Week 6: Donovan Rice is challenged in Wilson Group, leans on locals’ advice while hiking Great Colorado Route

“If it were just small scree, I wouldn’t mind ‘scree skiing’ down it, assuming I have a safe runout below”

Donovan Rice has now been hiking the Great Colorado Route for 42 days and has walked approximately 583 miles.

His accounts during week 6’s hiking include going through Ice Lake Basin, summiting a couple of 14ers, wandering the Lizard Head Wilderness and finding hundreds of axolotl-looking creatures near Bolam Pass.

San Juan drama, but only a LOOSE bit…

To start Day 35, Rice was awakened to a beautiful, warming sunrise after camping near Fuller Lake on the south end of Ice Lake Basin.

But contrary to the beauty of the rising sun, Rice’s experience trying a custom high route ascension of the southeast ridge of Fuller Peak (a 13er southwest of Fuller Lake) was ugly, and loose.

“When I got to the other side (of the saddle), I didn’t know if it would go or not,” Rice said of the loose looking rocks in front and below him in his Day 35 social media post. “I made a modest attempt at it, but it was way, way, way too loose. It looked like mostly scree (in the video), I promise there were some toaster- and microwave-oven sized boulders and I just did not feel like breaking a leg or getting my head bashed in.”

The blunder added ‘only’ 10 miles to his itinerary, however, he was able to regroup, utilize his backup route along the hillside of South Fork Mineral Creek and link to the Hope Lake Trail and cross Colorado Highway 145 at Trout Lake.

On Day 36 Rice entered the Lizard Head Wilderness (his sixth wilderness to date). He said he was ready to “cruise on through” after the previous day’s experience in the loose scree.

He followed the Lizard Head Trail along Blackface Ridge westward toward the Wilson Group of the San Miguel Mountains.

He was able to capture gorgeous vistas of Lizard Head, a 13,119-foot-in-elevation spire made of volcanic rock that has 400-feet of vertical wall with crumbly rocks all around, making it very difficult to summit.

“A fun thing about peak bagging in Colorado is once you knock out the 14ers, you start working your way through the 13ers,” Rice said. “Anyone who’s made a decent dent in that list knows this peak…Lizard Head.”

But Lizard head was not on his “to do” list that day.

Instead he continued north, then west, following old mining roads and trails toward the Rock of Ages saddle between Wilson Peak and Fowler Peak. Rice gained that saddle, was tempted to summit 13er Gladstone Peak but opted to save his energy for the more rowdy traverse from Mount Wilson to El Diente Peak the next day.

Double summits kind of day

Day 37 was time for Rice to summit both Mount Wilson and El Dinete, utilizing the El Diente Traverse (one of the four Great Traverses in Colorado) before dropping into the “brutalistic” Kilpacker Basin.

Summiting Mount Wilson, albeit with some snow on it reminiscent of July conditions in mid-June, went rather smooth.

The small snow fields provided Rice enough traction, saying in part “as long as the snow isn’t too steep, it actually makes things a lot easier.”

Rice chose a slightly steeper route but said even though his chosen route was a class 3 scrambling with a class 4 move near the summit, others could just take the lake route (Navajo Lake) and be just as happy.

Summiting El Diente was similar, with Rice making sure to follow advice from online forums about how to navigate the traverse between the two 14ers.

Rice thought the El Diente Traverse to El Diente Peak was rather intuitive, saying in part “stay on the spine and do your best not to fall left or fall right.”

By summiting El Diente Peak, Rice had completed his third 14er of the thru-hike.

“On the way down, to avoid the problematic snow, I rode the spine proper off of El Diente,” Rice said on his Day 37 social media post. “From here, to make it a sensible through trail, I decided the best was to get down was to do the Kilpacker Route.”

Rice managed to descend the route safely, which included him getting to glissade some snow fields.

Rice pitched his bivvy among the trees in the forest to close out the day.

The trail provides

Day 38 brought about some great fortune for Rice as he made is way toward Rico, Colorado.

He first had to close out the Kilpacker Trail, however, utilizing the Cross Mountain Trail.

Rice cruised along the open meadows of the Cross Mountain Trail, taking in the views of the Rico Mountains, San Miguels and copious amounts of fauna.

He did notice one of his trekking poles was broken, but as luck would have it, some mountain bikers offered some help via a hot glue gun fix at their home in Rico later that day if he swung by.

“We have a saying ‘the trail provides’ but it always doesn’t provide as expediently as that,” Rice said.

He then hitched a ride into Rico, where he found a special town.

