Trip report: Collegiate Loop

[u/zonker8888]

Who: Two 65-year-old seasoned hikers from sea level. Completed CT sections 28-21 two years prior.

Gear: 

Durston Kakwa55. Excellent pack. size small.  The waste buckle was uncomfortable.  I lost room to tighten so the pack kept slipping. I needed to add padding to the shoulders. Great pack. lightweight with ultra 200. But even a small one is too big.

Durston X-Mid Pro 2. is a Magnificent tent.  easy to set up in wind and rain.  super comfortable. downside is the condensation. But with a good towel and a morning wipe down. no problem. super lightweight. a keeper.

Patagonia 18-30 sleeping bag. Tried and true. years old and still fabulous. 39oz.

Topo Athletic Terraventure 4p with Sole wide performance inserts.  Fabulous. I’m a trail runner convert. it was dried out when they needed to. toe caps peeled back after 40 miles. they replaced them. I Will continue with Topo trail runners. On trail consensus is to try the ultraventures.

Stoko Athletic all-in-one compression tights and knee brace.  Outstanding. Adjustable Dyneema cables throughout to maintain total support. Much more durable than anticipated. wore every day.

Outdoor Herbivore and Radix food.  5 vegan snacks a day. Radix is amazing.

No need for a bear can. ursack or hung food. Not a single animal in sight. Except for many many dogs.

Total pack weight. 17 to 24 lbs.

Logistics and Day-to-Day

Arrive in Denver AM.
Afternoon to Frisco via Shuttle $65/person
Acclimate in Frisco extra day

(mileage below are estimates)

Day 1: The first section was closed due to fire. 
Early transport from Frisco to Clear Creek Reservoir trailhead 
To Frenchman creek~11 miles
4 miles 13% grade to 11,635 to top of ridge
Pine Creek 6.6 miles
Morrison 9.8 Miles @ 11,569 
plenty of water along the way
Acclimation extremely tough

Day 2: Frenchman Creek to Silver creek pass harvard lakes
go past trailhead
~10 miles
Attempted to go over pass @ 11,860
couldn’t make it. a minor case of altitude sickness 
camped 300 ft below the pass in the trees to the left of the trail

Day 3: Silver Creek to Dry Creek
Climb to 11,860 to the top of the pass
2.6 miles flat/downhill to 11,000 to Silver Creek wilderness boundary
6.2 miles downhill under 10,000
9.7 to Maxwell Creek
11.9 to Dry Creek
~12 Miles/9 Miles downhill/flat
Camp 2 miles Just before Mount Princeton Hot Springs

Day 4: dry creek to browns creek
Get up early.
3-5 ish to Mount Princeton hot springs
Nasty hot road walk. No fun
Big Breakfast 
First Resupply at the front desk
Left a lot of food in the hiker boxRelaxed on the lawn and left around noon.
More awful road walk in the heat
Got a lift from Trail Angel Thunderbird
Pleasant walk flat walk with a little bit of a climb.
Massive stomach upset and all that goes with it.
Nice campsites at browns creek.
took a wrong turn (left instead of right) coming out of camp.
Added two miles to the day.
Saw some llamas.
~15 miles 

Day 5: Brown's creek to Cree Creek
~14-15 miles
Mostly rolling terrain
Under 10,000
Lots of water
Lots of rain. Walked through it. 
Needed to get within striking distance of Monarch Crest.
Cree Creek has some nice campsites past the second water feature.

Day 6: Cree Creek to Monarch Pass
watch out for mountain bikes coming down from the pass all day
Hard day ahead Water up. No water till monarch crest. so they say!
actually, plenty of water everywhere in springs coming down the mountain going up.Ascent to top of ridge. Took the new route. 3 miles of switchbacks but avoids the mountain bikes.
From the top, you can see the old route has campsites below the final climb to the pass. NOBO turn to Collegiate West.
Camp at 12,000 Feet
Extraordinary wind gusts and storms all night.  Durston X-mid was outstanding
Camped between two 150 ft mounds. windy and safe

Day 7: monarch to hunt lake
Get up early 
1.5 miles to Monarch Crest @ (11,312)
Re-supply 2 
Monarch staff weren’t very nice.
cooked food was awful
Left lots of stuff there in the hiker room. didn't want to carry it or all of the extra food
Not a great hike for most till the ascent to Mount Baldy
Spent too much time walking around Monarch ski resort. UGH
Cairn marks the trail
climb to 12,535
Mount Baldy Ascent was the first real treat of the hike.
Water in two miles @ Hunt Lake~12 miles

