I only descended the Ruby Trail and have never ascended it and I've never done Pigeon Creek, BUT, I found the trail on Ruby to be pretty easy to follow. I had a GPS with some waypoints and maybe a track that I used as reference, but I never needed it and my only consultation of it was to see how close we were to being down.
The one exception was that we lost the trail somewhere between the high meadow that you approach P+T from and Ruby Lake and had a miserable time there. I've never heard of anyone having issues there in particular, which suggests that we just missed it. And even that wasn't TOO terrible.
It is definitely longer though, particularly on climb day since you have to gain a bunch of extra elevation.
When we did it we also climbed Jupiter on the same trip, connecting the two basins via Twin Thumbs Pass and Ruby-No Name Pass, which saved us the trouble of having to ascend either one, which probably made the trip more pleasant. We also had hiked in from Purgatory so we had no concerns about making the train.
Pigeon Creek or Ruby Creek?
Forum rules
- This is a mountaineering forum, so please keep your posts on-topic. Posts do not all have to be related to the 14ers but should at least be mountaineering-related.
- Personal attacks and confrontational behavior will result in removal from the forum at the discretion of the administrators.
- Do not use this forum to advertise, sell photos or other products or promote a commercial website.
- Posts will be removed at the discretion of the site administrator or moderator(s), including: Troll posts, posts pushing political views or religious beliefs, and posts with the purpose of instigating conflict within the forum.
For more details, please see the Terms of Use you agreed to when joining the forum.
- Nathan Hale
- Posts: 464
- Joined: 7/31/2004
- 14ers: 58 4
- 13ers: 78
- Trip Reports (14)
- Contact:
Re: Pigeon Creek or Ruby Creek?
But for now we are young, let us lay in the sun and count every beautiful thing we can see.
http://mtns.nathan-hale.com
http://mtns.nathan-hale.com
-
- Posts: 131
- Joined: 9/17/2007
- 14ers: 58
- 13ers: 654
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Pigeon Creek or Ruby Creek?
You probably won't make the train if you're going back to Silverton that's for sure.
Trains run Durango to Silverton in the mornings, Silverton to Durango in the afternoons.
Trains run Durango to Silverton in the mornings, Silverton to Durango in the afternoons.
- mtnmaneric
- Posts: 152
- Joined: 2/22/2010
- 14ers: 58 7 20
- 13ers: 373
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Pigeon Creek or Ruby Creek?
To clarify - can you make the train on it's way back to Durango?mtnmaneric wrote: Can you still make the train on it's way out?
- kamiller43
- Posts: 28
- Joined: 3/31/2011
- 14ers: 42
- 13ers: 30
- Trip Reports (0)
Re: Pigeon Creek or Ruby Creek?
The train to Durango and picks up at Needleton at 2:45 pm to go back to Durango. There is only one train. Unless you get an insanely early start, I imagine it would be tough.mtnmaneric wrote:To clarify - can you make the train on it's way back to Durango?mtnmaneric wrote: Can you still make the train on it's way out?