It was a long and quiet summer in the sunny office and the dark basement labs here in Illinois... lots of bike ride miles in too, hey, we've got some hills if looking at the right place but frankly, I'd be lying if saying that my hiking muscles were well trained when it was finally vacay time. Luckily enough I was able to take 3 weeks off, and off I go until Labor Day weekend for 21 days of adventures camping, road tripping, AND HIKING PEAKS in the CO high country.

This will be the leitmotiv of this TR and the following, but the weather forecast was looking sketchy when I last looked before leaving home. So, I took my time along the road and didn't hit the Rockies until 2 days later, and i reached Fairplay at 2PM on 08/14 with terrific sunshine and no towering clouds around... I'm also a geologist and I love to incorporate some roadside (or trailside) geology on my trips, and it's a great activity for acclimating. I was originally headed to Bonanza and Saguache areas for that purpose, with the intent of heading towards La Garita wilderness to check out more rocks and take on some unfinished peak business, and eventually spend more time in Lake City. But that PERFECT weather forecast for the next day and the recent reopening of the "Decalibron" loop peaks (thank you CFI and Mr. Rieber!) called it in: I'm hiking the Decalibron tomorrow, and since I'm in town with cell signal I'm signing that waiver RIGHT NOW! (19 14ers to that day and I was still oddly enough a Decalibron-virgin) I figured the relatively short 7 miles loop and relatively easy terrain would be a trade-off for my lack of acclimation. Plus I didn't mind cutting that drive short and set camp earlier (I ended up camping along the Buffalo Peaks road in my quest for relatively low elevation terrain where to sleep).

Disclaimer: I am not doing this TR for sharing beta on the Decalibron route, Bill Middlebrook has already done it better than me on the website, so please look at his descriptions and not mine. Here I am just sharing impressions of it, and some cool rock pics. I will however provide details on my route up and down Stewart Peak as this is a cool one and part of it is not documented on the website. If you came here for Stewart, which I really hope you did, scroll down!

Ready to hit the trail by 6.30 the next morning (Aug 15) after being treated by a beautiful South Park sunrise. Easy parking at Kite Lake on a Tuesday, and I took off for the loop in reverse. Up along the Bross bypass by 8AM with some screaming lungs, not unexpected but at least I was able to keep a good pace up that scree slope of misery.

Since that bypass counts as the summit, then 14er 20 was in the books. Deal. I took my time to check out the beautiful Mt Bross porphyry exposures -those that attracted the miners as they host lots of ore at their contact with the sediments they intruded into-, which then towards the Cameron saddle gives way to the sediments. Yeah, limestone!!!

Relatively uneventful ascent of Lincoln though my flatlander lungs still weren't the happiest, and wow, I got stunned by the views from the summit on the Tenmile range. Whereas Bross met my "meh!" expectations, Lincoln exceeded them, by a lot. What a stunning day.

I'm not sure I'd count Cameron as a re-ascent, but here's my 22nd 14er, since it counts as a summit anyways, albeit unranked. Pretty cool to have the "summit" to myself on one of CO's most popular high country hike, and to sit on what might be Colorado's highest limestone outcrop.

I really took my time and enjoyed the descent of Cameron towards Democrat, with ever-changing geology, eventually entering the Precambrian gneiss basement.

A nice a comfy trail, apparently not just appreciated by humans. That baby goat thought it was a good trail, too.

One final push later on terrain that I found to be the hardest of the whole loop and also harder than I expected for such a popular "easy" peak, i was standing on Mt Democrat's summit pegmatite vein and its huge crystals. Really neat views too, and a good bunch of friendly people. Not crowded but not lonely. Just the right amount of hikers.

And about 6.5 hours later after a slow final descent, the loop was finished. 4 14ers in a day, woohoo! Ate lunch in the shade a little further down along the road, then got hit by a memorable headache. So yeah... altitude DID get me, eventually... re acclimation: most problems I've ever had over the years happened during the descent or after the descent, and they are that: headaches. We all react differently but descending further down helps, of course, and so does eating. I grabbed a legendary burrito at a food truck in Alma and back to my Buffalo Peaks road campsite for a well deserved dinner and rest.

After a couple of days of geological tourism in Bonanza and Saguache areas (hot springs count as geological features too, right?), my legs were ready to jump again. I had left an attempt at Stewart Peak unfinished in 2021 for a variety of reasons, primarily unpreparedness. The route I had explored then starts at Nutras Creek TH (on the way to Stewart Creek, aka, San Luis Peak TH), and ascends towards beaver ponds, and reaches the NW ridge of Stewart, La Garita's second highest peak and "demoted" 14er (once a 14er due to topographic survey inaccuracies). That route looked obvious then and to my surprise I never found it listed here or on Gerry Roach's book. Mine to draw then! Onto some fun.

