Annual Guy's Backpacking Trip

Mountain(s): Kit Carson and Challenger Peak
Route: Standard Route

Every year I head up with some friends for a backpacking trip. It seems like more years than not the trip not includes a 14er or two, this year would not be an exception. I was really lucky because I was able to log over 100 miles backpacking with my sons scout troop every other weekend, and I think it helped me get ready for the vertical required for a 14er in the Sangre de Cristos.

Joining me on this trip is my friends Mike and Tris, they have joined me every year for the past 11 years. We have other friends that might join us for a trip or two, but due to health issues, injuries, a lack of desire, etc. it usually returns to just the three of us. This is a much needed mental health vacation for all of us every year, a vacation from work, the responsibilities of our families and the over stimulation of our society. It is no wonder the mountains have become so popular.

August 12, 2020 - Drive to trailhead

Not wanting the stress of the drive and the hike to the Willow lake on the same day, we opted to camp close to the trailhead the first day. Departing the Denver metro area late morning we arrived at the trailhead a little after two. There we several open camp sites on the road to the trailhead, but we decided to hike in a short distance and found a good spot. We had camp set up by 6pm and started to explore the area.

August 13th 2020 - Hike to Willow Lake

With the short hike ahead it was nice to sleep in, have a nice breakfast and break camp. We were on the trail at 7:45, about 45 minutes behind schedule, but there was no rush. The hike was beautiful, the stream crossings were improved from prior trip reports, there was a recent rock slide that a volunteer group was clearing that temporary blocked the trail and we only ran into two other groups of people the entire hike up. Outside of that it was very uneventful until we got to the basin below Willow Lake.

Taking our time to hike up to Willow Lake we strolled into the basin below the lake at just a little after noon. I was expecting to see some other tents, but the valley was packed. There was a large group doing trail work and lots of people up on the mountain. We dropped our packs and started to look for a place to set up camp. Finding a location that was not visible from another tent was not an option. We found what I thought was the last viable option, but 5 or 6 more groups showed up throughout the day and found a place to squeeze in. A large group showed up at dusk on horseback with pack animals and was very upset there was nowhere left for them to camp, so they turned around. I imagine this has to be due to COVID and the growing popularity of 14ers, but I am sure if the growth continues this will join the list of permit required trails.

After setting up camp we went on a little hike to the lake and spoke to some of the other hikers coming down. Thinking about doing the north ridge in the morning we solicited inquires from hikers as they came down. Most of them were of failed summits because the north ridge was attempted. Then we ran into a technical climber that was finding new routs in the basin. He explained how the north ridge was defiantly the best route, and it was easy, nothing more technical than Sunlight and exposure that is a little more hairy than Capitol for a prolonged period of the climb. We opted for the standard route.

August 14th 2020 - Summits

I am a slow hiker at altitude, because of this I have been turned around on a few peaks with the summer monsoons storms. Doing my best to avoid this we got a fairly early start. I don't remember what time we woke up, but we were on the trail with headlamps on by 5am. By 6am there was enough light to turn off the headlamps and we had already made it around the lake to the trail junction to the Upper Willow Lake, this is where we would have turned to do the north ridge. A few minutes later the volunteer group doing trail maintenance flew past us, so much for making good time. Time to put on the helmets.

By 7am we finally pasted up the trail building crew (only because they stopped to start work). A few minutes later we were greeted with the first rays of sunshine for the day. The slope quickly became steep enough that we had to worry about rockfall, so we moved over where we no longer above the volunteers and stuck close together.

We gained the ridge at 7:50 and the summit shortly after. After taking a break on the summit we realized it was 9am, out cutoff time for making the summit if we wanted to continue. After a quick evaluation of the skies and our morale we headed toward Kit Carson (we actually didn't get off the summit until 9:12).

We reached the summit of Kit Carson at 10:50, the avenue was easy, the 450' grind up, this took most of the time, and you could tell we were getting a little fatigued. I descended down a line a little more to the west to the avenue. I had read about this line in a few trip reports and I defiantly recommend it. I should have taken it up, it is a little steeper, but the rock is more solid. I was really dreading the hike back up the avenue and back up Challenger, but I found this to not be really difficult. The difficult part ended up being the decent after the second summit of Challenger. I was back to the avenue by 11:50, back to the summit of Challenger by 12:45, but it took another 3 hours to descend to Willow Creek. My legs were tiered and the terrain was so loose I had to move real slow making sure each step was stable before I took the next one. The sky was blue and we were hiking out the next day, so there was no reason to hurry. Might as well enjoy the hike and get down safe.

After I made it back to camp we hung around camp and told stories about how amazing the hike was. For how crowded the basin was I was surprised we only saw two groups of people after the summit of Challenger.

August 15th 2020 - The Journey Home

The morning was lethargic, knowing the adventure was over and it was time to head home. We filtered our water, had a big breakfast and broke camp around 10am, the decent was much quicker, we arrived back at the parking lot at noon.

There were sirens blaring and a brush truck in the parking lot shortly after we arrived. They were there in response to a call of the fire in the area, but they couldn't get the truck up the road because it was blocked by several illegally parked cars. Luckily it ended up being a false alarm. On the drive home we were detoured off 285 because of road closure for access to wild fires and we saw the start of another one on the horizon.