| Upon reading what appeared to be good beta from summitpost.org on approaching the peak from Raton, I had to turn around after 45 minutes heading west to a dead end (gated off private land). To add insult to injury, I had to drive through Red River to Questa and North, totaling 3 hours to get to the access point from the west side of the Sangre de Cristo range. Getting a 12:30pm start wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Not sure if it was nerves or blood pressure from being so pissed, but I felt physically off for the duration of the hike. I seemed to get over it later on that evening when I bagged Mt. Mestas from La Veta Pass. In any event, it was hot out, and the bushwhacking went slowly. The photo on the right shows the ridge access which I followed for a while before abandoning it to take on the true south ridge a bit to the northwest. | |
| I spotted some people in the trees from a distance but was enjoying the solitude so opted to keep quiet. Turns out it was Dave Covill. After a while in the trees at a gentle grade, the upper flanks of the mountain were coming into view and I was inhabiting the sparse tundra of New Mexico. Treeline was about 12,200, though later in the summer I learned there are trees as high as 12,600 in the Truchas Peaks area. Weather was outsanding with no wind or clouds. I strolled leisurely along to the first false summit and to the not-so-far true highpoint about two hours from the start. View of the nearby ranges were fabulous, epsecially that of Venado Peak and Big Costilla to Purgatoire Peak in CO. |
| I tried to hustle down to the TH to get a good start on whatever my next objective (Mt. Mestas) would be en-route to East Spanish Peak the following morning. I was able to salvage the day, but learned an important lesson about taking driving directions from 'joe blow' on the internet. | |