The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking and Botanizing in Southwest Colorado

August 12, 2024

After traveling abroad for the past two summers, this year I decided to stay in the western US mountains, dividing my time between the Durango area in southwestern Colorado and Bishop, California, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada range.

Other than a few days in the spring of 2013, I had never been in southwest Colorado and the opportunity to visit the San Juan Mountains, which contain some of the highest and most jagged summits in the continental United States, including 13 fourteeners (14,000+ft or 4267+m), was one I was eagerly anticipating. With a last minute decision, few homes or apartments were available in my price range, but I chose a house in a rural subdivision east of Durango, which turned out to be a great (if a bit pricey) choice. My brother, Mark, visited for 10 days, which made it even more special.

The end of June and July are perfect times to enjoy the wildflowers, particularly at higher elevations as the snow melts. I was able to identify around 85 different wildflowers, of which I included about 20 in this blog post. Even more than the landscapes, they were the stars of my sojourn. Enjoy!

Red Creek-Missionary Ridge Loop, one of my first hikes. Here is a vista with Woods roses.

Woods roses. I’ve stayed with common flower names for this post, realizing some disambiguation may be necessary.

A Horned Toad, seen on Missionary Ridge.

View from Baldy Mountain. The two hikes I did there were both from the nearby Sortais trailhead, just east of Durango.

A field of Showy fleabane and Rocky Mountain penstemon on Mt Baldy.

Eileen’s Pond (my name – it’s actually called Lake Eileen). The trailhead starts at Vallecito Lake, only a 20 minute drive from my house.

Eileen’s Pond, six days later when I hiked with my brother; no threat of thunderstorms this day!

Gunnison’s mariposa lily, my favorite flower in this post.

Castle Rock vista. Highway 550, seen below, connects Durango and Silverton.

Rocky Mountain columbine, my 2nd favorite flower!

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway train and vista. Mark and I did the touristy thing that day, taking the old steam train to Cascade Canyon, about 1/2 way to Silverton. We were perfectly located near the middle of about 8 cars.

Another view from the train, high above the Animas River

Mark taking a photo from the railway bridge in Cascade Canyon.

Engineer Mountain summit block. The NE ridge that we attempted became technical, so we only ascended to 12,500 ft on the 12,900 ft mountain.

Engineer Mountain vista NW towards the Twin Sisters and Grizzly Peak

Me looking at the vista from Engineer Mountain

Me on Engineer Mountain. Any climbing option from here was at least YDS Class 4; lacking equipment, we retreated.

We were definitely in a vertical world! (Photo courtesy of Mark)

Sticky polemonium, a high altitude denizen

Looking back on our route up to Ice and Island Lakes. The loop hike to these alpine lakes was my favorite.

Ice and Island Lakes pano with Golden Horn, Vermillion Peak, and Fuller Peak (R to L)

Island Lake. My favorite photo. I rarely used my Olympus, so nearly all photos in this blog were taken with my Samsung Galaxy phone.

Sub-alpine paintbrush. It was lovely to see different species of paintbrush in bloom.

Mesa Verde petroglyphs, along the Petroglyph Point trail. Mesa Verde was only an hour west from my house.

Prince’s plume along the Petroglyph Point trail (photo courtesy of Mark)

Silvery lupine, seen along the Knife-edge trail at Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde Balcony House, seen on a (mandatory) guided tour. Now I understand how it got its name!

Another view of the Mesa Verde Balcony House

The Animas River, near Whitewater Park in Durango. I walked three different sections of the Animas River trail during my stay.

Everlasting-pea, along the Animas River in Durango

Rio Pinos Valley, at the start of an 11 mile out and back hike from near Vallecito Lake.

Wilderness Act, 1964. My favorite quotation from a legislative act! The Rio Pinos valley was largely in the Weminuche Wilderness.

Engineer Mountain, from the Crater Lake trail. The NE ridge we attempted two weeks earlier is clearly seen here.

Crater Lake, also in the Weminuche Wilderness, which is about 3/4 the size of Rhode Island.

The AirBnb rental where I stayed for nearly 6 weeks outside of Bayfield. It was a very peaceful location, which included a wonderful deck with a hot tub. At about 7800 ft elevation, it never seemed too hot. One caveat: a thirty day minimum rental is required.

For those interested, all 85 or so wildflowers I identified can be downloaded here as a pdf.

Currently I am in Bishop, California, on the East side of the Sierra Nevada. Having been away for 11 years, it feels like coming home to some of the most beautiful mountains and wonderful hikes in the world. Expect another post in two or three weeks, before I depart for Europe.

The Vagabond Hiker

Peru’s Ausangate Circuit Trek

July 16, 2024

When last minute cancellations by other clients put paid to my plan to trek to the Incan site of Choquequirao, I signed up instead for an extended Ausangate Circuit trek in the remote Cordillera Vilcanota range of the Andes, south of Cusco, a city I hadn’t visited since 2009. After two days of acclimatization near Cusco, we commenced our nine day trek. Our group of seven clients, one guide and a horseman with his “sag” horse hiked about 90 km (56 miles) and ascended more than 3700 m (12,100 ft). While the distances and elevation gains were not great, the altitude certainly was: five high passes which ranged from 4850 to 5200 meters (15,900 to 17,060 ft).

