Pawnee Pass IV

 2 Responses »
Aug 172010
 

On the way back down the mountain from Pawnee Pass, I stopped to photograph the one little patch of mountain gentians that I saw along the way. I think this was the first time I’d seen mountain gentians. The wind wasn’t quite so fierce down that way so I was able to get a few shots.

Mountain gentian

Mountain gentian

The flowers along the creeks didn’t seem quite as stunning. They’re either past their prime or it was just the difference in the light. Or both, but they were still lovely and I don’t think the pink fireweed was there two weeks ago.

Flowers along the creek

Flowers along the creek

Speaking of lovely, check out one of my fellow hikers!

Tired pup

Tired pup

This little one was kind of cute too:

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

Golden-mantled ground squirrel

I didn’t take too many more photos the rest of the way back. I had briefly pondered taking the Jean Lunning Trail around the south side of Long Lake to see the profusion of wildflowers there again, but by the time I got to that particular junction in the trail, I was just too spent and all I wanted to do was sit down and take my boots off, so I opted for the quickest way back to my car.

Overall, it was an stupendous hike and I’m really glad I can cross that one off my list. I’m still working on the gallery for this hike, but you can take a peek at it HERE.

Pawnee Pass III

 No Responses »
Aug 162010
 

After huddling behind a large outcropping of rocks with a couple of fellow hikers at Pawnee Pass for a bit, the wind got to be too much and I decided to start heading back down.

Talus slope and Shoshoni Peak

Talus slope and Shoshoni Peak

Looking down from the talus slope to the tundra bench below

Looking down from the talus slope to the tundra bench below

The shortcut back down to Lake Isabelle (not really)

The shortcut back down to Lake Isabelle (not really)

Looking down at Long Lake - the trailhead is just beyond the lake

Looking down at Long Lake - the trailhead is just beyond the lake

Finally back down to treeline

Finally back down to treeline

Right around this point, it occurred to me that my knees were taking a serious beating from the rocky decline and I had to whip out the ol’ trekking poles. Of course, by the time excruciating pain has already set in, it’s a bit too late for the poles to do much good. And I still had about 3 1/2 miles to go.

Pawnee Pass II

 No Responses »
Aug 152010
 

What made the very long, strenuous and insanely windy Pawnee Pass hike worth every bit of the effort was the view to the west from the edge of the pass. If you walk just a little ways to the west from the sign, you can see Lake Granby, the Never Summer Range and beyond.

Lake Granby from Pawnee Pass

Lake Granby from Pawnee Pass

The Never Summer Range

The Never Summer Range

Looking over the edge to the other side is like peering into the abyss. That’s Pawnee Lake down there, 1,800 vertical feet and 26 switchbacks down.

Pawnee Lake from Pawnee Pass

Pawnee Lake from Pawnee Pass

Another plus of the hike was seeing one of my favorite alpine flowers, the arctic gentian. The pass was pretty much carpeted with them. I was glad that I took a lot of wildflower photos on my last hike to the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area because it was really too windy for really decent wildflower photography.

Arctic gentian

Arctic gentian

Pawnee Pass I

 No Responses »
Aug 142010
 

I took another stab at Pawnee Pass yesterday and I made it! Wow, what a trip! I started at 7:25am and finished at 5:24pm and my pedometer says I hiked 12.59 miles. All of the trip descriptions of this hike say that it’s 9.1 miles, so I’m not sure where the extra 3.49 miles came from. I do tend to wander a bit, I suppose.

The predominant theme of this hike was WIND. I have never in my life encountered wind of such magnitude. The blow-you-off-your-feet wind made staying at the pass for any length of time pretty much impossible, and it made me abandon my plans to summit Pawnee Peak, which is adjacent to the pass.

Above where I turned around last time, the trail switchbacks up and up and up until it reaches a large and mostly flat (at least compared to the rest of the hike) tundra bench with spectacular views of the surrounding peaks.

Navajo and Shoshoni Peaks

Navajo and Shoshoni Peaks

Crossing the tundra bench

Crossing the tundra bench

From the tundra bench, the trail switchbacks up the talus slope under the long, thin snowfield in the right third of the photo above. It was pretty daunting when viewed from below, but not quite so bad once you got up there. The trail was extremely rocky and treacherous, but not too terribly steep.

The trail through the talus slope

The trail through the talus slope

After reaching the top of the talus slope, there was another sort of flat area and then it was just a brief jaunt (if jaunting is possible in hurricane-force wind) to the Pawnee Pass sign. I set my camera on a rock and put it on the self-timer setting, but didn’t manage to actually get myself in any of those photos, so asked a nearby hiker to take a shot of me with the sign to prove that I really did make it. :)

Our intrepid photographer at Pawnee Pass on the Continental Divide.

Our intrepid photographer at Pawnee Pass on the Continental Divide.

Tomorrow: The view to the west from the pass, or why it was worth it.

© 2012 39° North Photography Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha