Rocky Mountain High

 view from the beginning of Piedra river trail

We learned about rock climbing at the Piedra river from a nice guy at the local gear shop. The climbing here is rated a bit stiffer than New Mexico so we were humbled a bit the first day. We climbed three 5.8 climbs the first day. Part of what made it difficult was just different rock. It is sandstone and the way it has formed is just different from what we've done so far. By the third 5.8 climb we were doing better and getting used to it.

 First climb

Matthew rappelling down the last climb

The next day we did about a 10 mile hike along the Piedra river. It was a beautiful day in the 60's and we saw a bunch of Mountain lion tracks! That was pretty exciting. I'd love to see one in the wild. The evening we found a phenomenal campsite with a view. We sat at the edge of the cliff looking out at the landscape, watching and listening to a nearby falcon, and observing whatever wildlife we could. It was a great way to spend an evening.

Mountain lion track! Confirmed by referencing Matthews tracking book

view from our campsite

We went back to climbing the following day but tried something a little harder. The first climb was a 5.9 and the longest we can do with our current rope, 80 feet. It was a fun climb but dirty and a tricky location. The base of the climb is so steep I couldn't stand in a place to see Matthew climbing so belayed blindly, by feel and limited communication. We discussed a strategy knowing it would be hard to hear once he got to the top. Oh, and we were top roping, no lead climbing. Once he made it to the top, he belayed me from the top and we were able to communicate better. We then did a 5.8 climb and he completed a 5.10a, which I started but did not have it in me to complete.

The long 5.9 climb

I hoped to return to try the 5.10a, because I felt I could do it when not worn out. It was not meant to be. We went to town and ended up talking to a very informative older gentleman at the ranger station. He made a lot of recommendations for places to see. We then enjoyed a hot spring at the edge of the river running through town for a little while. From there we did some coffee shop time and headed towards wolf creek pass, stopping along the way at a cool campsite by a river. It is odd seeing so much water after being in the desert for several months.

great little hot spring in town

The next day we did a hike along Windy pass trail. It is an out and back hike that we planned on doing for as far as we could. The gentleman at the ranger staion warned us it would be mucky and higher up very snowy. We did walk through a lot of muck. I was glad to have my gortex boots and gators on. We made it to the snowy part and kept going only for as long as we were certain of the trail. Even then on the way back following our tracks we lost it once.

Love his fashion sense

After the hike we drove along amazing views to Creede, CO. Creede was once a mining town. After the silver boom subsided it shrunk to now a small town having about 300 year round residents. At 8,000 feet it is cold a lot of the year. The intent was to explore the mining museum, then walk main street but the museum was closed. We walked main street, stopped in a gear shop and learned they were having a sale due to memorial day weekend and suggested we come back the next day. They also informed us that weekend a lot of fun stuff would be going on. We found a nice campsite for the night and settled in.

Matthew slept out with his non plastic gear to test out a new system (800 thread count sheet as a tarp shelter, alpaca fur blanket as a sleeping bag, wool poncho as a liner for extra warmth and duck canvas ground cloth.  Here's a link he wrote about it - http://www.blog.smalladventures.net/2017/05/a-wool-poncho-and-working-sleep-system.html). It turned out to be a really good test evening as the temperature dropped to at least 23 degrees. I felt the chill and I was in the car with my down sleeping bag and the windows closed. I woke to seeing Matthew dancing around the car in his wool poncho. The experiment went well and he was a very happy camper.

We went to town learned about the history of mining in Creede, I bought a pair of socks at the gear shop sale and we had a long chat with a nice guy who owns the music shop. He was obviously very proud of Creede, almost felt like he was selling the town and made Matthew think he wants to live here. Later we realized how cold it is at that elevation most of the year and thought we'd keep looking.

It was only midday so we took another scenic drive to a hike we learned about from the local music shop owner along North Creek river. He said there was no official trail but the locals have kind of made there own and it's a little rough but you end up at a beautiful waterfall. We got lost a bit but found the spot. The walk in was along a road that was blocked to cars, not far in we came across a pipeline. We don't know what kind but guessed oil. We unfortunately did not get a photo but we then walked along train tracks that cross a rushing river. It was safe but still eerie. there was a slim metal walkway along the right side of the track and a thin wire you could hold on to. After that we scrambled on rocks along the left side of the river until we made it to the falls. Did I mention to see the falls we could have just driven to the top? This way was a lot more fun. We sat on a large rock enjoying the view then scrambled up to the parking lot. We walked the road back instead of traversing back across the rocks.

North creek falls

scrambling to the top

That evening we slept in a small green meadow covered with newly bloomed yellow dandelions, surrounded by aspen trees. It was a great spot. We returned to Creede the next day for 'Taste of Creede'. It was much smaller than expected, they shut down main street and had a few vendors out... I shouldn't have had too high of expectations for a town with a population of 300 people. Aside from the vendors there were artists painting at one end of the street and it was fun to see them work. Our favorite was a woman who seemed to be painting on wood and it was all vibrant earthy colors with natural scenes.

From Creede we ventured towards Lake city. We never made it into Lake city proper because we took the Alpine loop towards Silverton. The Alpine loop requires a 4x4 vehicle and was a long drive just to do half of it. We would have done the whole thing but the northern part of the loop was not cleared yet. It was a fun drive with some eeek moments when we were a little closer to the drop off than I liked. Still it was amazing and we said wow about every 5 minutes. We made it to the highest elevation we've driven so far at Cinnamon pass which is 12,640 feet, and what a view.

Cinnamon pass

a lot of the drive was close to a drop off

We camped out near Silverton and in the morning stopped in the town to walk around. Again we met a local guy who raved about his town, how he left L.A. to move here 4 years ago and is so happy he did. Silverton is another small town with some fun character to it, all the buildings were painted different fun colors from pink, yellow and baby blue to fuschia. We kept on our drive and stopped at Molas pass to do some hiking. We ended up on part of the Colorado trail, doing a lot of switchbacks down to a river and back up. It was a 7.6 mile hike and much easier for the first half down... but man the view. Oh, and we saw a train! It was cool to see a train choo choo down in the valley.

making breakfast at campsite in near Silverton

 getting tired of beautiful views yet?

the view while doing switchbacks down to the river

We then drove to a campsite near Durango. We moved a lot faster than we would have to get near Durango, for yet another car appointment. Hopefully that will be taken care of and we will be on our way to Steamboat springs to see one of my best friends! I'm very excited to see another friendly face and dole out some hugs.