Colorado 14'er bagging: June 27th 2007

Our schedule broke down today. Today's objective was to have been Little Bear, a solid and consistent class 4 route for which we'd hauled in the ropes, harnesses and helmets. However, given last night's weather we didn't think we wanted to attempt the route if it was wet. Instead I had skipped setting an alarm and we slept in for an extra 30 minutes then packed up and hiked out before the day got hot. It took us less than two hours to descend back to the car where we speed off for Alamosa, Colorado and some real food.

Besides a great lunch and beer at the San Luis brewery, we resupplied with fresh fruit at the grocery store then headed north to the Crestones, the other block of 14'ers in the Sangre de Cristo range. Johnny had told us that Willow Lake as a site we had to camp at, so we loaded up our packs again for another night out and started on the 3,000 foot ascent.

The trail started out in the heat without adequate shade, but as we gained height it cooled off and the afternoon clouds were developing and blocking out the sun. Plus, the views became steadily better as we headed upwards. Eventually, we passed two people working as trail crew to remove all the downed trees from winter's weather and the route became a bit tougher as we ducked under or climbed over large blowdowns.

There were also a couple fun stream crossings on the way to the lake, thankfully I broke my spree of getting in water over my boot tops and my feet stayed dry to the lake. We'd been forewarned about the lake's beauty, but it still didn't prepare us for the site of this lake deeply nestled among the flanking mountains and partially cradled by 100 foot cliffs. Centerpiece of the whole setting was a perfect ribbon waterfall splitting those cliffs directly across from the outflow. The remaining sides were decorated with the near-treeline growths and a few snow fields.

Once we recovered our breath we went looking for a great campsite to match the scenery and chatted with a climber from Missouri (Jim). Our perfect site was found and we spent the evening soaking in the views.