Pecos Baldy Lake area 3-Day Trip

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08-08-2008, 02:10
eugeneius

Pecos Baldy Lake area 3-Day Trip

I'm hitting the trail again, this time hiking up to an area north of Santa Fe, New Mexico in the Pecos Wilderness. The small group I'm going with are heading from Jacks Creek campground north about 9 miles to Pecos Baldy Lake at the base of the Pecos Baldy peaks 12,000+ ft., hopefully we can dayhike along the Trailriders Wall, which is a 2.5 mile long saddle above treeline with cliffs on either side to reach the Truchas Peak region farther north and bag a 13,000 ft peak. I haven't been to this alpine basin area yet so I'm very stoked and excited, there is wildlife abundant, mountain goats and pika, cutthroat trout at the lake, so we have much to look forward to. :D Two of us are hanging, my buddy finished a HH clone thanks to the HC4U instructions I referred him to, and he even went as far to whip up a nice underquilt out of a synthetic cold weather military issue bag. Needless to say I was impressed! August is peak monsoon season for this region so hopefully we'll be hanging high and dry! I'll take some pics and share with those interested when I get back. Vaminos amigos! :cool:
08-08-2008, 13:55
NCPatrick

Looking forward to the pictures. Have a great trip!
08-08-2008, 22:15
BillyBob58

Oh man, major envy syndrome! I have to wait until the 2nd week of Sept, then it is Rocky Mountain time! I may have to get a RM Sniveler!
08-09-2008, 01:07
eugeneius

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillyBob58

Oh man, major envy syndrome! I have to wait until the 2nd week of Sept, then it is Rocky Mountain time! I may have to get a RM Sniveler!

Rocky mountains, ahhh, I have yet to spend much time there, I'm likely going to Telluride for the annual Brews and Blues Festival in September, for the purpose of drinking craft beer, listening to blues, and supporting our local microbrewery who is a vendor at the event! We have tentative plans to backpack from Ouray, Colorado (the self proclaimed Switzerland of America) to Telluride, Colorado for the event so we can hike slightly intoxicated rather than drive or get a hotel, plus I don't want to mingle with Hollywood celebrity transplants and yups who now call ToHelluRide home. :rolleyes: That RM sniveler most definitely will need to be in your possession, if I hang the hammock that weekend then I will definitely be sewing an underquilt as I hear it gets rather nippy at night up there in September. I hope that upcoming Rocky Mountain time comes to fruition BillyBob58.
08-09-2008, 08:24
BillyBob58

Telluride? YEP, From the rail road conductor yelling "To Hell You Ride"! You are right about the "Hollywood celebrity transplants and yups who now call ToHelluRide home", and the have made it a very expensive place. Be sure to say hi to Oprah for me! LOL! But, Telluride/Ouray/Silverton/San Juans/Lizard Head Pass/Mt. Sneffels area- particularly Telluride/Ouray- is truly one of the most spectacular places on earth. To me, this area of Colorado far excedes the rest of Colorado for spectacular mountains, as great as Colo is even in the other areas. I bet you will have a great time.

PS:
Did you ever see the old John Wayne movie "True Grit"? Watch it if you have time before you go. At the end of the movie, during the shoot out where John Wayne says "Fill your hand, you SOB", it is at Lizard Head Pass just outside of Telluride, and you can clearly see Lizard Head Peak in th background. Also, John Wayne's "The Cowboys" was filmed in this same area, but I think this scene was in True Grit.
08-12-2008, 08:50
eugeneius

Pecos Wilderness trip rocked!

Trip was great! Three of us bagged two big peaks in a day, it was an awesome day! We climbed from Pecos Baldy Lake up to East Pecos Baldy Peak (12,529) and saw a heard of big horn sheep grazing, then we carefully scrambled down a very steep coulir that poured off the east side of Pecos Baldy Peak and dropped into a saddle left behind by glacial migration long ago, you can see the scarring along the mountainside. We then quickly headed north along Trailriders Wall to South Truchas Peak (13,110) and bagged that peak as well. That was truly the highlight of the trip, there is a Class 3-4 scramble up to the top where you have to do some hand over hand climbing in a very large boulder field to get to the top, the pitch is around 60-65 degrees, but the view is incredible, you can see hundreds of miles to elevations below at 7,000 ft in the low lying deserts surrounding the wilderness areas, there are several lakes 1200 feet below. After carefully descending South Truchas Peak we rushed back to East Pecos Baldy Lake for camp and soaked it all in. I brought my DIY HH clone again and it served me well, I was pretty chilly the last night as a brisk wind kept rushing under me and my pad just wasn't cutting the cheese this time. Underquilt is definitely in the works for the next colder climate packing trip. All in all I think we hiked a total of 24 miles, mostly day hiking from base camp, it was an awesome trip. If any of you get a chance head to New Mexico to the Pecos Wilderness, you won't regret it and you'll probably keep coming back. I'll post the few pics we have, everyone assumed everyone else was bringing a camera so the one guy who brought his popped off a few, when he emails me the photos I'll upload.