Random Adventuring...: Backpacking the Gore Range (from the archive)

I'm in love with the Gore Range. The North Tenmile Trailhead is 1/4 mile from my condo, so I've spent many days and nights exploring the area from Copper Mountain on the west side to Silverthorne on the east side. In 2009 I studied maps and devised a route that would circumnavigate the Gore Range with only a brief 3-mile hike through Vail to interrupt the wilderness. I got lost above Booth Falls as I tried to cross over the ridge and find Upper Piney Lake and I wound back up in Vail again.

After that failed attempt, a man named Jim Gabriel on Gorerange.info website helped me understand how to find East Booth Pass and thus how to cross over the ridge from Booth Lake to Upper Piney Lake.

So from August 23-27, 2011, I finally completed this long loop backpack traverse of the Gore Range that I had been eye-balling since I moved to Frisco in 2008.

Here’s a recap of this unforgettable experience.

Day 1: North Tenmile to Eccles Pass
This was an easy head-start day. I hiked in about 3pm from my home in Frisco. Max (my border collie / aussie pup) and I started up the North Tenmile Trail like we have a many times before. I had loaded my heavy 45-pound pack two days before and after hiking up the trail for about 15 minutes, I stopped cold realizing that the lighters I had bought earlier that morning were still sitting on my kitchen counter at home. I was pretty annoyed with myself, but I hid my pack in the woods and jogged back to the house, hoping this wasn’t a bad omen for the days ahead.

So finally about 4pm I was really on my way. I hiked fast and reached Meadow Creek (roughly 7 miles in) near Eccles Pass about 6:30pm and set up camp. I didn’t sleep that well because I was so excited for my first big day on Wednesday. Here is a shot of the Eccles Pass camp where Max is catching some zzz's:

Day 2: Eccles Pass to Upper Piney Lake
I was on the trail a few minutes before 8am and headed directly over Eccles and Red Buffalo passes to get into the Gore Creek drainage. To make this circumnavigation work, I would hike all the way down the Gore Creek trail and through East Vail civilization for three miles to link up with the Booth Creek trail that would take me back into the wilderness for the duration of the trip.

Max @ the Gore Range Trail:

The wildflowers around Eccles Pass were stunning:

Red Mountain from the top of Eccles Pass:

That is Red Buffalo Pass to the left of the above picture, and even though I’ve hiked the Gore Creek trail from Red Buffalo Pass before, I still had some trouble locating the switchbacks down the other side of the pass. My pack was still ridiculously heavy with 6 days of food (I thought it might take that long) so I wasn’t feeling so great hiking down the steep trail. Not long after I reached Gore Creek itself I decided to stop and eat a large batch of trisquits, cheese, and salami. I felt better after this and hiked all the way to Vail before resting again.

It was about 12:30pm when I reached the Gore Creek trailhead. I needed to filter water and eat a decent lunch so stopped for a good while. I had hoped I might be able to hitchhike to the Booth Creek trailhead, but I didn’t see a single pickup truck at the trailhead and I didn’t think anyone would let my wet dog inside their car, so I resigned myself to hiking the boring pavement.

I started up the Booth Creek Trail about 2:15pm. I had still hiked this portion of the route before so I was really just trying to gut it out and get to Booth Lake where everything would become a new experience.. I finally reached the beautiful lake about 5pm after cursing my heavy pack the entire way up that climb.

Max and I had this gorgeous lake all to ourselves:

Booth Lake has a little island in the middle, but I didn't have the guts to brave to cold water to swim over to it:

I ate another snack at Booth Lake and started looking at the map to figure out where East Booth Pass might be over to Upper Piney Lake. I saw a little green chute that looked reasonable to climb so I decided to try that to see if the tarn was up there that Jim Gabriel had told me to look for. Once into that chute I noticed a cairn so I figured I was on the right track.

Soon enough I came across the tarn and as Jim said, East Booth Pass was fairly obvious:

It was getting later than I’d hoped so I kept pushing up through the exhaustion. Towards the top I noticed three goats very close-by that were monitoring my progress.

Once I reached the top I was ecstatic to see Upper Piney Lake directly below:

The view from East Booth Pass into the Piney River drainage is amazing:

The descent was not easy, especially with my heavy pack. Max gave me a wide birth because he quickly learned that I was kicking large rocks down towards him.

I saw a patch of trees where I suspected I would find a camp, and sure-enough it was there. It was getting late so I threw my tent down, filtered some water, and ate a fine dinner of Buffalo Chicken backpacker meal and peanut M&M’s. I didn’t even have much time to explore the lake at all – that would have to wait until morning.

Day 3: I slept a lot better that night since I was so tired. I think I had hiked about 17-20 miles the day before. This would become the typical mileage from what I can guess.

After breaking camp I hiked over to the beautiful peninsula that almost divides Upper Piney Lake. The little chute to the left is East Booth Pass that I had descended the evening before:

I spent about 20 minutes soaking in the scenery and taking pictures, but I had learned the day before that the mileage on this hike was going to be huge. To reach my camps, this would become much more like an adventure race than a beautiful hike in the wilderness. I had to keep moving.

The trails up there were faint to nonexistent:

My next goal was to reach Piney Lake for lunch. I pushed through the myriad of braided trails as best I could before one would disappear and I would have to search for the next one. I’m not at all sure that I took the proper trail down the upper part of this drainage, but eventually I did reach the “official” trail where things became easier.

My one almost-serious mishap occurred on a steep sandy section about 30 feet above the bank when I slipped and started sliding down the slope to the river. I had visions of tumbling all the way down to the rocks below, but I was able to slam my hands and feet into the sand and arrest my fall. I scraped up my left hand fairly good, but it could have been much worse. Adrenaline flowing, I pushed on down the trail.

