Moments in Dirt and Ink

Curecanti National Recreation Area (map link) As I looked around the Curecanti National Recreation Area trails, thinking I really ought to visit it in some why as I went through it, I found a lot of things that dropped down from the road to the river. It really is a bit hot for that sort of downhill hike. Then I found a hike that wasn't just what I wanted, it was what I needed. The trail to Dillon Pinnacles is just two miles with the second half climbing somewhat and it has a couple interpretive signs along the way. Someone had even marked them all on the map and there in the middle was "Forming a Pinnacle". The parking area includes a bathroom and a sign with all the area trails numbered and described. The trail itself splits off from the road on the way to the boat launch. The trail passes by a register as it splits off from the boat launch. Around the corner, and one is already looking at the pinnacles. If a look is all you want, it's an easy hike. Other...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (red line, map link ) It rained overnight, but that left me dry in my tent and my kitchen area dry under its little roof. Not that the sagging silnylon didn't try to at least wet my feet a little. I've got to try incorporating some elastic into the guylines to take up the slack as the silnylon stretches in the wet. Then again, the fact that it doesn't come that way has always made me wonder if it would really work. As is, it's a tent system that is weakest when most needed, and it's a universal problem with the material. I glared at the water seeping in where the fly sagged and touched the mosquito netting. What's the point of a double wall, again? At that point, it looked like to draw moisture through. But enough complaints about a tent that would be a great expense to replace. I could always go back to just the little roof and a bivy. It did w...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (orange line, map link ) I got an early start trying to beat the mosquitoes and sort of made it. I noticed the missing bit of sign on the ground to finally discover that there's no camping (or campfires) allowed at the lake. I turned at the post, ready to take it wherever it may go. The couple at the lake thought it was silly to think it might rain in the afternoon because the air was just too dry. Indeed, I'd washed two pairs of socks (in a bag well away from the lake and creek because I'm not a barbarian and I know soil bacteria is needed to break up everything from that and you don't find that floating in water) which were very nearly dry in the morning. It was quite pleasant until I got to the long grass meadows and everything from my knees down got wet anyway. A little bit of view over the meadow still shadowed in the morning. The trai...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (green line, map link ) I was wondering if this loop might be a little front loaded with the good stuff as I started toward the tree covered Castle Pass that represents the highest point for the second half of the trip. I expected it to be easier, although the state of the Castle Pass Trail was unique in that it not only showed recent trail work, but more trees already down on it than had been removed. It got better as I got higher. The camp site I should have found the evening before. Admittedly, it is closer to the trail than it should be. A little of the view from near the camp. Water pools in the meadow, but flows as a small creek beside the trail. From further along the meadow, The Castles and other pillars along the ridge top can be seen. I found a bit more water than advertised on the map along the trail. There was another, muc...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (blue line, map link ) It was a cold night out there on the knobby-but-overall-flat rock. It stands to reason that the storm passing through included some cold air since the hail took so long to melt. I even pulled on my puffy pants overnight. It wasn't too hard to get up, but I still didn't make it out all that early. I had filtered enough water to camp, but decided to hike with what was left of my 3L from the day before. Sun about to crest the mountains to the east. Here comes the sun. Mill Creek has excellent flow up here, at least while the snows last. I debated trying to follow the trail past where I hadn't seen it before or just following sort of a shelf of land around to meet the trail higher up. Reporting on how, or if, it was signed at the north end wasn't important enough. I headed around, tending to go higher than where I was ...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (purple line, map link ) It was dry and warm (for morning) under the trees, so easy to get up and pack up. I pondered my benefactor stream. Above, there is a bowl of sunken land and beyond that, no stream bed at all. It is a spring and it sinks away again as fast as it bubbles up. I headed down the steep trail into the steep valley. There was no water at the junction, but there was a little fire ring just inside the trees on the far side of the dry bed. I headed down and as the stream became less accessible in a narrow canyon, I started to hear the sounds of water. Where the water is flowing, the streams are often lined with these stalks. ( Fitweed .) The steep grassy slopes as this tributary, Buck Hollow, heads toward West Elk Creek. The trail was at first direct in getting down the hill and turning into a gully from the water that runs...

Gunnison National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6 (black line, map link ) What to do in the West Elk Wilderness? The right answer might be everything. I settled on Soap Creek as an entry point. There is a campground ($20ish a night to a concessionaire, not to the forest) and a corral area (open to dispersed camping, toilet) near the trailhead. Unfortunately, the split of the trail a mile up only allows for a nice day hike. To get in a backpacking loop, I'd have to go big and accept a return on a long 4x4 road. I picked a loop heading around some mountains and hitting some areas with "castles" in the names. I poked at it and found it to be about 60 miles, so decided I would be out 6 days without even figuring out where the camping might be. I'd neglected to get a weather report again, but had noticed the next three days generally being sunny-rainy-sunny while looking at other things. In went bot...

Uncompahgre National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 (map link) I had trouble getting up until I decided I didn't really want to go back up to the upper lake and then up the pass. Then the morning just seemed to flow as it should. It got me tucked in under my kitchen roof just before the rain started again. I ate breakfast to a soundtrack of thunder, which settled things nicely against going up at all. It cleared up after that, but based on the weather report I'd gotten the afternoon before, it would be a good idea to finish by noon when the heavy rain would start. Camp site view as the mountain gets some sunshine during a light rain. I tried to dry things out a little before packing up, but it is always a ridiculous attempt. The wetter things are, the wetter they are all around. The sun is weak in the morning. The time to dry things is out in the open under the noon day sun. Morning under the trees really doesn't work. I shook things out and stuffed them away and then...