“I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t even know Rico existed until I was in Telluride,” Rice said. “But when I got there to resupply, I fell absolutely in love with the town. I was lucky to hit it on a weekend when both the food truck and locally renowned restaurant were both open.”

The locally renowned restaurant Rice ate at was Prospector.

Prospector is owned by world famous Chef Eamonn O’Hara, who according to the restaurant’s website “lives to exist where the art of food, wine and the culture of the table intersect.”

Needless to say, Rice enjoyed his meal, which included receiving Texas-style hospitality from some fellow patrons.

“A family that vacations at a time share in Mountain Village were also eating there and took a big interest in my current and past hikes,” Rice said. “They then picked up my tab, which was extremely kind.”

A change of plans

For Day 39, Rice pivoted to a change of plans after talking to some Rico locals.

Rice was convinced to go back to the Cross Mountain Trail, then take Calico Trail and knock out six summits in one day; all 12ers (12,000-foot peaks) in the Rico Mountains.

“I hiked the Rico Mountains, but I added every optional 12er along the way from Elliot Mountain to Expectation Mountain, making it a 6-summit day,” Rice said.

Rice eventually bailed off Calico Trail at Burnett Road, leading him back into Rico.

What are those swimming in the lake?

The second half of the day brought about some strange looking creatures at one of the alpine lakes near Bolam Pass.

But first, Rice ascended Circle Trail east of Rico toward Section Point, a 11,926-foot mountain very near a very familiar trail, the Colorado Trail (CT). Rice also passed by Hermosa Peak on his ascension.

Near the end of the day, Rice found some camping at Bolam Lake, aka Celebration Lake.

But the lake wasn’t what he celebrated that afternoon. It was what was in the lake.

“I saw hundreds of Barred Tiger Salamanders, the ones often mistaken for axolotls,” Rice said.

In the aquatic larval stage, baby Tiger Salamanders hatch in water, sporting feathery external gills and a tail fin. While most lose their gills and transition to land as adults, some remain fully aquatic and retain the juvenile features their entire lives (a trait known as neoteny).

Time to catch a train

Day 40 brought out more hiking along the CT until Rice reached Engineer Mountain Trail, where he veered off the CT and past Engineer Mountain, dropping him down to Cascade Creek Falls.

“Engineer Mountain looks really cool,” Rico said. “(It’s) one of those places I’ll come back to to explore, the western slope descent to Cascade Creek. The bottom half looks like it would be a bushwhack and possibly miserable, but something to explore later.”

Rice continued southward, linking to US Highway 550 for a short bit before reentering the forest via the Purgatory Flats Trail across from Purgatory Mountain Resort. His goal was Needleton.

While in the Rico area a couple of days earlier, Rice had an idea involving riding a famous Choo Choo that follows the Animas River.

“I looked at the forecast and realized I could time weather correctly by backtracking, then scheduling a train ride along the Durango to Silverton train from the Needleton stop into Durango,” Rice said. “I could take two rest days, (because) lightning was forecast, and return to Needleton the next morning via train.”

On Day 41, Rice made the short hike to Needleton, boarded the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to Durango.

What’s ahead for Rice

Rice will start week 7 with some rest time in Durango, then make his back to Needleton on the D&SNG Railroad.

He’ll then head east into the Weminuche Wilderness via the Animas River Trail, with a hike through Chicago Basin past the Windom Group of 14ers.

Staying above or at treeline for a few days, Rice will work his way northeastward toward Stony Pass and the Handies Wilderness Study Area southwest of Lake City.

In his own words

Most satisfying moment from week 6

• “The most satisfying moment this week was Waterfall Canyon,” Rice said. “What an absolute hidden gem! If you’re daring enough, you can scramble to the cliff edge that gives you an insane view of the eponymous falls.”

Most challenging moment from week 6

• “My biggest challenge this week was the super steep and loose scree field on Fuller Peak’s eastern slope,” Rice said. “As the slope got steeper, each step would cause a mini landslide, and I’m kinda lucky it didn’t take me with it. If it were just small scree, I wouldn’t mind ‘scree skiing’ down it assuming I have a safe runout below.”

What he’s learned from week 6

• “Biggest lesson this week is to listen to and ask locals what the best routes are,” Rice said. “I would have never gone up Waterfall Canyon or the Rico Mountains had I not. And funny enough, when a local suggested I take Engine Creek Trail instead of Engineer Mountain Trail and then I didn’t, I really regretted it. The mountain trail is fine, but the payoff wasn’t as big as I was hoping, so I definitely plan to come back and check out Engine Creek.”