After a long drive we made Silverton with plenty of time to handle all the tasks we had prior to catching the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to Needleton. First we had to finalize all our gear, including food for 7 days into two packs weighing just over 40 pounds.
Next, I staked out a comfy spot in the shade and watched the tourists while Pete drove my car up to the Molas Trailhead and then rode his bike back down the 5.5 miles to Silverton.
After we locked up his bike we searched out a pasta meal before a final beer at the Silverton Brewery. The 2:45 pm train left town with us on it for the one hour ride to Needleton along the Animas River.
At Needleton we departed with 2 other backpackers but headed in opposite directions.
Pete and I followed the Ruby Creek Trail north through Needleton’s collection of cabins and through a few meadows before starting our climb.
After crossing North Pigeon Creek, we broke off the Ruby Creek Trail and headed east and upwards through mostly open woods. Travel wasn’t too bad and we reached the meadow at 11,740 feet about three hours after leaving the train. Plenty of time to setup camp, eat some dinner and watch the sunset.
Our first night wasn’t very restful, as a mouse spent the dark hours chewing on my tent and even repeated swings with my ice axe shaft couldn’t deter it. Surprisingly, we still got up at 4:30 am and were on the move by 5:30 am.
We climbed upwards in the shaded bowl of Pigeon Peak, but could admire the sunrise on the West Needle Mountains across the Animas Valley.
Once we’d made it a few hundred feet to where we’d have to traverse below the peak on our return we cached our full packs. I single TCU stuck in a crack provided an off-the-ground anchor for the loads to keep them out of marmots’ reach.
Unburdened we continued upwards eventually hitting some icy snow patches that we were mostly able to work around with class 3 and 4 scrambling.
Soon we were admiring the summit views from one of Colorado’s highest peaks (13,972 feet).
To the north we could see the distinctive shapes of Arrow, Vestal and the Trinities 3 ridges beyond. Those peaks were our goal for later in the trip.
We still had a long day planned, so we quickly descended back towards our packs.
Once we loaded up we traversed below the cliffs of Pigeon Peak and set out to cross two saddles toward Turret Peak.
Once we were near the Pigeon-Turret saddle I located some rocks where we could hang our packs while we made another lightened summit trip. Pete took a break behind the rocks but lost control of a roll of TP which looked destined for the creek over a 1000 feet below. Luckily it stopped only a hundred feet down the slope.
We met a group of climbers coming up from Ruby Creek who were headed for Pigeon but could tell us that some of our future route was do-able.
The climb up Turret was easy, but we were pushed on by the weather’s threatening look. At least we had great views of Pigeon’s shear NE face.
In the summit register we found the last signatures from the day before to belong to our friends Sarah and Dominic who we’d see later in the week. Then we returned to our packs and prepared to drop into the Ruby drainage.
We had a couple short glissades down from the pass, then found ourselves picking a route through wildflowers and boulder fields until we finally reached the meadows down below.
To continue with our plans we had another 1000 foot climb to a pass between the Ruby and Noname drainages. Pete admitted that he wasn’t feeling up to carrying the full packs that far (knowing that we still had more passes and peaks in the days ahead). So we decided to descend back to Needleton via the Ruby Creek trail and catch the train out tomorrow.
We picked up a pretty good trail that led to the beautiful Ruby Lake.
After a break we lost the trail in a tangle of blowdowns and avalanche’d trees and ended up bushwhacking and making a couple wild stream crossings.
Before long we caught the trail again and eventually lost it again on some steep cliffs and slabs. After trying to push our way through we finally relented to reality and backtracked to find the turn we missed. When we eventually came across familiar ground we found the aspen tree marked with a carving of a columbine that was mentioned in a guide book.
We camped in the “Campers Meadow” that evening after what turned out to be an over 12 hour day. Mosquitoes were bad outside so we stayed under the tent as much as possible. The next morning we packed up too early and returned to the bridge at Needleton.
We realized we were hours early for the train so played a little frisbee and a card game while waiting with a few other backpackers who eventually showed up.
I tried talking to a few, hoping to get a ride from Silverton up to Molas Trailhead where our car was as neither of us fancied biking up to the pass. I couldn’t get any takers so after the train ride and a lunch in Silverton I left Pete under the same shade tree and walked out of town. Before the first big switchback I was picked up by someone Durango-bound who nicely gave me a lift the rest of the miles.
Pete and I took a rest day for the remainder of Sunday while we formulated new plans.
