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| Humboldt Peak |
Left Denver at 5:30 AM on Saturday August 6. Had rained solid for 2 days before, so we were hoping it would have kept some people away. We were wrong.
The South Colony Lake Road was pretty ugly, but my 1999 stock 4Runner made it without too much difficulty. The wet and muddy rocks made some parts tricky where gripping is desired. We did slide backwards down some slick steps but made it eventually. Parked at the steel gate.
We backpacked in to South Colony Lake area and saw many tents but no people. Apparently everyone was up on Crestone or Humboldt. The quantity and qaulity of wildflowers along the way from the gate to South Colony Lake was spectacular.
The choice of campsites was not very good due to all the tents so we chose a nice site in the trees perhaps 300 yards downstream from the lake. We made camp and hiked around the lake and saw very few people and perhaps 12 bighorn sheep. After noon more people showed up and by 4pm the whole area was very alive with people just off the peaks. Not a place for solitude.
Sunday morning August 9 left camp at 8:30 am for Humboldt. Would have been better to have left by 7 am. Clouds were threatening the whole morning but nothing materialized. Saw more bighorns, marmots, pikas and some kind of mouse. Saw perhaps 10 other people along the way up and down, so fewer than expected. Hike is pretty easy except for about 200 feet of scrambling before the false summit. Otherwise pretty easy. Views of Crestone, Kit Carson and North Colony Lakes area was spectacular.
A brief shower did appear at around 1pm after we were back in camp. Blue skies again by 3pm.
Broke camp and backpacked back to car at TH. Had ice cream in Westcliffe to celebrate.
Definitely recommend staying overnight at South Colony Lake so that when you do the peak that you start that much closer and higher. Makes a much easier day. We saw some tents at Upper South Colony Lake above treeline and might question what that place is like during lightning.
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