In planning this trip, I found the information online and in the guidebook to be woefully lacking and inaccurate. I could not find any GPX files for this track, nor any information on an East descent of La Garita. Hopefully this helps anyone trying to take on the same line.

I picked this route after perusing Roach's guidebook for an easy/moderate backpacking line to take my friend on. This one seemed perfect, with Roach's description, "This wilderness route provides a perfect excuse for a backpack", and the easy looking 15.8 miles. To his first statement, I must agree. The La Garita wilderness and journey along Middle Fork Saguache Creek was beautiful and pristine wilderness.

The trip began with a bit of a rough start. We arrived at the trailhead just as it started pouring rain, but we couldn't wait too long if we wanted to get to Machin Lake before dark. So we pulled on our shell layers and set out in the rain.

Luckily, it cleared within the hour, and we were soon enjoying clear skies and wildflowers. The trail was certainly far from maintained with numerous downed trees, alternate routes, and flooded paths. However, I've come to expect that with 13ers (it is, in fact, one of my favorite differences between the 14ers and 13ers). We went off route a few times, as you may find if you follow my approach GPX, but overall we made good time for the first 3-4 miles.

However, around this point, joy gave way to confusion. Roach lists this approach as 6.5 miles, but at 4 miles in, our basin still appeared to be a long ways away. Much further than 2.5 miles. This did a number on my friend, who, not being in as good of shape as I, was beginning to struggle under the load of her pack. We rested for a time, and I took a few heavy items from her before we decided to push on. (As a note, I do not expect most of you to struggle with this approach. I imagine that most people chasing the centennials can handle an 8-9 mile backpacking approach. However, be warned if you're bringing newer folks along. Those extra 2-3 miles can weigh pretty fast on the unprepared)

Pushing on, we were further thrown off when we never came across Roach's right side turn off, which according to his map, climbs the South slope (to climber's right) at the fork of Machin Creek, high up to 12,100 to circumnavigate the basin. Instead, the cattle trail pushed left around 11,700, directly into the willows. We would again go off route here, trying to split the difference between Roach's beta and the ephemeral cattle trail, and we wound up trudging through deep mud and soaked willows straight down the center of the basin (there were a number of factors that played into my poor route finding decisions here. Be careful not to follow in my footsteps - the descent GPX line is the one you want). On the brightside, I would not have captured this gorgeous photo if not for this mistake.

This poor route finding left us bushwacking through a surprisingly dense forest for the altitude. I was perpetually thrown off by the trees which seemed far too tall to have lived above 12,000'. This final 3/4 mile was like a strange time vortex. Soaking wet, long beyond our prescribed 6.5 mile approach, and ducking under and over fallen trees, it took us over an hour to cover this last little stretch, and we wouldn't arrive at Machin Lake until well after dark, having clocked a little over 9 miles. My friend was completely burned and was having some issues with her hips and knees, so she decided that she would stay behind to rest, while I would wake up at 04:00 for the summits.

Waking up the next morning was a trying time, and it took far longer than usual for me to drag myself away from sleep. Nonetheless, by 04:20, I was on my way to the East ridge. The route finding here was self explanatory - even in the dark it was a simple matter of following the topo lines. It would be an easy matter to keep this ridge at class 2, but I did find myself wandering into some class 3 territory on the initial cliff band, just to spice things up. Once on the ridge, it is just a matter of going up, crossing between talus fields and grassy plateaus. Off to the right, the silhouette of San Luis Peak kept company. I arrived at the summit at 06:00, just in time to watch the sunrise.

By then, I had not yet resolved if I would actually push over to La Garita, especially since I thought I would have to backtrack over the ridge to descend Phoenix's East Ridge. But I was feeling surprisingly fresh, and decided to make the push. I like to avoid leaving unbagged peaks when I have the choice. The push over was enjoyable and straight forward. I stayed as ridge proper as I could, and got this pretty cool shot over Machin Lake

I would summit La Garita at 07:10. I did not spend much time resting or taking photos, and instead made straight for the drop in point I had picked out on the way. This East facing ramp would cut my distance back to Machin Lake almost in half, so I decided to risk it. Overall, it was an easy descent, and I would recommend it to anyone making the same loop from the East side. The talus ramp was loose, but no worse than parts of Princeton or the line between Windom and Sunlight. Following the ramp almost to it's base, I made a cut over and down the moraine, and was back to the lake before 09:00.

After a solid breakfast, a swim in the lake, and breaking down camp, my friend and I made for the return journey. Her legs were a little worse for wear, and the labral pain was being compensated for with her IT band (a cycle I know all too well), so we needed to take our time on the return. This slower pace did help me to stick with the trail though, and my return GPX follows that cattle track almost exactly. As such, we were able to get the return under 9 miles, and with minimal muddy willow wacking.

It was an enjoyable climb, but unfortunately far longer than I anticipated. Looking back, I should've just double checked Roach's beta against the caltopo map I made, but after a busy week, this simple double check slipped my mind. For those of you looking to take this on yourselves, I have a few words of advice. First, be ready to backpack 8-9 miles, and bring capable friends. Second, I wouldn't recommend this as a summer route, especially during the rainy season. Even staying on the track, there were numerous muddy and wet crossings. If I were to do this line again, it would be as a winter/early spring ski (avy risk seems to be reasonably low for the entirety of the route, you could make some cool snow ascents of that East face, and skiing down La Garita's talus ramp would've been a blast(but the fallen trees would certainly be something to contend with)), or late fall, when the creek is low and the aspens have turned. But overall, I had an excellent adventure, learned some shortcomings in my route finding, and bagged two more peaks - an experience brought down only by my friend's injury.

Anyways, hopefully this was helpful to those of you looking to take on the same climb!