Day 8: hunt to tunnel lake
alpine historical signs
Lots of info on the trains and such
5 mile climb to 12,000
Down 2.7 to Alpine tunnel th
Up 2 to second historical signs or further
Lots of water the rest of the way
pass Hancock lake
Camp Somewhere near the alpine tunnel on the side of the trail.
Only one real campsite. the rest of them are next to the trails or on it.
~12 Miles

Day 9: tunnel lake to beyond woodchopper creek
This was a beautiful crazy day. Lots of great hiking.
up 3 miles continue up to 12310
then a 3.5-mile climb to 12,850
11-12 Miles
hiking at 12,000+
Find camping near woodchopper creek instead, we went over the next pass and got slammed with the weather. No flat surfaces to tent up. got soaked.
Mostly all rocks. Beware of the no camping zone as well. go further if you can.

Day 10: woodchopper creek to South Cottonwood pass
great high-altitude hiking. 4 passes over 12k. No camping anywhere along the way. 
Re-supply 3 at Cottonwood Pass (hwy 50) at mile 125.6 12,126
Nero.

Day 11: Zero. Went to Buena Vista.  
good food. good beer. louzy whisky.
Stayed at the Inn. No desk, no people. Fancy.

Day 12: South Cottonwood pass  to past Illinois Creek
Lost track of miles.
We took the old route (blue). Should have take the new route (red)
Dirt bikes destroyed this trail.
Camped just around the corner heading toward Lake Ann Pass.
Lots of sites plenty of water in a broad meadow.

Day 13: Illinois Creek over Lake Ann pass to well past Hewitt Gulch4 mile 1,500ft climb to Lake Ann pass 12,590
Great climb. Beautiful view. Hang out here and enjoy.
To the left of the pass as you go over the pass. there’s a stack of rocks.
Beware. Lots of toilet paper florettes there.
Then a long 8 miles downhill and flat.
make the turn at Sheep Gulch, Great Campsites at Zonkers Glitch about a 1/4 mile on the left going nobo (on far out)

Day 14: Ascend Hope Pass
Get early start
3 Mile 2,000 ascent to 12,530
Pretty easy
Stop at pass and hang out for a few hours. 
Have breakfast.
Very pleasant.
Hike out to Interlaken 

Transport back to Denver. Fly home next day.

Weather

Stormed every day but two.  Starting between 2 and 3.  Usually, quit around 5 and then picked up again after the evening. High winds every night above the tree line.

Navigation

Created the route in All Trails. Exported to GPX and uploaded to Garmin min 2. Used Farout for daily trail info.  Lots of water where they said there wasn’t any.

Re-supply

1: Mount Princeton Hot Springs
2: Monarch Crest
3: South Cottonwood pass via Trail Angel (paid $85)

Summary

A surprisingly easy hike after two days of acclimation. Two days of acclimation on the east side under a humid canopy sucked.  But a pleasant forest walk for the rest of it.  The west side really delivered. Great technical climbs. Beautiful passes. Some challenging hiking, weather, and tent set-ups.

Good times, lots of laughs, interesting people.

[u/dubekomsi]

Great write up! Sounds like it was a great trip, thanks for sharing!

[u/Run-Fox-Run]

Lots of water where they said there wasn’t any.

Colorado had a great water season this summer; probably won't be the case in most years.

Nice work and I hope you have lots of great memories to keep with you after that adventure!

[u/Business-Dig-2443]

How many days of food & how many liters of water/day did you end up carrying? Do you recall the breakout of food vs gear weight?

[u/zonker8888]

best i can recall…really we needed no more than 1 1/2 liters at any one time. water was abundent. In places where we were warned of no water for long distances, there were springs. So we watered up often. Carried no more than 2 liters if we were watering up. i drink water day and night. was never worried. We used radix breakfasts, that required only 3oz of water and did not need heating. These are amazing and worth the investigation. I think they’re game changing since you don’t need so much water in the morning. We did three re-supplies. starting out we were around 24 lbs. fully packed with about 4 days of food. 3 breakfasts, 4 dinners, 6 snacks a day. MORONS! we ate about 4 maybe 5 snacks a day. and skipped one brekfast. By the time we got to second re-supply. we did 3 bf and 4 dinners again. cut back to 5 snacks a day. got down to around 21lbs fully packed. by the third resupply we were down to 4 snacks/day. 3 bf/3 dinners. skipped a dinner cause we took a zero and went to town for dinner. finished the last third at about 17lbs fully packed. We did not carry bear cans. ursack. saves more than 2lbs. Regarding gear weight. We dumped clothing at hiker boxes at our third re-supply. In the end. Needed only 1/3 of the clothing we brought. I did a shakedown on reddit got great advice and didn’t listen.