Vallecito to Windom: Silver Mesa and Endlich Mesa

San Juan National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5

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Morning and as I cook breakfast, I seem to have a minor mountain goat infestation of one male. These goats are far too comfortable around people. I watch him, and it becomes clear he's looking for a rock I might have peed on for the salt. Ew.

mountain goat with an agenda — One mountain goat sniffing about for a salty patch.

The weather is already threatening, although I get a sense of rain without thunder somehow. The threatening weather is reason number one it might not be a good idea to take Endlich Mesa back as planned since after climbing to 12.6k feet, I stay near that and then over 12.8k feet Thimble Pass. That first bit of staying high is at least under a tall ridge, but the next miles high on Silver Mesa are above tree line in the flat. The next reason to avoid it is that fire warning at the start. The trails I came in on are hardly affected by the fire, but Endlich Mesa will come down through what I could see from below was heavily burned. The third reason is that the trail only goes to a lake just past Thimble Pass on OpenStreetMap although the other trails seem to be there in closer to accurate form, including the one up to Twin Lakes and beyond. I'm worried about what circumstance has left it off and thoughts go back to the fire. I can't even be certain that it goes through. On the other side is long miles of ridge walking with lots and lots of view. That's a pretty strong argument. If it really does only go to the lake, I should still have all the time I need to return via Vallecito Creek instead. So I'm still going to give it a try. First I need to get back to the main trail. This time, I'll take the better trod and built way.

upper valley — Getting started, and not all that early, to get up the pass under a sky promising to rain.

purple flowers — Fire followers along the trail, but they'll come in with any disturbance or just because there are meadows, too.

sign at the trail — This trail not included on the Forest Service map is even signed. Why is it missing?

Once back at the main trail, I just have to follow it back the way I came. That's easy. I go up to some view points of the valley, past a mine pouring out water, the mine with the cabin remains, and the large camp sites with a bit too much beetle kill nearby. Up into the upper meadows with the morning light being especially good for picking out the old trails to the big holes in the ground that are more mines.

Looking down Needle Creek. Those same tents are still in the meadow, but now they're getting packed up.

pointed bare rock — Some of the very nearby peaks.

more bits of valley — More valley that seems to have use trails up into it.

mine with yellow tailings below — That big mine out there seems to have a pretty distinct trail out to it still, but the connection in the meadow is hard to find.

Columbine Pass showing both trails — The steep trail is the only one usable. The one above the spire looks like it might never have been completed, but probably there was just rock fall cutting it off.

last look over Needle Creek — One last look down Needle Creek.

Then over the top. The trail I want to take back is distinctly the lesser used. By a lot. But it also has footprints on it. Someone has thought it worth taking in the memory of loose dirt. I can pick out quite a lot of it as it crosses along below the ridge and above the valley. The end to Thimble Pass looks a bit like a slide, but same as yesterday, take on what is in front of me and work it out then. Brush is grown a little way over, which is surprising. So high up, it feels like brush just shouldn't be.

Endlich Mesa Trail through the top of Johnson Creek — Endlich Mesa Trail as it crosses the upper level of the Johnson Creek drainage drops a little before climbing again to Thimble Pass, the leftmost low point.

Just short of the tunnels, the trail splits upward and over the top. The remnant of trail that actually goes to the openings doesn't look used anymore. That's one possible use for this trail that is certainly not the main use.

Johnson Creek from high above has quite the gentle U of a valley — Just above the mines looking down Johnson Creek.

Columbine Lake and the peaks behind — A new viewpoint on Columbine Lake.

more peaks above Columbine — Amazing how the perspective changes with a little walking, even walking away and up. Lots more peaks behind Columbine Lake now.

Some of the best trail is the stuff I couldn't pick out from afar. After the mine, it is all quite good trail. Maybe the connection was added later to the mine trail. What looked like a slide to the pass is solid trail, too, if a little bit steep. There are cairns marking a way down to Lillie Lake (Durango Reservoir #3), but in spite of the claims of whoever added the trail to OpenStreetMap, that is definitely not where the trail goes. I am tempted to follow the track up Florida Mountain or tag where PeakBagger says the high point of Silver Mesa is or even find my way up Bullion Mountain except that I'm still making up miles I didn't do yesterday. Oh, and the weather. It hasn't produced anything, but the promise seems so very clear and it's still a few miles across the top of Silver Mesa to treeline.

small Lillie Lake among the bare peaks — Lillie Lake below Mount Valois. Florida Mountain is off to the left.

