Lost in the Wilderness - Trip Report

“Here is the trip report.

I arrived in Denver on Friday, and was supposed to catch a flight to Durango, pick up a rental and drive to Lizard Head Pass. They were offering free RT plane tickets to anyone giving up thier seat, so I jumped on it, hoping that missing one day of adjusting to the altitude wouldn't hurt me.

Flew into Durango on Saturday and camped at Lizard Head Pass. Some young teenage punks were next to me, and acted silly half the night, but I didn't care, I was surrounded by high peaks and the stars were out.

Sunday - Drove to Telluride, felt the effects of HACE. Telluride was sweet, and I ran into some Real World/Road Rulz kids there shooting the show The Gautlet for MTV. They were acting like a bunch of immature bastards. Spent the day taking pics and trying to adjust to the altitude (10,000+ ft.) Had a nice hail/lightening storm that night, and had a very hard time sleeping due to HACE.

Monday - Arrived at Matterhorn Guard Station to meet PIT crew at 7:00 am. HACE symptoms almost gone! Team consisted of:

Bob - Age 50 - Forest Ranger/firefighter/USFS Archeologist/Modern Day Grizzly Adams

Leigh Ann - Age 45 - USFS Archeologist

Sharon - Age 60 - Volunteer

Bobbi - Age 60 - Volunteer

Pam - Age 58 - Volunteer

They all were troopers, and Bob would make all us TT'rs look like kids on a playground.

We took the Crest Mountain Trail into Lizard Head Wilderness. Bob had 3 pack horses, so I let em' carry my tent and food! :) It was about 2,000 ft. elevation gain, and some tough hiking. Spectacular views. Base camp was already set.

Leigh Ann instructed the crew as to what to look for. We were searching for pre-historic artifacts (projectile points, man made artifacts) and ancient native hunting blinds. If we found something at designated sites, we were to flag and document the items. It hailed that night, so I spent most of the time reading and BSing with the crew.

Tuesday - Due to jet lag, and pure adreneline, I was up at 5:00 am. Went to nearest site and found two artifacts! The rest of the team joined me around 10:00 and we found 38 artifacts all toghther at that site. Very good finds according to archelogists. Bob found a couple intact projectiles.

From Base Camp (12,100') we hiked up Black Face (13,000'). Spectacular views! Bob coaxed me into climbing an abutting volcanic plug with him and his trail dog Bear. Bear (no offense Budder or Katru) was the BEST trail dog I'd ever seen. He'd fallen out of Bob's truck two days before and had a nasty gash on his leg, but was motoring around with a duct tape patch.

We found some pre-historic hunting blinds, and I discovered 2 flakes that established the place as a new legitimate site.

On the way back, Bob decided to bushwhack on contour back to base camp. I went ahead after the first two miles. We'd been following game trails, and I was pretty confident in my sense of direction.

WRONG!

I was way ahead of the group, and ened up getting lost due to a rapid altitude loss due to the game trail I was following. I ended up, somehow, behing the mountain range that we were camped near. It isn't like East Coast ranges. We are talking about big elevations, and deceiving miles to the peaks. To make a long story short, I'd been bushwhacking for 4 hours straight, enduring significant elevation changes, and was a long way from camp. Dusk was about 1.5 hours away. I had my poncho, stove some food and Nalgene bottles with me, but no map or compass (accidently left with my GPS at camp). The trails were not marked, and most of them looked like the well worn game trails.

I was in some trouble, but was more worried about the crew having to look for me. I didn't panic, and decided to take one of the trails, that was headed in the right direction, to it's end before dark, or hunker down at nightfall. I ened up making it to a road after 6 hours nonstop. I was able to flag down a car. A nice couple took me to ranger station where we tried to radio Bob at basecamp that I was OK. Due to elevation, we couldn't get through. The other rangers (both from OHIO) called S&R and we did everything to inform the group. I was pretty worried, and had little sleep that night.

Wednesday - Woke up at crack of dawn, and hoofed it up 2,000' in 1.5 hours back to basecamp. They'd just been radioed that I was OK, and heading back up. Everybody relieved. Bob said he wasn't too worried about me, but all the ladies (psuedo moms) sure as hell were! lol!

Took a nice nap and hiked up to Lizard Head. The team found a mono (round, worked stone used to gring seeds into flour) and a mahate(sp) (flat rock with holes used as base for flour grinding), at 13,200'. Leigh Ann said it might be the highest recorded site for prehistoric artifacts in North America. Niiiiice!

Hiked back down and enjoyed a nice evening by the fire.

Thursday - Plan was to search for rumored hunting blinds on the saddle of Sunshine Mountain. We had some serious Cumulus cloud build-up by 10:30. At 11:30, after bushwhacking for 4 miles and climbing 1,000' we were near the site. Bob had to climb to the peak in order to use the radio. The ladies and I climbed a steep grade to reach the saddle. About half-way up the exposed slope, and nasty hail and lightening storm rolled in. The archeologist decided to hunker down in a divet in the slope to avoid having to hike back down to treeline. She tought the storm would pass. Afdter 3 lighetning strikes and major hail (I have welts on my head), I told the ladies that this was nutz, and we had to get into the treeline immediately. We did and the hailed rained down for over 1/2 hour. I made sure the ladies were warm, and nowhere near the highest trees.

Bob made it back down, and we dicided to get the hell out of there. I was starting to suffer the effects of hypothermia due to stadning around in the crappy weather. As soon as we atrted moving, all was well.

We got back into camp, warmed up. I had to go in order to catch my flight on time for Friday.

