| |
Date: August 9, 2005
Party: Paul Thielking, Sally Thielking, Clay Thielking, Brooke Thielking, Paul Sams, Stacy Sams, Al Stroh, Charles Shipp
Route: West Ridge from Clohesy Lake
Family vacation time in Colorado again. Our party of eight left our Buena Vista motel around 5:00 A.M. We all piled into the Dodge Durango and headed for the Clohesy Lake trailhead. Pictures and info from Matt Esser and others made us a little concerned about the creek crossings. We made it past the cabins in Rockdale and hesitated at the water that you encounter prior to the first creek crossing, unsure in the darkness as to whether we were on track. We actually backed up at this point and headed in the wrong direction, resulting in a rather cramped and tricky turnaround near an embankment above the creek. Once we regained our bearings the two creek crossings were easily made.
After the creek crossings we slowly made our way up the road to near the parking area. We scraped bottom several times-due in part to the medium clearance of our vehicle and the heavy load and also due to driver inexperience.
We arrived at the trailhead around 6:30 and began the ascent. Previous trip reports and route descriptions enabled us to reach the lower part of the basin at about 12,000' without any problems. Our party began to spread out as we ascended the grassy slopes toward the ridge. All but Clay had come from Iowa two days earlier and as always the first hike is a bit difficult. This was especially true for Charles since it was his first experience in the mountains. Once we gained the ridge and joined the main route from Missouri Gulch the climb was much more pleasant. We reached the summit at 10:00 and remained there until the last of our party summitted at around 10:40. The descent was uneventful but going down the grassy slopes was unpleasant-it seemed much steeper than on the ascent.
We chose this route over the Missour Gulch route due to its reduced length and elevation gain. Due to the experience and conditioning differences of our group this was a good choice. In addition, the weather was perfect and we saw only one other person near our route the whole time. However, as far as saving a lot of time it seems that much of the timed gained due to a shorter route is lost on the slow drive up and down the 4WD road. I would also guess that the trail is much more defined on the Missouri Gulch side. I would like to hear a comparison by any who have done both routes. |
|