"Lo Carb"

Route: Baldwin Tour
Posted On: 6/29/2024, By: QuietBear
Info: Lo Carb and the entire Baldwin Cirque is in summer conditions. A few large snowfields remain on north-facing and heavily shaded areas, but can be avoided without too much trouble. There is an abundance of muddy, slick, and sinking ground at lower elevations, especially near the lakes and willows. The creek is running very strong and Baldwin Creek 4x4 Road (Forest Service Road 277) has a good amount of water running over it in places. Mostly 1-2 inches, but perhaps 8-10 in one spot. Mosquitoes are in full bloom in the forested areas. Getting out of my car for a second resulted in 10-15 intruders. 

Route: Carbonate/Cyclone/Lo Carb/Grizzly from Cyclone Cre
Posted On: 6/30/2022, By: JasonKline
Info: Did the Carbonate/Cyclone/Lo Carb/Grizzly loop from Cyclone Creek. The entire route was free of snow and ice. I'd like to reiterate, as others have stated, how dangerous and loose the descent is from Lo Carb to the saddle with Grizzly. It's more like something from one of the nastier Elks than the Sawatch. My foot barely grazed a refrigerator-sized rock, causing that rock and others to go sailing for several hundred feet. The rest of the route is nice and solid. 

Route: From Cyclone Creek TH
Posted On: 7/10/2021, By: mijoflynn
Info: Chaffee County 240 is rough above the Angel of Shavano campground -- it took about 30 minutes to drive the 5 miles to the Cyclone Creek TH, which is just an unmarked pulloff. But I made it without scraping the skid plates on my Cherokee Trailhawk (same clearance as a Subaru, 8.7", but better angles). I did Carbonate --> Cyclone --> "Lo Carb" --> Cronin, taking pretty much the same route as the one in rajz06's TR, except that I turned and started up Carbonate almost immediately. Summer conditions the whole way. On the return trip, you have to resummit "Lo Carb" (no big deal) and Cyclone (a drag -- its north side is steep and loose). Then you have a choice: resummit Carbonate and go down the way you came up, or descend west down a gully and follow the creek back to the TH. For anyone who's thinking about this route, I'd suggest biting the bullet and going back over Carbonate. The gully is so long and so loose, and the "trail" (if you can find it) is so overgrown and so covered with deadfall, that taking that way down is going to be just as much effort as reclimbing the extra 400'. The forest in that valley is in really bad shape -- more beetlekill than I've seen anywhere else in CO. 10 miles, ~4500'. Hazy today -- couldn't see very far. No one else on any of the four peaks. 

Route: Cyclone Creek
Posted On: 5/30/2021, By: angry
Info: Carbonate>Cyclone>Lo Carb>Grizzly Mostly dry. Remaining snow is of no consequence. 

Route: Little Browns
Posted On: 6/13/2020, By: dwoodward13
Info: Loop up Little Browns, down Browns. Hit White->Cronin->Lo Carb->Cyclone->Carbonate. Full summer conditions. Descended Cyclone/Carb saddle. Glissade opportunity if you want, otherwise you can stick to rocks. There is a old mining road that will pretty painlessly lead you to the active 4x4 road to Browns Lake. It's visible on satellite views.