Phoenix Peak (13,895 ft) by Brian Schultz Wednesday July 14, 2004
The East Willow Creek trailhead was easy to find after scouting most of the road to it yesterday. I parked at the small pullout for two wheel drive and began the hike at 6:00 AM with a steep grunt up the 4x4 road. As the road leveled out, I walked past a tent and the fellow who'd camped overnight came out to greet me. Nick was from Phoenix, Arizona and planned on climbing the namesake peak also but wouldn't be leaving for another half hour. He wanted to talk more but I was eager to keep moving and cut the conversation short. I hurried along the road to "Phoenix Park" and arrived at a cabin at 7:05. I thought this was the parking area for four wheel drive, even though it's not mentioned in the Roaches' route description, and began looking for the creek crossing.
I followed fresh footprints past the cabin to a trail that headed east, the correct direction, but the trail only ascended to a waterfall instead of descending to a creek. The well worn path continued up and around the waterfall but I knew I was off- route at that point and turned around. By the time I got back to the cabin and reread the route description, I figured I hadn't traveled the road far enough and set out past the cabin anew at 7:55. As the road faded to a footpath, I felt confident I was back on course and even saw an occasional cairn after the path disappeared. But this approach was gaining elevation also, and as far as I could tell, there appeared to be no creek ahead to descend to. When it became obvious this wasn't the correct route either, I stopped and turned around. Frustrated, I headed back to the cabin and wondered how I was going to make the summit when I couldn't even get started right.
With the morning slipping away, I stopped at the cabin to read the directions for the third time and it finally dawned on me that I might've hiked the road too far. I headed back across what I thought was Whited Creek to see if I'd missed a different parking area and when I reached the described 10,320 ft elevation for 4WD and didn't find anything there, I thought the GPS might be off and continued along the road. But to no avail. As a last ditch effort I turned around and walked back in the direction of the cabin again, and this time noticed a sign near the road with the numbers 787 on it. Imagine my surprise when I looked down and saw two more signs near the creek with cairns, and there across the creek was the Old Center Stock Driveway! My focus had been on finding the parking area. If I'd paid more attention to the surroundings, I might've seen that sign earlier.
The time was 9:25. I descended and crossed the creek, hiked the quarter mile to the three log fence, and began with a renewed vigor. Clear skies were encouraging as I crossed the creek twice, set a GPS waypoint in case the weather fogged in later, and happily began my ascent into the woods. But my mood was short lived. The Roaches describe the trail as faint and I couldn't find it.
After wandering a bit, I saw a Stock Driveway sign and decided to use my compass, hoping to either happen upon the trail or emerge from the trees at the correct spot. Bushwhacking alone made me nervous as I forged deeper and deeper into the woods but I was determined to make this summit one way or another. I was constantly making corrections to maintain the bearing and at times seemed to be on a faint trail but it never lasted for long. When I popped out of the trees just slightly higher than the actual trail I was extremely relieved... and excited because I could see the remainder of the route to the summit. Unfortunately, the time was 11:10 and I was only at 11,270 feet elevation with 2,600 feet to go. And the sky was beginning to cloud up.
I pressed on and arrived above the cliff bands at 11:50. Storm clouds were heading my way from the west with thunder rumbling as I hiked up to 12,600 feet. I started counting when I saw lightning and figured the storm was about four miles away but that wasn't the worst of it. Another one was coming in from the north. I wasn't sure I could beat them but wasn't ready to turn around either after getting this far. While sitting for a short food break and keeping an eye on the weather, I assessed my escape options- I could easily bail out on the slope to my right and hunker down if the storms overtook me but an interesting thing happened next. As the western storm was drawing near it took a sharp turn to the south followed immediately by the other one. Both were bypassing me!
I decided to continue on, in spite of the lightning danger, and noticed a solo figure coming down the slopes. It was Nick. He was wearing sandals, thinking this class 1 hike was mostly on grass and dirt, and acknowledged the rocky areas of the slopes were not kind to his feet. He also mentioned getting waylaid earlier in a manner similar to me. I hurried my weary body to a point just above the saddle and was discouraged to see the summit still a half mile away. As fascinating as it was to observe the shifting storms, I ducked down several times when the skies flashed and finally reached the summit at the ridiculously late hour of 1:30 PM. I signed the register and left, noting that Nick and I were only the 3rd and 4th climbers to have signed in this year.
The return to treeline took an hour and five minutes and at 2:40 I sat down for a lunch break. Twenty minutes later I headed into the woods and this time found the trail easily. Cairns mark the upper half at regular intervals but taper off on the lower half and just when I thought the difficulties of my day were over, I got mixed up down by the creek after the second crossing. The area is full of downed trees and I totally lost my sense of direction after getting tangled up in the brush. I was so disoriented after returning to the creek, even after double-checking the GPS waypoint, that I managed to hike down the wrong side of the creek a short distance before getting righted.
A blizzard wouldn't have surprised me next but the hike back to the road was blessedly uneventful and I finally arrived at my car at 5:20. I was supposed to meet Tim in Creede at 6:00 and thought I'd be waiting hours for him when I began this morning. Now I'd barely get there in time and he'd probably be waiting for me.
I chatted with Nick for a while before leaving. He contemplated joining Tim and me for Rio Grande Pyramid in the morning until hearing how early we were getting up. When I arrived in Creede, Tim was indeed waiting. This turned out to be a trying day for what should've been an easy class 1 hike.
Trailhead to summit- 7 hours 30 minutes
Summit back to trailhead- 3 hours 50 minutes
Start to finish- 11 hours 20 minutes