Tag: Flat Tops Wilderness Area

After a long day and late night return from Big Marvine Peak (11,879 ft.) in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area on 8-18-15, a day of rest was in order for both Lupe and SPHP.  Lupe spent the morning enjoying a ride in the G6 from the Trappers Lake area back E over Ripple Creek and Dunckley passes along the Flat Tops Scenic Byway.  Lupe got to see a hawk flying over the road with a gopher in its talons along the way.

Near Phippsburg, Lupe and SPHP turned S to Yampa.  Lupe spent a little time in Yampa, and then headed SW along Hwy 7.  Seven miles from Yampa, the pavement ended where Hwy 7 became USFS Road No. 900.  Lupe explored the area by G6, coming first to the Yamcolo Reservoir.  Next was the Bear Lake Reservoir, and finally, at the end of the road, the Stillwater Reservoir.

Lupe spent the rest of the 19th resting and recuperating from Big Marvine.  The 20th was going to be another big day!  Lupe was ready even before the 20th arrived.  She kept wanting to go exploring in the night.  Finally dawn came.  Day 12 of Lupe’s great Summer of 2015 Dingo Vacation was here!

At 7:39 AM (36°F, clear and calm), Lupe and SPHP left the Stillwater TH on Trail No. 1119.  Well above Stillwater Reservoir’s NW shore, the trail headed SW paralleling the reservoir for about half its length.  There it reached a junction with Trail No. 1120, which continued on to the SW.  Trail No. 1119 turned NW and started to climb.  Lupe’s first objective for the day was the Devil’s Causeway.  She left Stillwater Reservoir behind, staying on Trail No. 1119 as it climbed up towards the E end of the Devil’s Causeway.

Once Trail No. 1119 reaches the saddle or pass just to the NE of the Devil’s Causeway, it continues NW on over the ridge.  A separate trail heads SW up to the Devil’s Causeway itself.

The Devil’s Causeway is simply a high, relatively flat, narrow ridge connecting two large areas of high ground.  However, the Devil’s Causeway has one special characteristic: the connecting ridge becomes very, as in terrifyingly, narrow.  On both sides there are sheer drops of hundreds of feet.  One section of the Devil’s Causeway narrows to as little as 4 feet wide.  Along this short section, much of the soil has eroded away to expose a line of uneven boulders and large rocks as the only way across.

What could be more fun?  Lupe and SPHP headed up to take a look.

Well, some things are just Darwinian by their very natures.  Carolina Dogs are survivors.  They aren’t going to fail this simple test!  Lupe had a good look at the Devil’s Causeway.  It was very worth seeing, but not really worth crossing.  Lupe turned around.  Lupe and SPHP took a break back at the high point of the trail with a view to the N towards her next peakbagging goal, Peak 12,008.

After the break enjoying the scenery from the high point at the NE end of the Devil’s Causeway, it was time for Lupe to head N to the high point of the huge broad ridge which is Peak 12,008.  The high point was 4 miles away near the N end of the ridge.  Lupe headed back down to the pass, crossed Trail No. 1119 and headed N.

After going about 0.5 mile N, Lupe came over a rise and saw a large flock of sheep ahead.  A big white Livestock Protection Dog, just like the two Lupe had seen near Mount Zirkel a few days before, was on duty.  The Livestock Protection Dog started barking, but was outnumbered and approached Lupe and SPHP warily.

Lupe liked the looks of the whole setup.  She was suddenly seized with the desire to go into the sheepherding business herself.  She was most anxious to get started right away.  Only the leash prevented her from doing so.

Lupe was reluctant to leave her newly adopted flock.  She played Moses, parting the sheep into W and E flocks as she passed through heading N.  A great deal of baaing went on as sheep fled in one direction or the other.  The white Livestock Protection Dog followed Lupe barking from a safe distance to make certain Lupe wasn’t really going into the sheepherding business, or intending to put on sheep’s clothing and sneak back.

Once the sheep had been left behind, Lupe came to Dead Mexican Gulch.  To stay on the high ground, Lupe had to head over to the E side of Peak 12,008, where something most intriguing was in the ground.  For a few minutes, Lupe tried her luck in the earth excavating business.

Disappointingly, Lupe’s mining operations yielded no tangible results, although her enthusiasm was not dimmed.  From the E side of Peak 12,008 on a high point just N of Dead Mexican Gulch, there were some big views.

From Dead Mexican Gulch, it was still nearly 2 miles N to the highest point on Peak 12,008.  Lupe and SPHP proceeded N looking for it.  The terrain gained elevation ever more slowly.  Along the way, Lupe came to a big cairn.  It didn’t seem to be the summit, though, so Lupe continued on and eventually reached the N end of Peak 12,008.  From there she saw another peakbagging goal, the high point of Rio Blanco County.

The views from the N end of Peak 12,008 were great, but where was the summit?  Lupe and SPHP headed SE trying to find the highest ground.  The Browns Peak (11,722 ft.) effect came into play again.  Although Lupe seemed to be climbing continuously, everywhere Lupe went looked lower than where she had just been, and lower than practically everywhere else too.

Eventually Lupe found something.  A little post was leaning sadly from a small cairn of rocks.  About a foot away was a coffee can.  SPHP opened it up.  Inside was a small glass jar with a very rusty top.  Nevertheless, it opened right up when SPHP twisted the lid.  Inside were 3 pieces of paper, one of them a piece of a map.  Buried treasure?!  Lupe certainly hoped so!  She was ready to put her earth excavating skills right back to work.

