On Sunday I trudged up the Willow Creek Trail and arrived at the lake at 3pm. It is a beautiful spot although the mosquitos control most of the real estate.
At 6am Monday I started to hike around to the top of the ledges. The creek crossing is an interesting challenge for an old fart who doesn't trust his long jumping skills. The trail quickly turns into 2000 feet of grass, scree, and talus. When I reached the notch I had about a quarter mile of talus hopping along the ridge to the summit. At this point you have a clear view of Kit Carson and the famous Avenue. The Ave. appeared to have a dangerous amount of snow on it but when I descended to the start I could see that it was safe.



The Ave. starts to ascend for a few hundred yards and then wraps around the mountain and descends for about twice that distance. I don't care for those ascents that go down because I know it means climbing on the way down. After I got to what I thought was the end of the Ave. I headed up and found myself on very good rock but what I thought was a bit more like 4 than 3 climbing. It was 450 feet of fun climbing and the summit was there. I enjoyed great weather and great views of Crestone Needle and other peaks.

When I started to descend I noticed that I should have been over one gully to the north and descended Bill's route which was much easier than what I climbed.

The rest of the descent went well on tired legs. You can skirt across the side of Challenger on the way down as long as you don't get too low to go arounf the left side of the notch. The trip down the 2000 foot east side of Challenger was made easier by the presence of several streams where I could refresh my water.

I didn't have the energy to hike all of the way out so I enjoyed another night at Willow Lake.

On the hike out I ran into two groups that were day hiking from the trailhead and weren't going to make the lake by 9am. I wish them luck.