Mount Yale Summit September 16, 2010

On a Thursday, I drove from Salida to Beuna Vista, and from there to the San Isabel National Forest, to Denny Creek Trailhead. Entering the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness Area, I hiked about 2 miles in, 2,000 feet up, and making camp by a river in the valley. Not realizing in which direction the summit lie, I began a day hike with just a bottle of water and half loaf of bread. bushwhacking off the trail, climbing on all fours, grasping embedded rocks and dead trees, I made it up the first steep hill of two. Rising over its ridge revealed the next one, so close I had to climb to it. Only then did I come upon a trail and realize that I was making a B-line for the summit. Since I had made it so close already, I could bring myself to turn around for proper food and more than a 27 oz water bottle (about 1/3 full). What looked like a half hour walk turned into a full hour or more, hobbling over boulders to make the last 30 yards or so. Rather tired and cold and thirsty, having ascended 4,300 feet over several miles, I made the mistake of taking the shortest route back to the ridge I had come up, and had to slide/climb my way down the talus rock hill / cliff depicted in the 6th picture from the top. Back at the bottom I came across several of the hikers I had met along the trail, who turned out to be with the "14ers Initiative." One had formerly worked for SCC in Durango. Their camp is the second picture from the bottom.