A Grassy Slope Named Cecil…

… and some very fond memories.

05/30/2026

Peaks Hiked:

C.T. Peak – 13,317’

Gudy Peak – 13,572’

“That effing grassy slope destroyed my quads descending” I said to Kiefer as we arrived back in Lake City, mid day Sunday the 31^st. “Who is Cecil?” Kiefer asked, leading to me looking at him quizzically, and slowly repeating, that. grassy. slope. Not Cecil. But henceforth, the only Cecil I know will now be the name of the grassy slope between Gudy Peak and C.T. Peak. Now to tell the story of how we met Cecil… Haveeeee you met Cecil??

Gudy Peak and C.T. Peak have been on Kiefer and my radar now since late 2024 when we first hiked into Cooper Creek to hike Every Mountain and Cooper Creek Peak. There were three reasons we were looking forward to completing these two peaks, and after repeating 13,403’ and summiting new 13,544’ over Memorial Day weekend with Shawn, we bumped Gudy and C.T. to the top of our lists, primarily because completing these peaks means we never have to drive above Sherman on Cinnamon Pass again, and also because I have a soft spot for both, due to my 9 year long adventure section hiking the Colorado Trail (C.T), which was made possible by the work of Gudy Gaskill; thirdly, Cooper Creek is a beautiful place and I was looking forward to returning.

The Colorado trail, including the full Collegiate Loop is 567 miles and travels from Waterton Canyon Trailhead near Denver to its terminus at Junction Creek Trailhead in Durango. On your journey you will travel through the Lost Creek Wilderness, Holy Cross Wilderness, Mount Massive Wilderness, Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, La Garita Wilderness, and lastly (and my favorite) the Weminuche Wilderness. While I section hiked the trail and celebrated completion (and Kiefer and my marriage for the first time with my family) at Spring Creek Pass, also outside of Lake City, hiking the trail allowed me to see hidden and remote corners of Colorado and gave me a true appreciation for the road less traveled. Many nights were spent miles from the nearest town, or even other humans and even though the first few nights it may have felt unsettling, soon enough returning to civilization after a long weekend in the wild was what began to feel unsettling to me. In 1972 Gudy Gaskill spoke at the White House and set the road to building the Colorado trail in motion. 15 years later her vision was complete, and the same year of the Golden Spike Ceremony, the Colorado Trail was completed from Denver to Durango. The Gudy Gaskill Bridge spanning the South Platte River outside of Deckers was dedicated to Gudy on the trail’s 25^th Anniversary and she was inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame in 2002 for her work not only on the trail, but also on conservation. The final lookout “Gudy’s Rest” prior to descending into Durango also bears her namesake. Gudy passed away on July 14, 2016, but her legacy lives on, and I am sure she would have loved the view from the top of her namesake peak.

For more information about the history of the Colorado Trail, please check out the website of the Colorado Trail Foundation: https://coloradotrail.org/trail/trail-history/

We planned to camp Friday night at the Grizzly Gulch Trailhead and make the short drive to Cooper Creek in the morning, but due to spending too much time hanging out with the duck couple that have taken residence in our backyard, we were later than intended getting into Lake City.

As we passed Mill Creek Campground we stopped to take pictures of a bull moose chomping on some willows… it was now almost 7 PM, and I was getting hungry. I suggested to Kiefer that we backtrack and set up a basecamp at Mill Creek for two nights. We grabbed a campsite near the restrooms, and Kiefer got to work setting camp while I prepped our and Kaiah’s dinners. Other than the group next to us being extremely noisy and keeping everyone awake, we had a lovely night at camp.

Due to getting to bed late, we also got a late start up to Cooper Creek, however we had a perfect forecast on our side as we diapered the truck to avoid any marmot hitchhikers, and we began heading up the trail at the early hour of 9:30 AM.

The familiar trail rolled quickly by and soon we were at the creek crossing where we would leave the trail and begin our date with Cecil. After leaving the trail we stayed to the left of Cooper Creek and began an ascending traverse following the path of least resistance, and soon enough we met Cecil. Cecil rose before us beckoning us with a cushy tundra slope that per GAIA would deposit us on the saddle between C.T. Peak and Gudy Peak at about 12,900’. Cecil is deceptively steep, and deceptively long. We gained 1600’ in .6 miles to reach the saddle with one snack break about halfway up.

