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| Blanca Sunrise and Ellingwood |
Blanca sunrise
Friday; Left Boulder at 10 am and was at the trail head at 3 after a quick, but regrettable stop in Alamosa for a plate of what called chicken cordon blue, but was basically deep fried mystery meat with cheese on a bed of grease. After that culinary delight I headed up Lake Como road and stopped at a campsite 4 miles from the lake. The next day I would discover that my Jeep could have easily gone all the way to Jaws 1 without issue as most Jeeps could, but the hike was not terrible along the road, the road is not terribly fun to hike, but it is a means to an end. Weather, 72 degrees and sunny.
Saturday; slept late and then hiked the 4 miles to the lake in the early afternoon, took a little over 3 hours, I would have been quicker, but a wild raspberry bush slowed my progress... so yummy.
I opted to find a campsite away from the lake and the other campers in order to find a bit of solitude, there are 10's of sites beyond the lake back in the forest that are quite nice, I found a nice spot just across from the Little Bear cutoff trail, in the trees with water close by and mostly quite. Weather, 74 degrees and sunny, a little rain at nightfall, but no accumulation.
Sunday; Woke, ok, never really slept, until 145 AM, was planning on being on the trail by 2 AM, but I spent 15 minutes looking for my hanging food bag as the 100 paces up to my campsite is not the same as 100 paces down from my campsite, something about stride length multiplied by the hypotenuse of the quark or some such. I was hiking by 220 AM under a star filled sky with only a sliver of moon hiding behind the ridge and 42 degrees, all really quite lovely. I had planned on doing Ellingwood first, but never saw the left hand cutoff so I simply followed the cairns to Blanca. It is indeed a class 2 walkup with only a few spots that you need to watch your footing, there were patches of snow that were solid and easily avoided. I arrived at 516 AM and was glad I brought my sleeping bag and stove as I would have to wait an hour for the sun to rise, and the temp dropped to 27 degrees. So I squeezed between a couple of tall rocks and watched the stars fade and the morning appear, even caught sight of a few meteors, all while sipping my hot tea and resting cozy in my sleeping bag... ok, I nearly fell asleep.
The sun rose and it was absolutely spectacular. I stayed until nearly 730 just enjoying the view then headed over to Ellingwood via the 3rd class traverse, it was an easy traverse that is well marked, the only crux is not cliffing out so you have to down hike towards the end before starting the ascent in earnest. Ellingwood is tougher than Blanca due to the loose rock and the lack of definitive trail. I arrived at the summit of Ellingwood at 830 and spent a little more than an hour just enjoying the sunshine and the view. With my binoculars I could see people on top of Mt. Lindsey and Little Bear and Blanca. Weather, 47 degrees and sunny with a few wisps of clouds coming up the valleys.
Started the down climb over the scree and faint braided trails until I met up with the main trail and got back to my tent for a well earned nap by 11 AM.
It was a wonderful trip and I will come back to hike Little Bear when there is more snow.
Thank you for reading and enjoy yourself out there.
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