I had no problems sleeping and woke up a little later than normal. That was okay, since I’d only have to hike down the CT a little over 6 miles. So I had breakfast, packed my gear, and headed south towards the Mt Shavano Trail junction. Some nice views along the way and no problems with the hike.

About a mile from the junction, I got my first sight of Mt Shavano as the trail descended down a ridge towards a creek. I looked around for some flat ground to camp so I could have a great view that night. Unable to find anything after a short look around the trail as I hiked, I continued down the trail. I also looked at a flat area before the junction, but no real view presented itself there either. Stupid trees.

As I reached the Mt Shavano Trail junction, I looked around and settled on a open space near the junction. Again, I could have gone up the Mt Shavano trail a bit, but like the trail towards Antero it started to climb sharply after the junction. So I setup camp and had a big ramen dinner to make sure I was prepared for what I assumed would be a long day climbing Mt Shavano and Tabeguache Peak the next day.

I had gone to sleep as early as I could in order to get a start as early as my body would allow. I woke up around 4am and couldn’t get back to to sleep. So I had breakfast, put on my day pack, strapped on my headlamp (having learned my lesson the previous day), and started the slow climb up to Mt Shavano. I was so early, I caught Orion in the sky on the way up. Some of the morning light peaked through the trees as well.

I made note of the water sources on the way up, although there weren’t any near the trail after the 1 mile mark except maybe a trickle from a spring near the saddle.

Slowly, I made my way above treeline and could see the long trail up the valley ahead of me. Nothing too daunting, just the knowledge that it was a long hike and then a sharp right turn that took you up the steep side of Mt Shavano made me know this would be a long day.

Slowly I made my way onto the saddle connecting Mt Shavano to Esprit Point.

I took a chance to take a brief rest as I reached the saddle, but some dark clouds spurned me to continue towards the summit of Mt Shavano as soon as I could. The route wasn’t that steep by that point, but took me over some rough and rocky terrain.

I turned right and made my way slowly up the ridge towards Mt Shavano’s summit. I caught my first glimpse of Tabeguache Peak’s summit to the left of Mt Shavano’s ridge line. Didn’t look that bad… from this angle. 🙂

Focusing on the first goal, I finished the climb to the summit of Mt Shavano.

Mt Shavano 14,229 feet!! My thirteenth Colorado 14er overall and fifth for this trip.

I took a break, had a snack, took a lot of photos, and procrastinated at the summit of Mt Shavano.

Why procrastinate when I had reached the summit?

Well, because I still had to convince myself to continue over to Tabeguache Peak. Shavano was only a stopping point if I wanted to go all the way to the second summit of the day. It was a bit daunting on the map and when seeing it in person it was VERY daunting.

First, you had to descend 600 feet along a very rocky ridge with somewhat vague trails. Then after reaching the nice and flat saddle between the two summits, you have to re-climb 500 feet up to Tabeguache Peak over more rocky terrain, fortunately not quite as bad as the descent from Shavano.

It took me over an hour of resting and procrastinating at the top of Mt Shavano before I decided on what to do…

I had nothing better to do that day, so I’d go for it!!

It was already 1:30pm, so this was going to really take me past sunset. Good thing I had brought my headlamp with me. Fortunately, the dark clouds I had seen on the way up had cleared out, so it didn’t look like I would have any weather problems if I continued over to the second summit.

I put away my trekking poles since this route looked like it would be mostly over large rocks. I made my way slowly down the rocky ridge until I made it to the smooth saddle. I sighed as I looked behind me at the re-climb I had to do, but tried not to think of the re-climb I’d have to do later to get back up Shavano. Not for the first time, I wished they’d just install escalators or zip lines between summits. 🙂

It was like a longer, harder, steeper version of the final traverse over to Mt Antero’s summit.

I looked back and the route back up Shavano didn’t look that bad at that point. Must be the lack of oxygen playing tricks on my mind. 🙂

The trail up to Tabeguache Peak was more civilized, so I pulled out my trekking poles and slowly lumbered up towards the next summit.

By some miracle, I reached the top of Tabeguache Peak and finally stood on the summit with my very tired legs.

Tabeguache Peak 14,155 feet!!! My fourteenth Colorado 14er overall and sixth for this trip.

After celebrating my victory of reaching my second 14er that day for a brief moment, I knew the afternoon was already almost gone.

I started back down the way I came… or so I thought. I almost ended up going down the side of the saddle instead of onto the saddle. I was following a trail, but obviously not the one I came up. Fortunately, I caught my mistake quickly enough that I could shift my path over to reach the saddle before I ended up on the wrong side of the mountain.

Maybe I was just numb by that point, but I made it back to the summit of Mt Shavano without any more problems.

Wooohooo!!! Third 14er of the day and seventh of the trip!!!

Well, I don’t think I’ll count it as another 14er conquered. Doesn’t seem like much of a victory when I pretty much had to re-climb it to get off Tabeguache Peak and back to camp. Maybe it’s worth an asterisk somewhere. 🙂

I did take a super brief break at the top of Mt Shavano before heading down again. Fortunately, it was all downhill from that point, but there were only about 3 more hours of sunlight left and it would definitely be dark well before I reached camp.

I checked my water as I reached the saddle. I was down to a little over 20 ounces. I mixed a batch of Gatorade from powder using that remaining water and then looked for a water source. There was a very small flow of water from a spring at the top of the saddle, but I had a lot of problems trying to get any noticeable amount from it. In a bad move, I decided to continue down to the next known source along the trail. I knew it was a long way, but hoped what I had would last long enough for me to make it down without being too dehydrated.

About 2 miles from camp, I did HEAR some running water, but it looked like it was quite a bit from the trail and over uncertain terrain (and downhill from the trail). Now water-less, I pressed forward to the known source that crossed the trail at about the 1 mile mark.

In the dark, I stumbled down to the stream crossing and filled up my Camelback and then filtered water into my empty Gatorade bottle, gulping down 1 and a half bottles right away. Yes, I was apparently pretty dehydrated by that point.

In retrospect, I should have just taken more time at the spring to collect at least a liter of new water.

Regardless, I continued down to camp after refilling my water. It was near 10 pm before I reached camp and jumped into my tent. Just like after I descended from Mt Antero, I was too exhausted to even think of cooking dinner.

I was also uncertain about what I’d do in the morning, but didn’t feel about thinking about that too much that night. I needed to sleep.

So, with successfully summiting the three 14ers on this part of the Colorado Trail, I had a decision to make the next morning. So, over breakfast and while I packed my gear up, I thought about the options:

1. Continue southward on the CT and continue my thru-hike. It was about 3 days to Monarch Crest before I could resupply.
2. Continue southward until where the CT crossed Highway 50 and then decide if I should continue or get a ride back to my Jeep.
3. Exit out the nearby Shavano/Tabeguache Trailhead and get a ride back to my Jeep.

Weather it was being exhausted from the climb the prior day, just not being motivated enough to do the Collegiate Loop after all, or being more interested in climbing the 14ers than doing the thru hike I made the easiest choice of the three.

After packing my gear, I headed towards the nearest trailhead and called for a ride, a part of me still thinking I should at least try to go down the trail another day before making such a big decision.

But I ended up giving into the temptation of a soft mattress to sleep on and a hot pizza.

Unfortunately, the nearness of roads and towns in the Colorado mountains were very tempting sometimes.

So the thru hike along the Collegiate Loop didn’t seem like it would happen after all. I had three more 14ers on my list. I’d do my best to at least conquer them before I headed home.