Endlich Mesa Trail — The trail definitely goes this way and not down to the headwaters of the Florida River.

While it is easy to see where the trail is over the pass, it is a little harder out on the mesa. I just start strolling over to the posts marking the trail to find that they have bits of marked metal nailed to them. Mining claim markers. All those mines, there must be some claims here and there. The map has clues there will be more. The little Lillie Lake is a city reservoir for Durango and is marked within a vast inholding, but not a very complete one. It has rectangles and intersecting rectangles and other odd ball shapes cut out of it like those were once other inholdings. All of it looks a lot like mining claims.

down Silver Mesa's slope — Silver Mesa doesn't seem all that much like a mesa from here, looking down its long thin slope.

wooden mining claim marker — Not a trail marker. Nearby, there were some metal loops embedded into the ground, too. A mystery to me. They look like something I've seen at fire lookout locations.

I'll just have to try to follow only trail markers. That does seem somewhat difficult since both can be sticks in small rock piles or large rock piles on their own and a few things in between too. The electronic map is handy to be sure I'm somewhere near the trail, but the terrain doesn't really require one anyway. As I'm following some large cairns, it asserts that I'm following some prospects while the trail is a few hundred feet to me left. My eyebrows suddenly become all lopsided and I bet the thing that when I get down to where it shows the trail going off further that way I'll find some track. Which there is, but a thing can't agree to a bet.

Amazing where a tree will pop up. Ooh, and distant peaks beyond the cairn.

shallow pool of water — Follow the cairns and there are ponds to visit along the way. Well, this is the last for a little bit.

track thin and deep in the alpine plants — Where there are trails, sometimes they are thin and deep in the alpine plants.

hole in the ground with old snow packed in — A random unprotected shaft. And this is while following trail, not prospects.

supposed trail — Maybe the trail is supposed to be up there along those posts. They look like claim markers from here.

As the weather seems to let off on its threat of rain, with only two raindrops reaching me, it becomes a more relaxed walk down the mesa. As there are more plants and dirt, there's more trail to follow making it easier again. Eventually, I make it down to the spattering of lakes with a thinner spattering of trees that I had hoped to call camp last night except that I spent none of the afternoon moving camp from where it was the night before.

weathering on a cliff — Some short cliffs display interesting weathering.

three lakes in grassy flat area — It had been a thought to find a camp site somewhere down in there. Not a lot of trees to provide shelter from wind or possible lightning strike and there has been thunder at night recently.

Lunch time, for me. I sit at the top of a cliff overlooking the Florida River and another reservoir in Crystal Valley. The next one along, I'll be crossing the river on the dam to get to Endlich Mesa.

Lake Marie and a lot of Florida River valley — Down below is Lake Marie (Durango Reservoir #2) with Emerson Mountain rising behind it.

another set of ponds in the green flats — Another set of ponds about a half mile further were a second chance at a camp site, maybe.

ponds getting very shallow — They aren't quite so much pond up close.

possible camp sites — Maybe by the bigger trees above the water is a possible camp. Nothing is obviously impacted as seen from the trail.

From the lakes, down it all goes to the reservoirs. Sometimes very steeply. Seeing the "reservoir" designation and all the inholding around them, I assumed that there would be no camping by them, but there is no indication of that. There is a strong trail crossing the river a short way below Lake Marie. Perhaps a camp. Perhaps a way to "Logtown (site)" marked on the map. Some hooves went that way and on down the trail some time recently. Seems like a good indication of access being very possible.

Lake Marie through the trees — Almost down to Lake Marie.

valley, wide and green — Down in the valley following the Florida River which isn't very big.

Florida River blow Emerson Mountain — Following the river down to the bigger reservoir.

At the dam, I just have to know there is a trail across. The only trail that is obvious is the City Reservoir Trail, which climbs up and connects into stuff I haven't looked into yet. If I look closely, I can see where the rocks have been slightly adjusted by many walkers. It looks a bit rough for stock.

Florida River — Outflow from City Reservoir.

City Reservoir and the mountains above — City Reservoir (Durango Reservoir #1) from its dam. This one has no more cute name.

The dam is the lowest point for the day. Now I have to go up. It seems like there are cow paths to compete with the trail, but it might be old trail. The current trail likes making rather direct excursions up the hill. It certainly gets the feet climbed quickly.

up the valley hidden generally by trees — Starting to see up the valley again while tucked into the trees.

