Spring Creek Pass to Molas Pass: mile 350~410
Once in Creede we did some grocery shopping and ate a big meal. There was an incredible gear shop, San Juan Mountain Sports, that was really hiker oriented. They let us store our bags while we were doing stuff around town and had a shower for us to use. They were part bar, part gear shop and had the exact socks and footbeds we wanted to buy! We shared a beer with our friend Logan when he got to town, and then I repacked our resupply on the drive back to the trailhead. Always happy to be in the company of a friend, we got back to the trailhead feeling excited that we had made it this far, to our second-to-last resupply!
After saying goodbye to Logan, we set up camp near the quiet highway and fell quickly asleep, relieved not to have to cook dinner, our bellies still full from our town meal.
We woke up early (3 am) and started hiking over the frozen ground away from spring creek pass. By the time we made it to back on snow, the wind was picking up and we could see that we were in for a gusty day above tree line. We spent the majority of the day traversing a 12-13,000 ft ridge above tree line, while the wind droned at a steady beat. We passed over the highest official point on the Colorado trail, and in our tired state, missed our turn off the ridge and added an extra mile of distance to our day. These conditions were exhausting, and our camp at 11,800 feet was a welcome respite, a small group of sheltering trees and a patch of grass greeted us near the top of the Lost Trail Creek drainage.
We were greeted with a treat the next day when the wind took a day off and we spent one of the most magnificent days skiing above tree line enjoying the views the San Juans had to offer. The snow was consistent and the temperature mild, it felt like the conditions we had dreamed of for this trip. Unfortunately, I was feeling terrible all day, so Mark carried the team while I took snack and water breaks as infrequently as I could stand. I kept thinking I would feel better after just one more break, but my stomach was upset and I felt like I never really woke up.
By the time we got to camp, I was ready to lay down and sleep, but we still had to find water. We had dropped off the trail into the Deep Creek drainage, but didn’t see running water as high up as we expected. We skied further down the drainage until we found running water, and were unsurprised to see that like many of our sources for the past few days, it was full of silt from the melting dusty snow. In the water collection process I put my foot in the creek! My boot was soaked, but thankfully we had some time in the sun to dry it out camp since we had been sticking to our schedule of early starts and early camps to maximize our time on the frozen snow.
The next morning, both our stomach’s were feeling terrible, dinner the night before (mac and cheese with TVP) had not agreed with us, and Mark was feeling the way I had the day before. We decided to call it on our early start and go back to sleep for a few hours. We needed the sleep, but Mark especially was still feeling unwell. We suspect that after days of camping above 11,000 ft and hiking in the elements we were experiencing a combination of dehydration and mild altitude sickness. Still, we got out of camp and were thankful to get below tree line before the weather rolled back in. We skied down the first part of the Elk creek drainage and then switched to sneakers as we got closer to the confluence with the Animas river. After climbing 2000 feet from the river up to the highway, we easily hitched into Silverton from Molas pass. We got our box from the Wyman and my mom kindly bought us a hotel room there. We ate our fill of pizza at the only restaurant open on a Thursday during the shoulder season. It was nice to be in town during their slow season, both of us having experienced how exhausting it is to be an employee in a tourist town during peak season. We enjoyed talking to the employees at the hotel and restaurant, and we are excited to head back this way in future springs for some more skiing in the area.