Ate lunch on the banks of the Piney River near Piney Lake. It felt wonderful to put my sandals on and sit in the creek for a bit. The sun was bright and hot, so I soaked my shirt in the creek before taking off again.

Max cooling off in the Piney River:

Here is a shot looking up the Piney River towards the direction I had hiked down from Upper Piney Lake:

Next I would climb the Marugg Creek (called Soda Lakes on my map) trail up and over Elliott Ridge to camp somewhere near Cataract Creek. This steep trail was almost completely overgrown. Once I finally reached the pine forest it became easier to follow. Finally I reached a wet, grassy meadow where there was no longer any discernable trail to follow at all. I knew the Meadow Creek trail was somewhere to my left so I decided to bushwack that way. After a few more minutes I reached the junction with the trail over Elliott’s Ridge. This trail was a very old double-track that switch-backed over the far west side of the Gore Range. I was not liking the looks of the clouds, but I hadn’t seen a good camp or water source in a long time so I reluctantly kept hiking up, as fast as I could possibly go.

Finally I reached the top of Elliott’s Ridge and I stood mesmerized by the views of Eagles Nest and Mt. Powell:

I wished I could have explored longer up there, but it soon started thundering and sleeting, so I began running. There was no real trail, but I could see wooden trail markers so I just ran straight for those.

It sleeted hard for about 45 minutes, but I finally got low enough so that I wasn’t too scared of the lighting. I needed to filter water badly so once I felt safe, I stopped at a small creek and refilled.

I had planned to attempt to climb Mt. Powell from this side the next morning. The contour lines on my topo map seemed to indicate it might be possible from Cataract Creek. But after looking up at Mt. Powell and knowing how long the simple mileage of this trek was taking, I decide to nix that idea and get down the trail as far as I could. Mirror Lake became my goal.

I was hustling as fast as I could to reach Mirror Lake. After barely reaching Upper Piney Lake before dark the night before, I really wanted some time to enjoy camp and eat a more liesurely dinner. I got to Mirror Lake about 6:15pm and was happy that I would have almost 2 hours of light to play around.

Boom! Thunder. Pouring Rain. I set up my tent as fast as I could and tossed everything inside. Max and I waited out a fairly intense thunderstorm before it gave me a brief reprieve right at dusk. I was starving and wanted to eat one of the heavier meals in my pack, so I jumped out and cooked a delicious meal of Tuna w/ shells and cheese before the deluge began again. That’s one thing I learned on this trip: I could eat shells and cheese for every dinner!

Here is a shot of camp during the brief time it was not raining (I would learn the next day that you are not supposed to build fires at Mirror Lake, but since I had come in from the Elliott Ridge side, I did not see the sign telling me that when I got there; that ring was already there so I had assumed I could use it):

It rained hard until late that night and I enjoyed a constant light show through the roof of my tent before finally falling soundly asleep.

Day 4: I thought I had moved ahead of schedule, but this would be short-lived when I could not locate the real trail leaving Upper Cataract Lake. I spent 45 minutes searching for it before finally deciding to bushwack. I knew if I kept the mountainside close on my right and didn’t descend too far then I would eventually hit the Gore Range trail as a worst-case scenario.

Upper Cataract Lake:

This bushwacking took forever. The blowdown was constant. I kept telling myself to be extra-careful because an injury in there and noone would find me for a long, long time. Kindof scary, but I also like that feeling, and its a major reason why I love exploring in the Gore Range.

I finally found the faintest hint of a trail, and was relieved to even see two cairns when I came to a very confusing rockfall / gully crossing. At least I knew some human had been there and was kind enough to direct me to the next section of “trail.”

Eventually I did come out on the Gore Range trail near Tippery Lake, but I had wasted at least two hours.

I ate fast and kept moving. The Gore Range trail is maintained much better than anything I had been for a couple days, so the spaces on my map were passing by much more quickly.

Surprise Lake:

A ridge overlooking the Black Creek Drainage:

Past the Lost Lake Trail… I was moving fast with a lighter pack. It rained hard for awhile and I was soaked from head-to-toe, but I was happy to be making some distance back up.

Sometimes jogging when I could, I began to zero-in on Slate Creek. I had camped there a few years before with some fishermen friends of mine and I knew of a great outfitters camp. Once I reached it though, the outfitters were there I searched around and found another good camp on the north side of Slate Creek:

I ate more shells and cheese and slept like baby. This was the first night that Max stayed inside the tent all night. He curled up next to me and didn’t move until first light.

Day 5: I wondered if I could get home today. I got up earlier and was on the trail just after 7am. I probably felt stronger than I had all trip, other than my aching feet.

Before long I was past Boulder Creek, Rock Creek, South Rock Creek, and I had reached the trailhead for Willow Lakes at 1pm. My original plan was to camp at Willow Lakes and climb over Red Peak the next morning to reach Frisco via Eccles Pass. Thunderstorms were not going to allow me to try that route unless I camped and went for it the next morning. I didn’t want to wait around all day, so I decided to continue on the Gore Range trail all the way to Mesa Cortina and to head home via the Lily Pad Lake Trail.

Finally I got my first look at Buffalo Mountain and I knew that home was just on the other side:

I was just gutting it out at this point. My feet were screaming. I think I was delirious because I hiked about 500 unneccessary vertical feet up Buffalo Mountain because I got confused trying to scoot over to the Lily Pad Lake Trailhead.

Once Frisco came into view I knew I would make it home and sleep in my own bed that night: