San Luis Peak 14,014 ft

Day 27

Miles hiked today: 22.7 (20.1 CT plus 2.6 San Luis Peak)
Miles from Denver: 358.2
Elevation: 10,898 ft
Segments 20, 21
Landmarks: Continental Divide, Continental Divide Trail, San Luis Peak, La Garita Wilderness, San Luis Pass, Snow Mesa, Spring Creek Pass

VIEW MAP

I was a little worried that I wouldn't want to get out of bed at 3 in the morning, and would decide to sleep in until 9. But thankfully nature answered, awaking me with the need to pee at 2:30 am. My alarm was set for 3, so the choices were to hold it for a half hour, or get out and freeze a half hour early. So as it went, I lay there awake for a half hour.

Finally the alarm came, and I was stoked to get packed and get going. I have never climbed a 14,000 foot peak before, and climbing one in the dark before sunrise seemed an appropriate way to climb my first one. Bo was up, but then again he's in the Army so I wasn't too worried. We were packed and on the trail at 3:30 am, right on the dot. It was cold, but not as cold as I thought it would be. The night was perfectly clear, with billions of stars visible.

Because most of the elevation to San Luis' saddle had already been climbed, it didn't look that intimidating. We had camped just about 900 feet below it. Once we got up on the saddle, we were hit by a very strong wind, which was very cold. This wind was coming directly across the entire ridge, and it would be a constant enemy the entire climb up. The Colorado Trail simply goes across the saddle, and the peak itself is a side trail. We stopped at the bottom and nearly emptied our entire packs, including my heavy food bag and left everything by a bush on the ground. I was kind of hoping that the marmots wouldn't be up yet.

The climb was very steep, with many false summits. It just got colder and colder the higher we got. The wind was constant and strong, I am guessing around 30 mph. When we got to around 13,500 feet, the rocks we were walking on were covered in a heavy frost. My water bottles started to freeze, and later when I thought of it, I was extremely glad that I left my water filter down below, because if it freezes it is ruined.

Finally the last false summit was passed, and we were on the knife edge. The path was about 3 feet wide, covered in frost, with a 2,000 foot drop to either side. The summit was just beyond this, which we reached in a comfortable two and half hours from the start. This presented a bit of a problem because we were nearly a whole hour before sunrise. There was still no glow on the horizon, and every star was bright, and there was also a very bright half moon. It really was remarkable to be up that high, at that time. Thankfully somebody had built a rock wall against the wind, which we hunkered down behind, and huddled under space blankets. This is the first time I've used mine, which has travelled with me since Denver. It was just barely enough to make the cold tolerable, and every time I stood up to get a picture, the blast of frigid air would force me to sit down again.

The sun arrived right on time, revealing a world of jagged horizons in all directions. There really are mountains as far as you can see in all directions. Tall mountains. The neat thing about San Luis Peak is it stands alone as a 14er in the entire area, so it really did feel like the top of the world. With the sun came a little bit of warmth, but not near enough, and pretty soon we determined it was time to head down. This went pretty fast, and pretty soon we were back where we left our stuff, happy as larks. It was around 8 am, and the day hadn't even started. I still wanted to do 20 miles today.

So started the longest and most epic day of this entire hike. The trail had been transformed from a path through the woods to a path up and over high passes and tundra. There were barely any trees to be seen for the rest of the day, except on two occasions. I spent almost the entire day above tree line.

The trail went over one pass, and down into a cirque, then over another into San Luis Pass. This is where Bo was heading into the town of Creede to resupply and take a zero. I was still going to walk another 15 miles, even though I barely had the energy.

There were four of five more cirques in store for me, and despite my efforts I lost count. It is really hard to describe the beauty here. To be up this high, on these mountains is really magical. There are incredible views in every direction, and the weather was a perfect blue sky the entire day. This has been one of the best days of hiking I've ever experienced.

Last but not least today was Snow Mesa. This alone would have made for an incredible day, because it is like nothing I have ever seen before in my life. After walking on or near the continental divide for many hours, the trail goes up and over one last mountain, and curves around the back side. There I was treated with a view of something I've never seen before. A massive plain, elevated to 12,000 feet and nearly perfectly flat, and miles across. The trail descended to it.

The terrain on Snow Mesa is exactly like walking on the grassy plains. It turns out it's not perfectly flat, but for the most part it is, and the walk was about 5 miles across. For that entire time I was the tallest thing for miles around. Again I was very thankful for the great weather.

I was getting tired, and ready to be done with the mesa and get down to the highway at Spring Creek Pass where I planned to camp. Just when I thought the mesa would go on forever, I saw some sheep on the horizon. Hundreds of them. They were standing right near the trail, and there was a cowboy among them on horseback, with a dog. I ended up having a very nice conversation with him, whose name is David. He's tending the flock for the entire summer, which is 1,500 head of sheep. He couldn't have been older than 22, and I got the impression that he really enjoys talking to the hikers that come through here. It really was cool to see something so unusual, and put a nice cap on an extremely memorable day.

Exhausted, I made it down to the highway after dark, and found a picnic area where I planned to camp. There were already a couple of  hikers doing the same thing. It was getting cold, but I braved it to cook up some food anyhow. I was going to sleep extremely well this night.