Ni-chebe-chii Part 3

It was time to head back.  Just two weeks ago I had some tantalizing glimpses of the Ni-chebe-chii, or Never Summer Mountains.  I think the two days I spent there last year were amongst my favorite of the year.  I have covered the history of the area in part one and part two, so I will skip that here.  

But where do they end as far as what is in RMNP?  Of course the actual boundary makes sense, meaning the range would end with Baker Mountain.  I talked to a friend about this, and he said if someone was going after a list that someone else set, it was the second persons responsibility to do at least as much as if not more than the first person.  What I mean is that Foster included points like Bowen Pass, Bowen Mountain, Mineral Point, and Parika Peak in her book, but these are not technically in RMNP.  

Bowen Lake made it in the book, but the peaks above- Blue Ridge, Cascade Mountain, and Ruby Mountain- did not.  And if Ruby Mountain were included, then Ruby Lake would have to be as well.  Which is say that though I started and ended in RMNP, not a single destination I made it to on this day is actually within the park boundary.  But after studying the topo and giving it some thought, this seemed like a logical way to mark a boundary to the southern end of the range that is given an arbitrary boundary from where the park happens to actually end.

For the first time, I decided to drive over the night before and car camp.  It worked and it didn't.  I left the house shortly after 7pm, and got to the trailhead a little after 9pm.  I hit alot more traffic than I would have if I'd just left at 2am, so the drive took a little longer.  And then I was pretty hopped up and eager from the drive.  It took me some time to get settled in and then what felt like quite awhile to actually fall asleep.  

The alarm went off at 230am, jolting me awake.  So I had actually fallen asleep, but I didn't feel like it.  I snoozed until 3, and then got up.  I was cold and started the car to get the heater going while I ate breakfast.  I got everything ready and started shortly before 4.  So I started about an hour earlier than I would have if I had driven over in the morning, but I definitely would have slept more and better if I stayed at home.  Hmm....

At first the trail heads south for about two and a half miles with very little elevation gain- about 300 feet total.  Hiking by headlamp was as unnerving as ever, with perceived beasts lying just out of the range of the light waiting to eat me.  At one point I saw something BIG move on the trail in front of me and had my heart start racing only to realize it was the shadow of a tree branch cast by my light.

But the Earth continued to rotate, and the sky started to lighten after an hour and a half or so.  By the time I hit the Blue Lake trail intersection I was in enough light to take mine off.  It seemed like it didn't take me all that long to get to Bowen Lake from here.

A little reflection at Bowen Lake.  I saw several tents in the area, and a few out to greet the morning.  The camping is much less restricted here since you are not in RMNP.

From here, I continued on a trail past the lake and started to take it up to get to Blue Ridge.

I could see Bowen Mountain from here, and it looked pretty far away.  

I got to the top and hit the Continental Divide trail.  It was a short walk on just at tree line tundra to top out Blue Ridge. 

Blue Ridge and Longs Peak far, far away.

Bowen Mountain not looking any closer.

Looking toward Cascade Mountain.  It was not what looked like the high point from the lake, and was not what looked like the high point from here either.  The true summit is at the far end of the flat ridge.  

I got on the trail, and headed up to a point where it looked good to leave.  I was hiking pretty much exclusively on tundra with a little rock here and there.  A far cry from some of the more northern peaks in the range which are essentially large piles of loose rock!

Bowen Mountain was looking closer, kind of. 

Back down along to Blue Ridge.  I thought I was at the summit here but discovered a higher point not much after.

I found a broken glass register and decided that this was the true summit. 

It was a little easier to pick out the high point from the other side.  Here it is not the closest rounded lump, but the point beyond with a little snow on it.

Ruby Mountain came quickly enough, still on easy tundra with a trail at times.  There was another Hello Kitty register placed by John and Alyson Kirk at the top.  So cute, and it brought a smile to my face.

Ruby Lake and Bowen Mountain.  I decided to head slightly north from Ruby Mountain and descend the first gully down.  The ground was a little looser here, but manageable. 

