From August 4-7, I volunteered for a stewardship project on the side of Mount Yale in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. This trip required backpacking experience, which I had collected on my last two trips, so I felt well prepared.
I had to leave a day later than the rest of the women due to a school obligation. I arrived at the trailhead outside of Buena Vista around 9am, and gathered my gear and set out on the trail.
They had sent me a section of a USGS quad map, with the location of the base camp. I came prepared with my compass, and the section of the map printed. As I headed up the trail, I kept my eye on features in the landscape, and confirmed the orientation of the map, and after 2 hours of walking up and down a section of the trail where it appeared the base camp was, I decided to go off-trail and follow the creek, because the camp was on the creek at 11,200 ft. Once i reached the location delineated on the map here is what I saw:
Beautiful alpine meadow...but no camp, so I hiked up and down Browns Pass trail, looking, and finally gave up and went back down the trail to the Mt. Yale junction, and sat down, figuring they would need to come down eventually. After sitting down for a few minutes, someone came down the trail, and told me that the camp was up the Yale trail. So I hiked up about a mile or so, and finally located the camp, apparently they had marked the Base camp on the wrong creek. It was on Denny Creek, not Delaney-- I had followed the directions correctly, they had made a mistake. So a hike that should have been 2 miles, ended up being 7.
The camp was in a lovely stand of pine trees
near the brook. I set my tent up, and brought my food to the kitchen area. We went to bed at 7:30, and awoke the next morning at 4:30 for breakfast.
The first section of the hike was conducted in the dark, through dense forest, until you reached a steep switchback section that looks out onto the valley below.
Once above treeline, we departed from the trail, and carried the tools from the prior days work, to the worksite. The scenery was amazing; we were working to fill in an old trail, and repopulate the native grasses.
I worked with the group for 6 hours, transplanting native grasses from the alpine tundra, into the old trail. It was quite chilly up there in the morning, and we were berated by strong winds, but it was an amazing experience!
While working, we were required to wear hardhats...
At 11:30, I decided to make a break for the summit, as it had been looming over us all morning, calling my name. This would be my first 14er, and I was already half way there....so why not?
The trail leading away from the work site and up the peak was quite steep, like walking up stone stairs.
And the higher I hiked, the more amazing the scenery.
Aside from my failed attempt on Quandary Peak, I had not attempted another 14er. Mount Yale is quite steep, and culminates in a scramble to the summit.
On my way up this final scramble, I lost the trail as some of cairns had been toppled... So, I scrambled up and over the top, to the next visible cairn.
I reached the summit of Yale around 2pm on August 6, 2011 at 14,196ft.
Shortly after reaching the summit, I noticed a cloud moving quickly from the valley to the summit of the peak. I expected to be rained on, however I was pelted with small pellets of ice instead.
I hurried down the peak, and made it back to camp by 4pm, exhausted but happy.
The next morning I awoke, packed my gear, and set out for the cars. I made it down to my car by 7:30, and made a straight line for the nearest coffee shop.
This trip was an amazing experience, and I do plan on volunteering for more stewardship projects in the future. If anyone reading this lives in Colorado consider donating some of your time to stewardship!
http://www.cmc.org/stewardship/
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