Monarch Pass to Spring Creek Pass: mile 250~ 350
When Mac dropped us back on trail, we knew that having escaped the worst of the winds was only a small feet since we would be hiking over the Monarch Crest, a notoriously windy area. The blowing snow and huge gusts we encountered were the worst conditions either of us had ever experienced. There was a short respite at the Monarch Crest store, where we bought popcorn and hot coffee to warm our bellies in between the North and South ends of the crest. We ended the day with faces weathered by windburn, but at least able to enjoy the shelter of a small cabin structure built near Foose’s creek.
The next two days to our resupply at Cochetopa pass consisted of challenging weather conditions as it snowed off and on. The snow coverage, too, was inconsistent. With lots of stretches where conditions alternated between dirt and 4 ft snow banks, it was often hard to decide whether to hike or ski, but we eventually made it down to Cochetopa where we had a couple dozen miles of snow free hiking. Our friend Brian met us where the trail crosses the hwy 114 with our resupply, another Pizza, a cold beer, and a big hug. We were stoked to see him and have a night of dry easy camping along with the opportunity to air everything out.
When we left Cochetopa pass, we had our skis on our backs and our sneakers on our feet. Almost the whole day of hiking into the La Garita wilderness was dry and clear of snow, which we expected for this part of the state. We made it 27.5 miles even with the heavy packs, to the Stewart lake trailhead. We were able to camp on dry ground another night near the pit toilets (true luxury) at the trailhead.
The next day we decided to summit San Luis peak, a short detour from the official trail. We planned to ski down the southwest face of the peak, but after hiking though snow to the top of the peak we found the side we had planned to ski almost totally snow free! Looking out from San Luis peak, this was the first time we really saw the effect of the dust in the San Juans. As far as we could see, the snow on the leeward side of the range was covered in brown snow. Unable to find a viable ski line, we walked down the ridge back to the trail. We spent most of the rest of the day above tree line in the wind and intermittent snow. We were exhausted by the time we got to camp and were relieved to have sunny skies to finish off our day along with a patch of bare ground and running water easy to collect from.
From our camp in the La Garita wilderness we hiked over Snow Mesa to Spring Creek pass where we planned to hitch into Creede for the afternoon and get a ride back to the trail from our friend bringing us our resupply that evening. Hiking down to the highway, we didn’t see any cars driving by and we were worried about our prospect of getting a ride. After twenty minutes of waiting at the highway with no traffic, we finally saw a car coming up the pass, and thankfully they gave us a ride into Creede!