Splendor above Ruby Lake.  It is rather shallow, as you can see all the way to the bottom in the middle, and it's got that great blue color of all the high lakes. 

I had a nice snack break here, reapplied sun block, and took this photo of a cool looking plant before I continued on toward the trail to Bowen Pass.  

It was a fun little contour here, at one point heading through knee high wildflowers of every color of the rainbow.  Pretty amazing. 

I made it to Bowen Pass and met a group of kids from a summer camp in Estes Park.  They asked me what the best cell phone was, Apple or Samsung.  Cell phones were about the last thing on my mind.

I had another snack, and then headed up toward the unnamed and unranked high point northwest of Bowen Mountain.  

From here, I thought I could see a clear route across the west side of the peak which would have me avoid the ridge line and any unnecessary elevation gain all together.  I guess I should have looked at some of the photos I'd taken or thought about how convoluted this side of the ridge looked, because when I got to the summit, the top of the ridge clearly looked like a much better choice.  There was a little bit of third class, but this was still on tundra and solid rock.  Some of the gullies had some loose scree that could be avoided or just gone over.  It took me a long time to make this traverse, and though I was still feeling pretty good, I felt like I wasted alot of time here. 

But I made the summit and had some great views, here of the entire range that actually is in RMNP, from left to right- Mount Richthofen, Tepee Mountain, Lead Mountain, Mount Cirrus, Howard Mountain, Mount Cumulus, Mount Nimbus, Mount Stratus, and Baker Mountain.

And the peaks to the north of Bowen Mountain - Never Summer Peak, Farview Mountain, and Paprika Peak.

A great view of Blue Lake.  For reference, there is also a Blue Lake within RMNP, located in Glacier Gorge. 

The peaks I'd been on earlier in the day, now looking far away.

Learning from my mistake to get to Bowen Mountain, I now tried to stay on the ridge to get to Mineral Point.  This did not prove to be doable, as I soon ran into some cliffy terrain, and very steep and loose gullies.  I ended up going almost directly south down into the valley toward Blue Lake before cutting west toward Mineral Point once I passed the base of the cliffs and difficulties extending down from Bowen Mountain.

I headed toward Mineral Point, taking animal trails, and staying on tundra.  Apparently there is an official trail up from Blue Lake, and I must have crossed it at some point, but I couldn't tell.  There weren't any signs that I saw.  This was something I had planned on taking back down to the lake.

Mineral Point was not too incredible on its own, but it did provide some great views of Baker Mountain, Green Knoll, and Mount Stratus.  This was another summit without a cairn or register that I could find.

A great view of most of RMNP from near the summit of Mineral Point.

I was expecting a clear trail down from here.  Much to my dismay, I didn't see much of anything.  I found a trail that looked really well put in, but it was going the wrong way at first, and then disappeared.  Bushwhacking it was.  I could not see the lake and was kind of guessing where it was.  I knew the elevation and once I got to a few hundred feet above that, I started looking around in earnest.  Still no visual.  I went down a little more and found myself at a point where the lake had to either be below me (I could clearly see it wasn't) or just around that next finger of land extending down ahead.  

I moved forward, and down a little more, and then found myself on what was clearly a man made trail.  This crossed a small stream and I found a very well defined trail on the other side.  There was nowhere the lake could be but slightly uphill from here.  I followed the trail and finally found the lake. 

Blue Lake, Bowen Mountain above.  

There were two people here with their dog, who was very friendly.  I took some time to eat and prepare for the journey back to the car.  I had already been out for 11.5 hours and was estimating 2-2.5 hours back to the car from here, and then 2 hours drive back home from there.  Onward!

Much to my surprise, these were the last people I'd see out on the trail for the day.  The next few hours and miles passed in silence and solitude.  I jogged a little bit on the way down but didn't feel particularly motivated to really move.  I was rather enjoying the afternoon sunlight filtering through the trees and the peace and quiet.  

I got back to the trailhead at 6pm.  Another long day in the Never Summers.  Another day in spectacular scenery.  Another day hiking Rocky Mountain National Park.  I loved every minute of it.

