from the Jennings Creek trailhead, I definitely recommend the southwest ridge route over the Jennings Gulch (west ridge) route.
By the time I reached the Jennings Creek Trailhead, only one car was parked there. From this point, a brief 2.4 mile walk down the North Fork road brought me back to my car at about 6:30pm, a scant 14 hours after I started the hike. The storm that I feared never materialized.
Gary Swing