Frenchman Creek/Colorado Trail

After climbing Mt. Princeton, we backpacked for 3 days around Mt. Harvard. The drive to the trailhead quickly turned from a paved road to an "improved road," which, by Colorado standards, means a dirt road with a low enough grade that it's not hardcore enough to be considered a 4WD road. Improved has nothing to do with the pothole situation or other qualities that us Easterners would consider important in a road. Eventually, the improved road forked onto a legit 4WD road, which our guide book accurately described as "steep and narrow." Katy's grandfather's Jeep was once again clutch, saving us a good 2,000'/2 miles. We managed to avoid destroying the car, which was a nice bonus, although there were a few close calls when we bottomed out on large rocks. Fortunately, Jeeps are designed to love that kind of thing.

The hike in along Frenchman Creek Trail was relatively unexciting. We managed to miss the junction with the Colorado Trail (CT) and went about 15 minutes past it before running into a young couple from Colorado Springs coming down from Mt. Columbia (at 10:30am... talk about an early start to the day). They told us we had passed the trail junction, and we hiked with them back to the CT. The CT had a fallen tree on the trail about 10 feet past the junction, diminishing our embarrassment about missing the junction.

The CT was well maintained, although it was littered with an absurd amount of horse manure since horsepacking the CT is apparently pretty popular. The hike was mostly through a densely wooded coniferous forest and culminated with a 2,000' descent to Pine Creek, where we camped for the night, at the most beautiful campsite in the world (right), an alpine meadow overlooking snow-capped Mt. Oxford (14,153') and Waverly Mountain (13,268').

Bottom line: Uneventful day of hiking. Most beautiful campsite in the world (although I haven't been to the Maroon Bells yet, so I can't compare). [Picasa]