San Miguel Peak (13,752') by Brian Schultz Tuesday August 25, 2009
Roundtrip mileage: 8 miles from Lake Hope trailhead
Elevation gain: ~3,300'
The following residential street signs are helpful if using Garratt & Martin's directions to the trailhead. From Highway 145 turn east on Trout Lake Rd 63A, turn left two miles later on Lake Hope Rd A63, and continue 2.5 miles further to the well marked Lake Hope trailhead. Two wheel drive cars can handle these roads if driven slowly.
I began at 5:55 AM by headlamp on the excellent trail, which traveled well in the dark for the short time the headlamp was needed. Skies were clear and sunny when I reached the lake at 7:05. I tried to avoid the knoll above by rounding the lake on the right side but high walls at the water's edge forced me to backtrack and climb up to the knoll anyway. After an extended break at the top, I descended to the dam and climbed up steep, grassy ledges on the other side to gain the slopes above the lake.
Elevation came quickly on the steep slopes and I stayed on grassy areas as much as possible. A snow filled drainage was bypassed without difficulty on the right before I headed straight to a point on San Miguel's northeast ridge, which turned out to be just a high bump on the rough ridge. I dropped back down for easier traversing on the right before regaining the ridge again, and then scrambled along the top until it dead-ended with a 75-100 foot vertical drop to a notch. A fine view of San Miguel's summit and the remaining route are seen from the notch.
After a steep downclimb on the right to get to the notch, I contoured below the summit on challenging class 3 rock but had to be careful because yesterday's storms dusted the rock with snow and it hadn't melted yet. I made the summit at 10:10 and though the forecast called for stormy weather later, threatening clouds were moving in quickly and it was already raining over Trout Lake. The views from the summit were outstanding and as much as I wanted to climb the western summit, which looked to be just as high as the eastern one, I didn't have time to go over there. At 10:25 I began a careful descent on the snowy rocks.
By the time I reached Lake Hope it was sleeting. The first rumble of thunder sounded at the knoll and as I neared the water tank below the knoll, it started pouring rain. I found out how popular the trail is, even on a midweek day, when I came across the first group of hikers, five young women seeking shelter under trees waiting for the rain to quit so they could continue on to the lake. I passed by two rangers doing trail maintenance and later a young couple who'd reached the lake but quickly turned around when the storms began. When I reached the trailhead at 1:10, three others were ready to begin hiking, seemingly unconcerned about the weather, and the five women who were waiting under the trees returned shortly thereafter, reporting lightning flashing up where they had been. This was all around a truly fun climb- great trail, enjoyable scrambling, but also a bit harder than I expected.
Trailhead to summit- 4 hours 15 minutes
Summit to trailhead- 2 hours 45 minutes
Start to finish- 7 hours 15 minutes