Alas, the map and both of the other two pieces of paper proved to be a simple registry.  There were about 20 entries between all 3 pieces of paper.  The latest entry was from 2014.  The oldest was from 2001.  The coffee can also contained a pencil.  Amazingly, the tip of the pencil was still pretty sharp.  SPHP added Lupe to the registry on the piece of paper with the most recent entries.  A little notebook that would have served as a greatly improved new registry was sadly back at the G6.

SPHP put all of the pieces of paper back in the little glass jar, and put the lid back on.  The jar and the pencil went back in the French Market coffee can.  SPHP straightened up the little post, and propped it up better with more rocks.  After a few photos of Lupe at the little cairn, which SPHP now regarded as the summit of Peak 12,008, SPHP decided to put some more rocks around the coffee can to better hold it in place.

After all this, Lupe and SPHP were satisfied that Lupe had reached the summit of Peak 12,008.  Her first peakbagging goal of the day was met.  Her next peakbagging goal was the Rio Blanco County High Point (12,027 ft.), which lay on the other (N) side of Mandall Pass.

It proved easy to go NE down into Mandall Pass.  The only bad part of it was the wind.  Although the day had started out with no wind at all back down at the Stillwater Reservoir, once Lupe had gotten up on Peak 12,008, there had been a constant W breeze.  Down in Mandall Pass, the wind was really blowing.  Lupe headed N from Mandall Pass up to the Rio Blanco County High Point.  She found a cairn, big cliffs, and big views there.

From the cairn on the Rio Blanco County High Point, two other high points could be seen a bit farther NW along the ridge.  They looked to be about as high as where the cairn was.  It appeared they might even be a bit higher.  Lupe went over to both of them to investigate and make certain she really had successfully completed her 2nd peakbagging goal of the day.

Looking back at the summit cairn from both of the two high points to the NW, it was very clear that the cairn was really at the true Rio Blanco County High Point.  Lupe had successfully completed her 2nd peakbagging goal!

The sun was high in the sky.  There was plenty of time for Lupe to do more.   Orno Peak (12,133 ft.) was the 3rd peakbagging goal SPHP had in mind for Lupe, but the first sight of Orno Peak from Peak 12,008 had made SPHP wonder if she could actually climb it.  The S slope looked very steep.  More importantly, it wasn’t clear if the E end of the long ridge leading to Orno Peak from the W could be safely traversed.

The view of the N slope of Orno Peak from the Rio Blanco County High Point was more encouraging.  The N slope was steep, but definitely friendlier than the S slope.  Maybe there was a way.

Only one way to find out!  Lupe headed ESE along the big ridge from the Rio Blanco County High Point.  Orno Peak was more than two miles away.  SPHP was certain Lupe could safely at least get close to it.

Not far from Orno Peak, the broad ridge leading to it ended.  Only a much narrower ridge continued on to the peak.  SPHP could see Orno Peak had two blocks of rock near the summit.  The first block was smaller, closer and a little lower.  The second block a bit farther to the E was the true summit.

It looked like Lupe would have no problem getting up on the first block.  A trail headed toward it.  However, cliffs could be seen around the second block, and a small cliff might be on the other side of the first block.  From a distance, without binoculars, it was hard to tell if Lupe could get safely past the first block and climb the second one.  Was there a safe way up to the second block and true summit?

Lupe followed the path along the narrow ridge up to the first block of rocks.  SPHP had intended for her to climb it, but it looked really easy to just go around the N side of it instead.

When Lupe got around the first block of rocks, the second one was in view just ahead.  SPHP was happy with what was there.  It was going to be easy for Lupe to climb up on the second block to reach the summit of Orno Peak!  In just a few minutes she was there.  A cairn near the E end of the second block marked the summit.

Of course, there were fabulous views all around from Orno Peak.  The annoying ever-present smoke haze marred the views to some extent, but they were still very impressive.

Even though the sun was still well up in the sky and there were hours of daylight left, Lupe was a very long way from the G6 at Orno Peak.  It was soon time to start back.  Lupe could have simply retraced her route, but instead she was going to head down into Mandall Creek basin from Mandall Pass.  This would add some miles to the already long return trip, but also let Lupe explore new territory.

The upper portion of Mandall Creek basin was very beautiful.  There were small lakes and streams.  Lupe had fun all day racing around up on the barren high ridges at 12,000 feet, but she had even more fun down in Mandall Creek basin.  Why, there were trees down here!  Trees meant squirrels!  The basin echoed with the happy barking of a Carolina Dog.  Except for the squirrels themselves, no one was around to care.

The trail down to USFS Road No. 900 at the Mandall Creek TH was a bit hard to follow.  It hardly existed at all in the upper basin, but it didn’t really matter there, because there was still lots of open ground.  Farther down where it was all forested, a better trail would have helped.  Lupe came to a place on a steep hillside where the trail had collapsed.  Maybe SPHP hadn’t found the official trail, or the best route, but Lupe eventually did arrive at the Mandall Creek TH.

By now the sun was down.  Twilight was setting in.  It was still 3 miles uphill along USFS Road to the Stillwater TH where the G6 was parked.  SPHP figured no one would be headed up to the TH at the end of the road at this time of day, so it wouldn’t be possible to hitch a ride.  No one did come along.  Lupe and SPHP marched in silence up the road as the light faded.

It had been an exhilarating, but very long day.  The fun was over.  The road hike was dull.  Lupe wanted to stop, curl up, and go to sleep.  SPHP permitted several short rest stops along the road.  When it grew so dark the flashlight came out, Lupe was more willing to continue onward.  Nearly 14 hours after she had left, Lupe returned to the G6 at 9:31 PM (39°F).  Maybe her next adventure tomorrow could be a bit less fanatical?  SPHP agreed.

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