When we reached the saddle, we were somehow expecting both peaks to be right there as a quick little out and back, but both were further than we expected. C.T. looked fractured and loose (it was) so we elected to tackle C.T. one at a time while the other party waited with Kaiah at the saddle.

I decided to tackle the ridge to C.T. first, and I made it harder than it needed to be, but with some class 2+/3 scrambling ridge proper I was able to avoid the majority of the loose rock. Due to my route choice, C.T. took me more time than necessary, but it was nice to stay on more solid (fun) terrain.

Kiefer met me on the lower ridge with Kaiah and it was my turn to rest and take a break at the wind shelter he had erected. As I was sitting and waiting for Kiefer I recollected some fond memories on the C.T. with my mom. I am so grateful to have seen so much of Colorado, and so many remote places, thanks to the hard work of Gudy Gaskill. I also reflected how glad I was that my mom had not elected to join us for these peaks as I had suggested (due to the names)… she would have been miserable. Kaiah even got to wear my windbreaker since she was getting a little chilly.

Kiefer followed the social trail up C.T. and said while it was loose it was efficient, which was evident by how quickly he summited and returned to the saddle.

Reunited, we bootied up Kaiah and took the much easier ridge to Gudy head on. I quickly located a social trail on the north side of the ridge and we grinded out the 700’ of gain from the saddle. Near the top Kaiah found a tundra patch she loved, so once again we separated, this time only 230’ from the summit of our final peak of the day.

This time Kiefer was the one to summit first. He returned quickly, remarking that the summit was close, and after tossing my Gatorade bottle in my pocket with a snack I headed up the ridge myself. I quickly summited Gudy and returned to Kiefer and Kaiah on the ridge where they were patiently waiting. From where they waited it took right about 20 minutes round trip to summit Gudy and return.

At this point we were hungry and ready to get back to camp, but first we had to engage with Cecil again. We reversed course down the ridge, and before getting to the saddle I saw a faint use trail descending scree that would drop us into Cecil.

We quickly hit the tundra, and picked our way down the grassy slope. Cecil is a STEEP bugger. Kiefer has an advantage descending steep terrain as he is naturally duck footed, which he hated as a child, but now considers an asset for mountaineering and hiking, and it absolutely is. It felt like it took ages to reach our exit point, but eventually we bid Cecil adieu, and reached the familiar banks of Cooper Creek. We descended into the forest, refueled with the last of our snacks and trotted down the trail back to the truck. It was a short drive back to Mill Creek where we settled back into our campsite, grateful everything was already set up for us, cooked some ramen, and enjoyed the evening with a couple of Left Hand’s finest. Thankfully our neighbors were MUCH quieter, and we all retired early to our tent for a good night’s rest, we had already scrapped our plans to hike “Non-compahgre” the next day since Kaiah was so tired, so we chose not to set an alarm, and enjoyed a leisurely morning at camp before packing up. Kaiah even crawled back in the tent and went back to sleep after eating her breakfast.

Kiefer suggested we hike Slumgullion Benchmark up in Ramboullet Park, and Hill 71. I agreed, we had been up there before, hiking to the summit of Jarosa Mesa, which ironically is on the C.T., and it would be a nice easy morning, followed up by some chicken sandwiches in Lake City. It was also a short enough day, that if Kaiah was tired, I could turn back and wait at the truck for Kiefer to return knowing I would be waiting for minutes versus hours. We parked just past the road junction in Ramboullet Park, and headed up Hill 71. The hike to the hilltop follows a 4x4 road, and it was easy travel. Kaiah was looking tired, so she and I headed back to the truck while Kiefer continued on the ridge to Slumgullion Benchmark.

We returned to the truck, where Kaiah promptly took a nap and I enjoyed the amazing views. Kiefer returned 25 minutes later after making a quick loop and jogging back on the old 4x4 road. We reversed course and after some more moose-spotting on the drive out, found ourselves back in charming Lake City. After a good meal and a refreshing Arnold Palmer we headed back home to Montrose and started making plans for the following weekend.