Legs & Lungs - Big Hikes and Backpacking

Meeting at 2WD TH below Wahatoyta 4WD at 10am tomorrow. Earlier if you get there earlier.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/R6b4w1Apf7dW4UxJ7

Peak bagging is starting early this year! Let's head down to the beautiful (and hopefully snow-free) Spanish Peaks rising high above the dusty expanse of the San Isabel National Forest in Southern Colorado. This will be a 1-night 2-day trip with a restaurant meal in La Veta followed by car camping at the Sunday trailhead.

Saturday - Let's find a good place to meet early in the morning, maybe 7am. There's an RTD park n ride at Park Meadows, for example. From there it's about a 2hr45min drive to the lower trailhead of East Spanish Peak. Plan to walk about 2.1 miles each way on the bumpy road before reaching the official 4wd trailhead. This will make it a 14 mile, 4,700 vertical hike to the top at 12,688 ft. The trail will peter out and leave us with some scree and rock to walk on up the ridge, but it shouldn't get technical. After completing the hike, we'll drive back down to the town of La Veta and get a hot meal somewhere. Looks like there's several palatable options. Then we'll drive up to Cordova Pass Campground where Sunday's hike begins.

A classic Wild Basin lake hike with just a bit of classic Legs n Lungs bushwhacking to make it oh one more lake up. Thunder Lake is always magnificent, but Falcon is a rarely explored tarn tucked just under Mt Alice and the Continental Divide.

We'll meet at Boulder Justic Center and carpool up to the Wild Basin TH (bring your parks pass) to save on parking spaces. Then it's pretty much all trail to Thunder and past it toward Lake of Many winds. But we'll veer off to the right through the forest (yay), and scramble up to Falcon. Get ready for some epic views and decent mileage.

A less-visited part of Rocky Mountain National Park, the Mummy Range sits at the northern end and features several 13ers and a few lake drainages with long approaches. This is a 3-day 2-night backpacking trip with lakeside camp sites and high elevation off-trail stretches to connect them in a perfect loop. Be prepared for epic views, bouts of isolation, and class 2 or 2+ bouldering with gear.

Friday - Meet at the Cow Creek Trailhead once I've picked up the permits, and we'll start hiking westbound. With a couple of name changes from Dark Mountain to Black Canyon, the trail takes us to Lawn Lake where we'll make camp. It's about 9 miles and 3,300 ft from the car. After setting up our tents, we've got options. The first choice is to scramble up the eastern slopes and ridge of 13er Fairchild, and then take the standard way down to the Saddle, Crystal Lake, and back to camp which would be a big day. Alternatively, you could just go up to Crystal Lake or the Saddle without doing the peak.
Day totals up to 16 miles and 6,200 feet of gain.

Saturday - Tear down camp and backtrack about a mile to the standard climb up 13er Mummy Mountain's SE slopes. From the summit, we'll continue along the high point to bag 13er Hagues peak and then descend to Rowe Glacier. It's a quick out and back to summit Rowe Peak as well, and then we'll start to make our way down the drainage, passing several lakes such as Scotch, Whiskey, Dunraven, Louise, and Husted. Depending on which route we take, this could involve slowly navigating boulder fields and loose rock, but it shouldn't have any exposure. Our campsite is located at the beautiful Lost Lake (pictured), where some congratulations will be in order! Almost done.
Day totals 10 miles, 3,700 vertical.

Sunday - Tear down camp and take the North Fork Trail down to the North Boundary Trail, and back to the cars.
Day totals 11 miles, 1,200 feet of gain (3,000 of loss)