The Cordillera Vilcanota boasts several 6000m peaks, including the sacred Ausangate, at 6372m (20,900 ft), the highest mountain in southern Peru. This high and wild trekking circuit wound its way on quiet trails through this rarely-visited range, following lovely alpine valleys and traversing a series of passes connecting them. After a lovely soak in the Pachanta town hot springs one afternoon, the usual end point for the Ausangate Circuit trek, our trek continued another 2 1/2 days, highlighted by the remote and stunning Laguna Singrenacocha.

Enjoy some of the hundreds of photos that I took!

View of the Sacred Valley from *Parque Arqueológico Pisac*, our first of two acclimatization walks

A view of Incan farming terraces from *Parque Arqueológico Pisac*

A Cyclopian-style Incan wall at Sacsayhuaman above Cusco, where we did the 2nd of our two acclimatization walks. The stones weigh up to 200 tons.

Approaching Ausangate from near the Tinki trailhead on Day 1. The trailhead was a leisurely 4-hour drive south from Cusco.

Our first night’s camp. The orange tents on the left side are ours.

Glacial melt-water serenades our group of 7 clients early on Day 2. Our group included five Brits and two Americans. Can you spot them in this photo?

Old Man of the Andes cacti (*Oreocereus celsianus*)

View from the pass Abra al Arapa, 4850 m, the first of the five high passes we would cross on the trek. The needle-like peak is Sorimani.

Our group down-climbing above Laguna Pucacocha

Our horses grazing near our 2nd camp in the late afternoon

Hatun (Great) Pucacocha and alpaca herd early on Day 3

Ausangate with Hatun Pucacocha on the left here

Th Vagabond Hiker with our horseman, Rozes, on the Apachita Pass (4920m)

Painted Mountain, a popular day hike from the opposite side.

Rozes and our guide Evr (r), on Abra Paloman (5100m)

Landscape with *Senecio leucophyton* (in the daisy family)

Lodge, tarn, and Ausangate, seen on Day 4. The usual climbing route ascends from the red-roofed lodge seen in the lower left.

A Northern Viscacha, a type of chinchilla. Over a couple of days we saw (and heard) numerous Viscachas near streams.

Nevado Ausangate in all its formidable glory

*Lupinus weberbaueri*, seen on Day 5. We saw several different lupines. . .

*Lupinus alopecuroides*. None of the flowers I saw seemed to have common English names, hence I’m sticking with the Latin binomials for this post.

Some of our pack horses on Day 5 near Abra La Campa (5060m). Jatunhuma (6100m) is in the background.

Puka Punta (5600m), Pachanta (5950m), and Callangate (6110m) seen to our east on Day 5.

*Nototriche obcuneata*, in the mallow family

Sunset view on Day 5. Puka Punta (“Red Point” in Quechua) is on the right.

Laguna Pucacocha in the morning of Day 6.

Grasses and blue pond with reflection of a portion of the Ausangate massif.

A remote village with Callangate behind, seen on Day 7

Some dry stone walls testify to the ubiquitous lpaca and Llama herding over the centuries

Closeup of five alpacas. The 2nd from the left looks to me like a character in the Wizard of Oz.

Our “sag” horse, Ausangate, being encouraged to cross a stream

Day 7 sunset vista with horses and alpenglow on Callangate

The turquoise Laguna Singrenaccocha, seen early on Day 8

Another view of Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we essentially circumambulated this day, camping near the southwest corner

Hatun Q’ampa reflected in a small, unnamed lake

The main river feeding into Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we crossed downstream, near its entrance to the lake

Mark crossing one section of the river near the outlet of Laguna Singrenaccocha

Our scenic Day 8 campsite and our horses

Our support crew (our cook, two assistants, and muleteers), Day 9

Still morning reflections in Laguna Singrenaccocha

Our final canyon descent to the roadhead near Malima on Day 9.

I chose to spend this summer in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Colorado and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range of California. If I get some decent photos, expect one or two blog posts from some of my numerous day hikes. In early September I will be traveling around Europe for about 5 1/2 weeks, trekking across the Picos de Europa in northern Spain and the Julian Alps in Slovenia (yes, I know they are not particularly close together!), and doing a series of walks on São Miguel Island in the Azores. Expect three more blog posts this autumn from those adventures!

In the meantime, enjoy as much of the summer outdoors as you can,

The Vagabond Hiker

Travels with Clifford

February 23, 2024

As long-time followers of this blog may know, my youngest brother, Clifford, has both graced many photos and been behind the lens for quite a few more. Beginning with Maui in 1990, Clifford and I explored Belize in 1993, Wales with our dad in 2000, and coastal California and the Southwest US numerous times since 2007. More recently we traveled and hiked together in Tasmania and mainland Australia in 2017, Malta in 2018, Ireland in 2019, and Costa Rica in 2022. Clifford’s innate curiosity, far-reaching knowledge, boundless enthusiasm, and child-like sense of wonder for the natural world enriched my travels in so many ways. Here are some recent fond memories. . .