As I said above, a great thing about this area is the ability to backpack with less restrictions.  Dogs are welcome, and you can essentially set up anywhere without permits, etc.  This could certainly make accessing these peaks and lakes a good bit easier, as the trip could be spread over several days.  As always, be respectful of nature, pack out what you pack in, and leave no trace.

With the exception of the NW ridge of Bowen Mountain, all of these peaks are no more than second class.  All of them have a trail that runs near their summits, again with the exception of Bowen and possibly Mineral Point.  Accessing the summits isn't difficult in that regard, it is the distance you have to travel as well as the elevation gained that make things difficult here.  

The distances seem to be a little in flux- Foster says 6.6 miles to Bowen Lake.  I swear the sign which was around the intersection of the trails from the Bowen/Baker th and Gaskill said 7 miles, but I don't know if that was from that point or from the trail head.  My hand drawn map on Caltopo says 7.8 miles to Bowen Lake, and I've found these maps usually underestimate a bit because I can't capture all of the smaller twists and turns.  So I am just going to use the distances from that map here, with distance as part of the hike (thus it would be shorter to go directly to Blue Lake than the number you see here) but difficulty rating as if you'd gone directly to these from the Bowen/Baker th.

Ni-chebe-chii Part 3:
Bowen Lake, 11019 feet: 7.8 miles, 2169 foot gain.  Moderate+.
Blue Ridge, 11686 feet: 8.5 miles, 2836 foot gain.  Moderate+.
Cascade Mountain, 12311 feet: 10.2 miles, 3461 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Ruby Mountain, 12008 feet: 11.4 miles, 3158 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Ruby Lake, 11243 feet(GPS reading): 11.8 miles, 2393 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Bowen Pass, 11476 feet: 12.4 miles, 2626 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Bowen Mountain, 12524 feet: 13.2 miles, 3674 foot gain.  Third class.  Strenuous.
Mineral Point, 11488 feet: 15.1 miles, 2638 foot gain.  Moderate+.
Blue Lake, 10690 feet: 16.4 miles, 1840 foot gain.  Moderate.
As a whole, this hike covered approximately 23.1 miles with 6454 feet of gross elevation gain and movement on up to third class terrain.  Strenuous. 

Ni-chebe-chii Part 1

I've gone back and forth- should I name this post Ni-chebe-chii or Never Summer Mountains?  After all, Mount McKinley is now referred to as Denali by most if not all of the mountaineering community.  

In 1914,  members of the Arapahoe tribe were brought into the area on a CMC sponsored trip to find out what their native names were for various peaks and features.  They referred to this range as Ni-chebe-chii, literally never no summer.  Locals then decided to call this range the Never Summer Mountains.  It is easy to see why.  On the western border of RMNP, this range is likely to see snow before the eastern mountains, and it seems it is likely to stick around longer.  I've spent the past two weeks here, and found plenty of snow fields that have persisted throughout the summer, seeming more than in other areas of the park.

The rock here is younger than most of the other ranges in the park, and you will notice a distinct difference in most of the peaks.  While they were formed by glacial activity, they are still very much eroding, and there is a whole, whole lot of loose and rotten rock in the area.  With that in mind, it would be a very good idea to wear a helmet even if you are by yourself.  I have heard a ton of rockfall on my days here, apparently initiated by nothing at all.  

The plan for this day was to start from the Colorado River Th, head up the Red Mountain trail to the Grand Ditch, take that north to Hitchens Gulch, and then visit Lake of the Clouds, Mount Cirrus, possibly Hart Ridge, Howard Mountain, Mount Cumulus, Mount Nimbus, Mount Stratus, Baker Mountain, Green Knoll, and then Red Mountain and back down.  Ambitious?  Yes!

I started in the dark, leaving the car at the trail head at exactly 522 am.  The night before I realized it had been a year since I changed the batteries in my headlamp and did so.  That was definitely a good idea. 

