Photos and writing: Alanna and I
Felix has planned us many amazing adventures but this time he asked me to plan one! I put a lot of thought into location and distance. I was researching the Indian Peak Wilderness and all the websites kept insisting it was very difficult to get a permit, but funnily enough it was super easy for me to snag the permit we needed for the 3 day trek I wanted to do! For some reasons most areas had no one else even listed! So we’d have most of the state park to ourselves! I didn’t think too hard on why that may be! and continued to excitedly planned our route!
I was planning a 42-48 km (26-30 mile) loop starting at Brainard Lake, up Buchanan Pass, then over Pawnee Pass looping back to Brainard Lake… and maybe a side trip up a beautiful ridge line if we had time.
When get got there the road to the lake was closed. The camp host told us there was a track up from a lower car park. This would add 10km (6 or 7 miles) to our total distance making it 52-48km (32-37 miles). This was a little worrying as we were already starting late and this . He also seemed very concerned about our safety because he said there was still too much snow and we didn’t have snowshoes or micro spikes…. We thought he was exaggerating slightly about the amount of snow… Well after around 6-8 miles we realised the lovely camp site host may not have been exaggerating… Turns out that’s why there was so many open permits!
Already at Brainard Lake we were having to walk on snow. A moose seemed a little surprised to see us. Didn’t we know that the road still hadn’t opened? We checked out a cabin avoiding a bit of rain. It was tempting to stay, but there was obviously someone staying and we had tracks to make!
All the snow on our trek made it impossible to follow the track in many spots so we began to make our own way. Sometimes just deviation off for a short time to avoid snow drifts, sometimes for considerable amounts of time to cut some larger switchbacks. In the end we decided to try our luck with scrambling along above the treeline. We considered submitting Mount Audubon but but with the thunderstorm blowing in it was going to be too dangerous. The storm caught us on the side of Mount Notabon and amongst the lightning and booming thunder we had to quickly scramble back down to the tree line where we decided to make camp for the night.
The storm proved to be more bark than bite and we wandered over to a vantage point where we could watch the sun setting beside the distinctive Sawtooth Mountain. Our position allowed us to wonder about what route we should take the following day. It seemed that there was actually more snow below the treeline as the shade from the trees was protecting the snow from the sun. The rocky gully looked like a good way down for tomorrow, there was a chance we’d get cliffed out but it’d probably be ok. We could then follow the snowy valley up and scramble up some ridges to link back up to roughly where we should be… As the temperatures started to plummet, we retired for the night.
We probably slept in a bit later than we should have but we didn’t run into any complications scrambling down the gully we’d scoped out the day before. The snow in the valley was still quite firm so we could generally make good time over large sections of it without postholing. Extra care just had to be taken when transitioning to boulder hopping on the rock fields as there were always hidden pits here.
In reasonably good time we found ourselves at Coney Lake. Taking a muddy moose track around the lake we again took to scaling some snow slopes before making some class 3 and 4 moves to gain a spur we hoped would take us up onto the ridgeline between us and the valley we were trying to get to. We would then be pretty close to Buchanan Pass and probably do a quick trip up onto the Sawtooth! The spur went! but unfortunately because I [Alanna] started getting altitude sickness we couldn’t go to the tippy top of the Sawtooth. Felix taught me a lot about efficiently and safely trekking on deep snow. We saw a huge snow wall which was just awe striking! We saw bear tracks and we even had to cross the river on a snow bridge which Felix bravely tested out first. (After crossing we threw a large rock on it and most of the bridge collapsed except for the exact section we had crossed on! we were lucky!). That night we set up camp in the most gorgeous meadow full of little white and yellow flowers with the mountains towering above us.
We’d debated a bit about camping where we had… it had been early and we still had a lot of distance to cover, but it had just been so nice! We were fairly locked into the valley for the next section and if there was as much snow as on the other side of the range it would be pretty slow going… additionally we a number of river crossings that might pose troublesome with all the snow melt and tributaries merging. In the end staying high on the western side of the valley provided fairly easy going with only a bit of scrambling and minimal deep snow.
From the junction with the track up to Gourd Lake we found our first human footprints. The way was pretty snow free from here and we made good time continuing down the valley bumping into quite a few people and also a moose and its calf.
Happy to cross Buchanan Ck on super solid bridge we continued up Cascade Creek and enjoyed a couple of nice waterfalls as we gained elevation and began to enjoy the spectacular mountains. I could see why camping at Crater Lake was so popular! I would have loved to do the detour to check it out, but Alanna had to fly to Arizona tomorrow afternoon so we had to cover more distance.
As we climbed the views of the mountains seemed to grow even more expansive. We had to cross a fast moving stream between two waterfalls. It was very precarious trying to carefully climb across logs and sticks only somewhat jammed together above the plummeting drop. Alanna’s feet got soaked and maybe just walking though the water would have been the best course. Oh well! too late! we made it across 🙂
Climbing higher we were back in the snow… and then on the snow. Patchy at first quickly we soon lost all sight of the track and returned to walking on top of it as we weaved through trees, and across streams hoping not to fall through. Finding a camp began to become a concern as everything was either snow covered, swampy or steep. We were close to camping in a small rock bivvy cave, I even cleared it out but it was pretty muddy and Alanna didn’t seem keen so we pressed on a bit further and… luck was with us! In the middle of a snow covered meadow we found a small cleared patch by a tiny stream perfect for our camp. We happily set up enjoyed a hot dinner and quickly crashed for the night. We’d need to have an early start in the morning… without spikes this might make going slow on the frozen snow but needed to try to get back to the car at a reasonable time.
The next day I [Alanna] put plastic bags over my socks to keep my feet dry! Getting my half frozen shoes on in the morning was rough but I had dry feet for the first time in the trip!
Walking was quick at first, but the terrain quickly steepened and with the snow having frozen over night it was very slippery and slow to kick in steps. Micro spikes would have saved us a lot of time!
Pawnee Lake was still frozen over and after carefully traversing some steep snow we were at the bottom of the bowl below Pawnee Pass. An area earlier in the ridge to out left had looked like an easier but it probably would deposit us into a different valley. The switchbacks making their way up the slope could just be made out. Surprisingly as we climbed upwards a couple of runners dropped down over the pass. They didn’t get to run very much as most of the route was covered in snow forcing them find alternate routes on the rock. We did a similar thing. We chatted to them half way up, they were planning to do the whole loop we were on in a day. The valley we were in would be quick for them since they had spikes, but once they got back into the snow we advised that they would probably move far too slowly to make it in a day (well at least in the day). I wonder what they ended up doing?
I detoured to climb some rock pillars and got perhaps a little carried away free soloing one of the towers. It wasn’t particularly hard but there was a lot of loose rock so it was the kind of climbing where you had to test everything and choose how much you would load each hand and foothold and what just shouldn’t be used at all – or maybe trundled.
Pawnee Pass was quite a large flat area free from snow. I raced ahead to look down the other side and saw plenty of snow between us, Lake Isabelle and Lake Long. The steep snow covered trail up Pawnee pass took a lot longer than we hoped! but we were able to make up some of that time by sliding down several steep snow banks on the way back down! Unfortunately we didn’t have much time for shenanigans because I had to rush home to say happy Father’s Day to Jeremy and jump on a flight to go to training in Phoenix, Arizona! My lovely Felix decided to run ahead the last few miles to grab the car, then came back for me. He never stops impressing me! ❤️ despite our crazy rush it was still such a fun day!