The first 2.2 miles start on a gradually more faint trail up the gently sloped Nutras Creek valley and are also part of the E ridge route listed on the website. https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=201708080742073

The only difficulty there is to regain the trail after each downed tree (lots of them!). You should find the trail again on the other side of each downed tree. There are large expanses of meadows and willows, and it's lonely, so it's best to be on the lookout for a grazing moose. Make noise.

2.2 miles in, you'll meet a creek coming from the right (NW) side of the valley, and the trail gets definitely more faint. The E ridge route on this website crosses that creek to stay in the main valley (that's photo 5 on the route description). To go the beaver ponds, you DO NOT cross the creek and ascend straight up along the creek. It gets steeper and there some faint trail segments.

Then slope then flattens and (still along the creek) the view opens up. To the left and still along the creek the "beaver ponds" area becomes visible. This is your next destination. By not crossing the creek, there should be plenty of easy grassy terrain to continue, in sight of the beaver ponds. I was on the lookout for moose again, and this time, I saw one. One hand clap later, it was aware of my presence, and went to hide in the woods. This is a lovely area, with the false summits of Stewart in plain sight.

In typical La Garita wilderness solitude, I met three ptarmigans who definitely did not expect me and flew away rapidly and loudly. I'm also not sure who scared who the most.

Alas this bucolic enjoyment is short-lived and soon there will be obstacles of willow (come on moose!) as the valley takes a gentle right turn and you face a rocky slope.

This is the crux of the route finding on this route, but I've got good news! Procrastinate entering these willows as much as possible (yeah!). Once on a flat boulder field, your fate becomes obvious: you gonna have to fight the willows. Straight ahead there should be a young spruce tree. To the right and above, there should be several old bristlecones. Know your conifers, y'all! You wanna aim for the lowest of the old tall bristlecone, not the spruce.

There should be some use paths upslope in the willows, and a small creek which can provide a path of least resistance towards the old bristlecone. That bristlecone is somewhat engulfed in willows and from there there's another old bristlecone visible straight up. That's your path of least resistance to finally reach grass again. You can now relax and admire the beauty of these old giants.

It's all uphill from there but it's willow-free. Yeah, freedom!

Head NE towards the ridge crest above, by finding the best line that avoids the cliffy parts to the left. It's mostly grassy to the ridge, but in the interest of LNT it might be better to aim for the rockier lines in talus. It's generally stable.

Do not forget to take your time to memorize the route down through the willows. Get familiar with which exact trees you went by (the lowermost tall bristlecone is your friend). They should still be there on the descent, because so will the willows (I can guarantee the latter).

As the terrain flattens out close to the ridge, it is also the time to pay attention where your descent will be. See the pics below. You will not want to descend too far on that ridge since it is plagued of willows past that descent point. This is the upper end of appropriately named Willow Mesa.

From there, the ridge is easy-peasy and almost flat, gentle class 1 that eventually reaches very cool slabs of platy rocks (volcanic tuff). they will play some music under your footsteps too. 12,800 ft ish, and the main course is now in sight, while the summit is the dessert. Yep, what you see from there is a false summit.

The cliff along the ridge at that point is obvious to spot, and it will be bypassed by the left (South). To get there, hike up the steep grassy slope (class 1). Terrain will flatten out and you make a gradual left to attack the ridge by its E side while bypassing the cliff.

Once above the cliff via the bypass, welcome to the class 2 fun! The talus might be loose at places, but I did find a good line by staying as close as possible from (and underneath) platy slabs. This line will eventually reach the ridge again.

Past the loose section, it's a stable slab fun fest up the false summit. Really neat rocks. Erosional remnants of andesite lava flow.

Did I say false summit? Ha! Thankfully the real one is not far at all from there and reached by mellow class 1 terrain. The views were stunning when I got there, 3 hours after start.

But the West (Lake City) was getting rained on and knowing the wind pattern and sketchy forecast past noon, my summit time got cut to the bare minimum.

I guess I made the right call. Clouds literally chased me off that ridge in the next 20 minutes.

Lightning held off but I got eventually hailed on 5 minutes after reaching my car and campsite, right on time for lunch. Then thunder came, right on time for folding my tent. Total hike is a smidge over 10 miles, but I left from my tent ~ 200 m further up the road before Nutras Creek TH. A very nice centennial 13er, remote and scenic. I love the drive to it, these forest roads are so remote, saw one car on my way up from HWY 114! Then I took the "scenic route" to leave. From there to Lake City is a >2 hour dirt road festival, going through Los Pinos pass and down to Cathedral, and back up to catch hwy 149 almost at Slumgullion pass. Just like I saw no one during my hike, I was alone on the road until Cathedral, and there I saw only one car! I was happy to set camp again along the road to Matterhorn Creek TH. Off to an attempt at Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre I go!!! These will be for a separate TR though. Stay tuned. Thanks for reading!