Day came at some point.  The Red Mountain trail seems to be a mix of relatively steep for the first few miles and then pretty flat for what may be the worlds longest switchback.  Or at least it feels that way.  Look at it on a topo and you'll see what I mean. 

But I made it to the top and joined the Grand Ditch road.  This is an interesting piece of engineering.  It is a 14.3 mile long water diversion project that was built between 1890 and 1936.  The purpose was to catch some of the runoff that would normally flow west and divert it east through La Poudre pass.  It feeds into the Cache la Poudre River, and if you live downstream along that, you see some effect from this ditch way up in the mountains.  It is estimated that 25-40 percent of the runoff is diverted.

Mount Nimbus in the early morning sun.  You can already see how the peaks here are softly rounded with little vegetation or tundra.  A sign of things to come!

In Hitchens Gulch, you will pass by the ruins of several structures that once provided a place to live for miners.  In fact, there was a small settlement called Dutchtown in the area, hence the name of the NPS campsites and the river.

Never Summer Peak and Lead Mountain (background).  It was a beautiful day and I was already running behind my time estimate. 
You may reach a point where the trail just ends.  Cross the small creek on your left and it will resume on that side.  There are alot of splits and little offshoots.  I would say just take what seems to be going in the general direction that you want to go.  As I reached treeline, the trail hit rock and became indistinct, but by then I could see exactly where I was going. 

I found myself below Lake of the Clouds.  It is hard to tell, but there is a small exit waterfall.  Stay to the right of that on the pretty stable large talus slope.  Mount Cirrus is the peak pictured here.

At Lake of the Clouds.  So named because of its altitude of 11430 feet?  Or named because many of the peaks in the area are named after cloud types? 

I stopped for a snack and started to work my way around and up.  The plan was to reach the saddle between Howard Mountain and Mount Cirrus and head north.  I kept thinking maybe I could just head directly up Mount Cirrus, as it looked entirely possibly, but in the sake of exploration, I did not.
In the end it may have been better to do so, as I found steep snow fields blocking the way up the described route.  Some improvising was in order to avoid the snow.  Here I got my first real taste of the unstable and loose nature of the rock in the area.  I found myself on what amounted to a slope of pea gravel, where ever step forward ended up with sliding about half a step back.  I reached some more solid rock, only to kick pieces off as I moved up.  I learned early to really test any hand or footholds I was using.  This scramble was third class and loose.

But I finally made it up to the saddle.  From here it was just a short loose jaunt up to the summit of Mount Cirrus.  As I came to discover later in the day, this was about the most stable area of the whole traverse, so enjoy it.  I actually made pretty good time here.

Impressive clouds on this day.

At the top of Mount Cirrus, looking north to Hart Ridge, Lead Mountain, and others.  I was running behind schedule by a whole lot, so I decided to forgo Hart Ridge on this day.

Looking down to Lake of the Clouds.

Howard Mountain is the second highpoint south here, and you can see Cumulus and Nimbus farther in the background.  From here on out, it was a game of trying to loose as little elevation as possible yet to pick a safe way. 

Back in the saddle between Cirrus and Howard.  In this whole range there are a series of very large cairns.  I am not entirely sure what they are marking, but they did make for some interesting photographs as the day progressed. 

See?  I was almost at the summit of Howard Mountain. 

Looking east from Howard Mountain.

And south to Cumulus.  As you can probably guess just by looking at that photo, this portion of the day proved to be the most challenging.  The topo also doesn't tell the full story as there was alot of up and down upon reaching a undownclimbable section of ridge crest or something too loose to trust.  I often found myself doing down small gullies to avoid something, only to go back up shortly after to avoid something else. 

Another one of those huge cairns. 
It was in one of those small gullies that I put my right foot on a torso sized piece of rock on the other side only to have to move and tumble down.  It surely would have seriously injured anyone below. 

I finally reached the last little plateau.  Here I was able to stay directly on the ridge crest on mostly stable talus.

At last I was there! 

Looking south to Mount Nimbus.  Again, there was some loss and regain, but the going felt a bit easier here.

