WATER
AND ICE
I
made a big breakfast the next morning, but Christy was sick and couldn’t
eat. This was surprising. She’d had a few beers the night before, but
nowhere near enough to cause a hangover.
Had she picked up a virus? We
weren’t sure what was going on.
Originally we had flirted with climbing Mount
Sneffels, a 14er, that day. However, I’d
pulled the plug on that idea. We had
spent the last 3 nights at high altitude (above 9K), which is a good start on
acclimatizing, but only marginally adequate for climbing a 14er. I thought I might be ready, but knew from
previous experience that Christy often struggles to acclimate. Instead, we had decided on an easier hike up
to Ice Lake, near Silverton. That hike
tops out at 12,300’, which would be a more reasonable after 3 nights of
acclimatization. However, it seemed like
Christy might not be up for hiking at all.
She had a headache and nausea and hadn’t slept well.
I
cleaned up and broke camp while Christy napped in the car. We had contemplated driving a rough, narrow 4WD
road over Ophir Pass. That would be a
tremendous short cut to get over to the Silverton area. However, Christy wasn’t feeling up to that
kind of adventure.
We
drove back north over Lizard Head Pass and down into Telluride. We then continued north, over another pass
northwest of Mount Sneffels. We enjoyed
some nice views from the road before the long descent to the town of
Ridgeway. Ridgeway’s elevation is low for
western Colorado, at only 7,000.
Interestingly, Christy suddenly felt better when we stopped there. Not just a little better – more like 100%
better. Could she have developed
altitude sickness? That seemed unlikely,
as we had camped at 8,800’ Sunday night, 10,300’ Monday night, hiked to 12,200 On
Tuesday, and camped at 9,300’ Tuesday night.
It’s odd that she would be fine for those first couple of nights, and
fine on the hike above 12K, but get sick afterwards.
We
drove through Ouray and over the mountain to the south. Then we headed up Mineral Creek Road. We stopped at the South Mineral Campground
and got water. The trailhead is right at
the campground. At that point we were at
9,800’ and Christy was feeling sick again.
She wasn’t as bad as she’d been that morning, but the headache and
nausea were back. Clearly
she had altitude sickness. She debated
doing the hike, but we ultimately decided that it was a bad idea. Instead, I would do the hike solo, while she
drove back to Ouray. Ouray is at a much
lower elevation. She ended up spending a
few hours at Ouray Hot Springs, which was a good backup plan since she wasn’t
up for the hike.
The
parking area at the trailhead was overflowing.
I saw a lot of people on this one, as Ice Lake is a popular
destination. Also, there are multiple
alpine lakes in the area, but most people just hike to Ice Lake. That means that all of the traffic is on the
one trail.
The
hike started with a steady climb through the woods. Before long I reached a crossing of Clear
Creek. A rough path continues upstream
to the base of huge waterfall. I ended
up hitting that on the hike out. If you
do this hike, don’t miss this side trip.
This unnamed waterfall is one of the more impressive ones that I’ve seen
in Colorado.
I
climbed switchbacks through heavy forest to a junction. There I turned right to reach the top of the
waterfall on Clear Creek. An old,
decrepit bridge spans the creek right at the brink of the 200’ falls. It’s a breathtaking spot, with an expansive
view down the valley to waves of mountains in the distance. There is a small waterfall just above the
bridge, too.
After
a few minutes there I returned to the main trail and continued the climb. I passed through dark evergreen forests and
open woods with stands of aspen. Along
here I passed the ruins of an old cabin.
I emerged from the woods into a meadow.
Below, the creek draining the Ice Lake Basin roars through a deep
canyon. A side trip to an overlook
provided a view of a waterfall in that canyon.
There are probably more waterfalls farther upstream, too. Canyoneering through it would be quite an
adventure!
Another
climb led to treeline and the lower Ice Lake
Basin. The lake itself isn’t exciting,
but everything else is. The basin is
surrounded by cliffs adorned with waterfalls.
Some are quite impressive. One
stream tumbles down a steep mountainside littered with giant boulders. One of its waterfalls is actually up
underneath one of those boulders.
Another waterfall drops through a tight vertical crack in a cliff wall. There is a great campsite at the base of yet
another huge waterfall. Meanwhile, the
meadows were loaded with columbine and other wildflowers in bloom.
I
waded one of those streams and began the steep climb to Ice Lake Basin. The basin is well above treeline. Its centerpiece is Ice Lake, which was a
lovely blue broken interrupted by ice along one end. There was still a good bit of snow in the
basin and on the final stretch of trail leading to it. There are more lakes, too, scattered on
benches among the surrounding hillsides.
There were a number of people here, along with a group camping. It’s a big area though, and I didn’t have any
trouble finding solitude. I hiked to the
northeastern end of the lake and climbed up the hillside to get an aerial view
of the lake and the surrounding mountains.
I
had lunch there before hiking to the other end of the lake. I considered extending the hike to visit some
of the other lakes, but it was time to head back down. The return hike was fast, despite
encountering many other dayhikers and backpackers on
the trail. I did the round trip in just
over 6 hours. I found Christy waiting
for me in the parking lot. She’d enjoyed
a pleasant afternoon at Ouray Hot Springs and was feeling better after her bout
with altitude sickness. We returned to
Ouray, and stopped at Ouray Brewing for dinner.
That was a really cool place, and it was probably our favorite
restaurant of the trip.
From
Ouray we made the long, tiring drive to Leadville. We reached the Sugar Loafing Campground at
11pm. We set up quickly and went straight
to bed, as we had to get up early the next morning.
Back to Colorado
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