A creek crossing is the last water on the map for quite a few miles. In fact, I will probably be camping before any other chance of water and the rest of the trail looks like water is seasonal and iffy. Ridge lines and mesas can be, well, dry. There aren't any ponds even. I get a bit more to drink, then fill the dirty water bag for camp and another quart for good luck. I won't bother to actually filter them until there. Now I'm a bit heavier as I climb. A fellow leading stock down confirms that once up on the top, there's no water, but there are some small chances before. A big tent at treeline looks like it might have been his work, dropping someone off. Indeed, the trail gets close to a single little stringer with just enough water to grab before looping around to a dry side and up to the top. I didn't need to carry all the weight up quite so many feet after all. It's only about 300 feet anyway.

tent below in the trees, peaks afar — Looking down across the camp to distant peaks. The ones left of center are the ones I have been looking at from Silver Mesa.

There seem to be all kinds of extra trails in the area. Some I suspect of being the old trail as it starts to go very steeply again. Some could be game trails or maybe heading off for the local named peaks.

trail going somewhere else — One bit of extra trail that seems to be heading for the saddle below Sheridan Mountain, which seemed to have trail through it.

higher up looking to the local peaks — Sheridan Mountain is the one on the left and the saddle with trails is the nearer one. Fall Canyon is below and might be a very worthy off trail adventure.

peaks rising from flats — Florida River Valley with Silver Mesa across and more peaks extending off to the left.

up on top of the mesa — Up on top of Endlich Mesa.

Once up on top, I am slightly preoccupied with where the high point is. There area a few that look like they might be and people have built cairns on that the trail goes around. I give them a miss.

high nude peaks to the west — Way off in the west, there look to be some high peaks.

back along the trail — Looking back. The trail is not really quite up on top of the mesa, but getting there and high up now.

cairn beside the trail on the mesa — Looking forward. But what really is up on the mesa? It's a gentle slope that gets less gentle.

As the trail gets around the second false peak, there seems to be the perfect route up to the high point. It's just a couple hundred feet extra to go for it, so I do. A pair of hikers pass going north and a second pair with a dog heading south stop to chat with them for a bit. Guess I missed the news, whatever it might be. No one has adorned the high point with a cairn, but a few feet further along to a second point that sticks just a little further out into the view has a small cairn and a register.

hikers on the mesa trail — Hikers passing by. All the hoof prints have gone, but hikers seems like a good hint that the trail goes through.

high points of ledge — At the top. The next high point is marked as 50 feet shorter.

view east — The view off the drop off over Fall Creek and Weasel Skin Creek.

A bit more detail for looking off to Sheridan Mountain and Sheep Mountain.

high mountains pointing at the sky — The tops of the nearby 14ers seem to be visible.

Endlich Mesa with some elk — The rest of Endlich Mesa still to be walked today. It seems to have developed 5 elk.

I start to go down the same way I came up, but that just seems silly, so I turn and start down on a more direct route back to trail. I may as well have a little distance done for my excursion. Elk that have come up since the hikers passed head back down just in case I'm out for them. Maybe I shouldn't have gone up the peak. It has delayed me a bit while I want to make miles. I was looking to only have 10 trail miles left at the end of the day and the peak is up around 13 miles left. The miles across the mesa do go quickly although the trail keeps splitting. There was a thin high route I noticed as I came down, but there are also very well pounded random excursions. I just follow the footprints.

Looking back after getting a move on along Endlich Mesa. It sure looks like there could be pools here, but there aren't.

Dropping down the long easy slope of Endlich Mesa. There are clumps of trees ahead to offer a bit of shelter from wind and stray lightning overnight.

A shallow saddle has a pair of posts left from something. The only thing I can think of is wilderness sign, but it would be a little late as it is already a mile in, give or take. The sun is setting as I get to small stand of trees. One spot looks promising for a camp and a second spot has an old, overgrown fire ring. Not that I'm going to try to find enough wood around here to light a fire, but it tells me I'm not the first. Anyway, I can make it work. Winds seem unlikely, but if they go it would be very cold and my gear seems to be just warm enough so far and this is the highest camp site yet. Being able to tuck myself in trees is comforting.

rocky hills — After this rise and before that rise among the trees ahead: camp.

The whole place is dry as a bone. Good thing I grabbed all that water. I guess sometimes Colorado really doesn't offer the stuff every quarter of a mile. I'm sure glad I didn't chicken out of coming this way. The miles along here have seemed like so very much more than the miles along Vallecito Creek.

ON TO THE NEXT DAY ⇒

©2019 Valerie Norton
Written 10 Sep 2019

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