Back up to Cumulus.

Somewhere along this ridge I stumbled across this marker.  It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

Several small ponds in the drainage between Cumulus and Nimbus.

Some interesting rock on the west side of Nimbus.

One of the small high points along the ridge. 

Almost there....

Finally!  Again I took a snack break and did some calculations.  it was late in the day, and going all the way out to Green Knoll and back wasn't in the cards.  I still thought about going to Baker and back, but at the speed I was going, that would have me come down Red Mountain in the dark, and I did not want to do that.  In the end, I just decided to leave all the peaks there for another day.  Going back for a grouping of three seemed more reasonable than just one.

But I did take a few reconnaissance photos!

Looking out to Red Mountain.  From what I could see, the traverse looked like pretty stable tundra at first, then a section of rock, and then the final approach to the summit on talus.

Cutest summit register ever?  On Mount Nimbus.  I saw it right as I was about to leave and moved it to a hopefully more visible location near the top of the cairn. 

Nimbus back lit and cloudy.

I reached the rocky section and tried to stay on the ridge crest.  My very first attempt had me kick and pull fist sized chunks of rock off.  So yeah.  More loss and gain.

Finally I made it through the difficulties and to the last easy walk up to the summit of Red Mountain. 

I took this photo looking back north and west.  The peaks here really are just slowly disintegrating slag heaps. 

The true summit of Red Mountain is the small high point to the east, pictured here. 
I am not going to go into the route I took back down to Grand Ditch.  I think it was too steep and loose to be a safe choice.  I would suggest just heading east- if you look at my photo above, you will see an area where it looks like an avalanche took out alot of the trees.  Finding this and staying in it would probably be the best option to avoid bushwhacking down this hill.

I was back at the Grand Ditch where it was still just a big pipe. 

I came down this side of of Red Mountain.  Not recommended! 
I made it back to the Red Mountain trail just as the sunlight was fading.  The headlamp came back out, as did the haunting and nebulous calls of Elk bugling in the night.  Of course it was around this time that I started thinking about horror movies... 

I made it back to the Colorado River.  It is only a few miles from here that it starts and begins the 1450 mile journey to the Gulf of California. 

The sign in the night.
I was excited to finally be close to the car.  I stopped a few times and turned my headlamp off to gaze at the night sky.  Right around the time the trail rejoined the La Poudre Pass trail, I heard a bugle very close to me.  I looked to my left and saw several pairs of eyes glowing in the night.   

Safely back at the car, I was trying to guess what time it was.  As I was getting my stuff off, I set my camera for a 60 second exposure and pointed it up.  This was the view. 
It was 847pm.  This gave me an almost 15.5 hour day, a personal best (or worst) in longevity.  And there was the almost two hour drive back home.  Fortunately, I did not encounter much traffic, and found myself in bed right around midnight. 
On paper, the numbers don't look too crazy- 17ish miles and 6000 or so feet of elevation gain.  It is the terrain that makes movement so difficult here.  Everything is loose, and when down or upclimbing, you have to test every single hand and foot hold before you commit your weight to them. This of course, takes some time.  But better to be safe than sorry!
Ni-chebe-chii Part 1 (distances as part of the hike):
Lake of the Clouds, 11430 feet: 6.6 miles one way, 2390 foot gain.  Strenuous-.
Mount Cirrus, 12797 feet: 7.4 miles one way, 3757 foot gain.  Up to third class.  Strenuous.
Howard Mountain, 12810 feet: 8.1 miles one way, 3770 foot gain.  Strenuous.
Mount Cumulus, 12725 feet: 9.3 miles one way, 3685 foot gain.  Strenuous.
Mount Nimbus, 12706 feet: 10.3 miles one way, 3666 foot gain.  Strenuous.
Red Mountain, 11605 feet: 11.7 miles one way, 2565 foot gain.  Strenuous.  
As a whole, this hike covers 17 miles and a bit over 6000 feet of gain with up to third class movement.  Strenuous+.