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As the day was approaching for our (Me, my friends Dave, Mac, Corrinne and Luke) hike of Culebra Peak, I really began to wonder if I wanted to go through with the hike. Was I really willing to spend $150 to climb two mountains? I'm frugal by nature....my mom and sister call me cheap.....so no one could believe I was actually going to go through with it.....but i'm getting close to finishing off the 14ers.....and the thought of leaving this peak behind would eat at me for a while.
So Friday the 13th rolled around and I arrived at the park n ride in Morrison to wait for my friends to pick me up so we could head down to San Luis and the Cielo Vista Ranch. We had an adventure just getting to the ranch. Luke and Corrinne got stuck in Lyons for an hour where they are doing bridge construction....so sometime after 7pm we were on the road. Beyond that, the drive was uneventful and the directions supplied by the ranch are very helpful and easy to follow to the gate at the north entrance to the ranch. We met our friend Mac at the gate and cracked open a few beers to hydrate for the mornings climb. We went to bed around midnight and set the alarm for 5:30am so that we could meet up with Carlos, the ranch representative.
Well....Carlos was a little early on Saturday morning and we had to scramble to repack the Xterra and get all 5 of us and our gear into the trunk. We followed a line of fellow hikers to the ranch headquarters where we signed waivers and received a "safety" talk from Carlos. Then he sent us on our way up the road to the trailhead. The road is steep in places, but overall, it's in great condition, and we thought with careful driving a Subaru could give it a go. The scenery on the drive up was great. Really beautiful aspen stands, and we saw three huge Bull Elk crashing through the forest.
There is an obvious parking area at the end of the road and we parked there with our fellow hikers. In total, there were 13 people who'd be attempting Culebra on this day. We started hiking a little after 7am and each group of hikers attacked the mountain by various routes. A few groups took a direct line up the west slopes while my friends and I went north and took a ridge that extended out from the peak. This was a great route on easy tundra. Once we gained the top of the ridge, Luke and I headed off on our own since we were also going to be attempting Red Mountain and didn't like the looks of the clouds that were building to both the north and the south.
We passed the 10 foot tall cairn and got a great view of the snaking ridge that ascends culebra. We were surprised to find that there were rocky/talus sections interspersed with the grassy tundra. It looked like Culebra was more than just a gentle giant. The hiking up the ridge was fun, class 2, with a climbers trail to keep you on track....but not a single cairn, except for the 10 footer. We made quick time and got to the summit by about 8:45am and took a few minutes to enjoy the view and get a quick snack. But the clouds were continuing to build so we set off down the rocky slopes towards the saddle between Culebra and Red Mountain. This was the hardest part of the hike....the rock was a bit loose here. Once at the saddle, we dropped our packs and headed up Red Mountain as quickly as possible. There is a rough climbers trail up the loose, rocky slopes of Red Mountain which made our ascent go smoothly and quickly. Soon, we were on it's summit, enjoying the views and looking over at the hikers who were just arriving on the summit of Culebra. We were tempted by Vermejo and Purgatorie to the south....but we didn't want to be the hikers who closed off access to this area, so we headed back to the saddle so we could rejoin our friends on culebra.
At the base of Culebra, we ran into two other hikers who were pushing on to Red. The weather was still a bit unnerving...but it seemed like it was going to hold. We found a rough climbers trail that made the ascent up Culebra much easier than the descent and soon we joined Mac and Dave on the summit. To celebrate, we had dragged up a few can's of Coors and toasted the summit with some well-earned luke warm beers......hmmmm tasty. Corrinne isn't a fan of lightening...so she had headed back a little earlier and didn't get to enjoy a Coors at fourteen thousand feet.
Luckily, the weather was giving us a break and we enjoyed the summit all to ourselves for close to half an hour. Finally, the weather started to deteriorate and we began to head down the mountain. A little before the large cairn, the clouds had rolled in from the south and were partially engulfing us. But once back at the large cairn, the sky cleared a bit and all 5 of us were able to sit back and enjoy the mountain some more. We took pictures, chatted and Corrinne finished off her celebratory beer.
The descent went easy as we picked our way down the grassy slopes. Soon we were back at the car....and we all agreed that the hike was worth it. The mountain is truly in pristine condition and it was a cool experience hiking with so few people in the area.
Plus, we had one other cool encounter. As we were relaxing at the car, a marmot crawled up into the under belly of another hikers truck. we tried to scare it out, but it wasn't paying us any respect. We waited around till the hikers came out so that they'd know about the marmot. The owner of the truck banged on his truck a bit and was able to scare the marmot out.....we watched it as it speed-waddled it's way away from the trail head.
I forgot one other "highlight" of the trip. Before the trip, Luke and I discussed the possibility of adding in Vermejo and Purgatorie. Our theory was that no one on the ranch would be fast enough to chase us down......but we think that the ranch may have that covered. As we were signing out of the ranch at their headquarters, we stepped into their office to see if they had any maps that showed the boundaries of the ranch. Well.....we found someone there who could help us.....he looked like Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears.......and it looked like he could outrun Matt Carpenter, Jason Halladay, Michael Johnson or Scott Jurek, so......we were happy that we didn't try for the two extra peaks.
Overall, this was a great day with great friends. And it got me one closer to finishing up the 14ers this year!!!! |
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