All was well. It was an AWSOME trip, with great people. We accomplished what we went there to do, and I was able to get some nice hiking in a high altitudes. Took 5 rolls of pictures.

I arrived here about 2 hours ago, and am suffering jet lag. Need to get some winks, have a golf outing in 5 hours.

Late,

BB”

“Wow! Exciting trip, Buddha! Cool news about the finds. And -- what's this I'm hearing -- a TT'er lost and getting hypothermic??! Say it ain't so!

And -- what's this I'm hearing (part II) -- where were the Buddha Bear babes to hit on?!?!!? Robbed, man!!

LOL!

So, will you do the PIT program again? Oh yeah, and what airline let you take a bump?”

“BB - Sounds like you had a great time! Sounds like you had quite an adventure on Tuesday. Thanks for the report! When do we see the pics?”

“BB - great trip report. How did you find out about this trip?”

“after watching you march along at mount rogers, i'm not suprised you got ahead of the others. glad all turned out good. sounds like a fun trip. what does PIT stand for?”

“The National Forest Service's "Passport in Time" program. Guess ya missed my thread on the program I went to in southern Illinois. Search for "Passport in Time."”

“thank you”

“BB great report and what an adventure. Yes, I want to see the pics.


Passport in time is great. We did it this year too, and will be there for sure next year.”

“Sounds like an advenure and a half.

Can't wait to see the pics.

Do you have any of your dented noggin?”

“Awesome Trip Report...sounds like a memorable experience.

Can't wait to see pics.”

“Separated from the group without map and compass?

A touch of hypothermia and getting lost makes any outing more of an adventure!

I've been hearing stories of golfball-size hail in Colorado.
That stuff has gotta hurt!
Shoulda had your Bucky Beaver hard hat.”

“pics

Lizs - I'd definately do PIT again, and I used United Airlines.

Unfortunately, I have no pics of the dented noggin', although I think it may have helped in a way.”

“I'm glad I'm not the only TT'er to get lost in the Rockies for a day.

I really liked the colors on them mountains you were near, and the sunset!!! OMG!! spectaccular...I didn't get to see a sunset like that. Glad you had a good time and were smart enough to stay calm and figure your way out to safety.”

“yeah sticky, but i bet HE didn't drag a canoe all over the mountains...


BB, AWESOME DOOD! i'm majenta with envy....”

“Mind if I try to do paintings of some of your pics? It's like they're begging to be painted! Those colors are fantastic!”

“Very beautiful, BB. Hey, but on my computer maybe 3 shots wouldn't link from the thumbnail to the full-size shot, one of them being the first one.”

“Nice TR, nice pictures. I just got back from that area myself.

"HACE" probably should read "AMS" unless you had stuff leaking out your ears but no matter, I was following the intent anyway. Waking up every few minutes after forgetting to breathe pretty much sux, no?

You back to normal yet, or still up high?”

“It looks like a nice place to get lost...........for a while.”

“I love the San Juans - my first experience backpacking, and first time ever out west was in these mountains 11 years ago - I've never looked at life the same since. Nice pic, but no pics could ever do the Juans justice.

Hey Buddha - me and a bud had a similar experience on this same trip, not in the San Juans, but coming down Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in Co.

We took the wrong trail down part of the way, and realized we'd end up over 10 miles from the car, so we tried to bushwack over to the correct trail before dropping below treeline. We were gradually forced below treeline though, due to too many obstacles, and we were nervous cause the whole time we were seeing bear scat & snake holes. By the time we got below treeline, it was already pretty late, and the forest was darkening, and now we knew were really in some deep @#%*. Amazing luck however - in the middle of nowhere, thick forest, we came across a group of people working to cut a brand new trail, and one of the dudes was leaving. So, we followed him, and so we were the first public hikers ever to use this new trail. I hafta look at a new map, and find what the ended up calling it - maybe the "Two Dummies" Trail.”

“treebait - I'd be honored if you painted some of my pics!

mousespray - Bushwhacking in unknown areas is very fun, but risky too. Glad to hear we both made it out, without making the paper! lol!”

“As Amy would say... "Good trip, nobody died".

The stuff of memorys...some of the best trips I ever had went kinda haywire. Sounds like you had a great time. Glad you didnt make the papers.”

“How many stories start up with an "alternative route" - looks like a great trip though. I gotto get out west, where the real mountains are. Nice pics”

“mtnsteve - That is how I looked at it... like an adventure. I was never worried about myself. My thought process was:
1.) Find a path that leads somewhere and take it.
2.) How much can I push my body?
3.) Cool, I never slept under a poncho before!
4.) Don't run, I'm in Cougar country.
5.) I have to either get back to camp or somewhere to inform camp within as soon as possible or within 24 hours to keep others from getting lost or hurt looking for me.

I never felt in danger, just worried about the worry I put the rest of the group through.

Anyway - It was a damn good experience.”

“ynamiynami - The game trails out west are amazing. I've never seen well worn game trails like that on the east coast or midwest. It prolly has something to do with the massive and abundant elk using them.. lol!”

“The best survival tool we have is our brain, too bad so few choose to use it.

Survival is about attitude and using your head.”

“Dat's some BIG kitty $h!t ! >:O”

“Very cool trip and photos BB.
Kudos for not losing your head when lost too.”

“Sweet pics BB, especially the one sunset shot (I forget the title).

Great trip report. Wow, what an adventure! I'm surprised you didn't blame SirPete for getting you lost.”

“nICE REPORT bb! yOUR PICTURES ARE GORGEOUS. cAN'T WAIT TO HEAR MORE ABOUT IT.”

“Buddha Bear, you should come and get lost with us on Roaring Plains.

They got bears!”