From Jennings Creek Trailhead

Tabeguache Peak and Mount Shavano are the southernmost fourteeners of the Sawatch Range and are often hiked together.  I was very excited about hiking both peaks because that would mark the exact halfway point to my completion of the Colorado Fourteeners. Two weeks earlier, I hiked up Mount Antero in beautiful weather.  The weather was also fantastic this weekend and there was even less snow.  A friend from work, Bill Snodgrass, and I left Westminster around 6:15 am and drove to a quaint cafe outside of Poncha Springs to meet one of Bill’s friends, Steve Johnson.  Both Steve and Bill are veteran hikers having finished the fourteeners long ago.  But they were still up for a hike of Tabeguache and Shavano.
 
We drove up a bumpy dirt road to the Jennings Creek trailhead and started hiking around 10:20 am.  According to a warning at the trailhead, the trail was eroded and an alternate route on the other side of Shavano was suggested.  Unfortunately, it was getting late so we opted not to turn around.   The trail indeed is in bad shape.  Higher up, in a skeletal forest of dead evergreen trees, the main trail splits several times into a wide-open eroded space.   It’s impossible to tell one “trail” from the other. This obviously, wasn’t caused by human traffic; it’s just naturally eroded.  Hiking on it doesn’t help though.

Finally, we emerged from the lower slopes and were greeted with this views of both fourteeners (l-r Tabeguache and Shavano).  From here, I realized how long this hike really was going to be.  To get to Shavano, we’d have to hike a giant horseshoe of a ridge.

This is a great time of year to hike.  We only passed two other people all day.  The day was perfectly clear, there was little wind, and the weather promised to hold all day.  We also saw some mountain goats before arriving at this saddle.

After taking a lunch break, we headed left towards Tabeguache Peak.  Bill and Steve decided that they would not continue on to Shavano since they’d already been a few times so I decided I would eventually get in front of them, zoom over Tabeguache, hike up to Shavano, then meet them back on top of Tabeguache.
 
The route to Shavano is semi-straightforward.  The trail disappears and re-appears from time to time on the talus slopes below Tabeguache.  Once you arrive the highpoint of the ridge before summiting Tabeguache, you can see that the summit of Tabeguache is not quite as easy as the typical Sawatch fourteener.  There’s a fair amount of route-finding necessary in order to pick the best route.  It’s not too hard but it certainly is more challenging than most.  I paused only for a moment on the summit, not taking any time to sit and rest. It was getting kind of late.  It was already 3:15. So, I bounded down the other side of Tabeguache which had a fair amount of deep snow on it and began the long ridge ascent to the summit of Shavano.  The wind was pretty hard on Shavano so I put on my jacket.  I continued on past two false summits and arrived about 50 minutes later at the top.  I paused only for about 5 minutes for pictures and zoomed back down.  I was kind of bummed about not being able to spend a lot of time on the summit but I needed to get back to Steve and Bill who were waiting on the top of Tabeguache.  At the saddle between the two fourteeners, I took about a 2 minute break to finish up some food.  Then I reluctantly began the slog back up to the summit of Tabeguache through deep snow.  I was back on top with Bill and Steve at 5:15 and requested about a ten minute break before descending. I was really tired!

The view from the summits today was fabulous. We could see forever. We were able to pick out at least seventeen fourteeners including San Luis, Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre, the Blanca Group, the Crestones, the Maroon Bells, Castle Peak, and the nearby Sawatch Peaks. Steve even saw a giant meteor streak through the sky.

We started heading back down around 5:30.  We realized that we would be hiking in the dark very soon!

We were able to make it down off the talus to the lower ridge before we needed our flashlights. We were a little worried about finding the trail again since we had so obscure during the day. Strangely enough, we found the trail right away and easily followed it all the way back down. The stars were shined brilliantly. I hadn’t hiked off a mountain in the dark before. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Standard Approach up Baldwin Gulch

Mount Antero is known for its gemstones, notable quartz and aquamarine.   Unfortunately, when I went, there was snow everywhere so it made gem searching rather difficult.  On the good side, I practically had the peak to myself.   There was a party of five hikers but I passed them and got far enough in front where I was able to enjoy a 45-minute lounge in the warm sun on the summit.

This outstanding view of Antero occurs just after turning off highway 24.  The aspens were great this weekend but they were definitely on the way out.  The best aspen weekends were the previous two in which I soloed Belford and Missouri.

I got a fairly late start on Antero.  I left home around 6:30 am and, because of the long 4×4 road up Baldwin Gulch, I didn’t actually start hiking until 10. No matter though, I was the first on the summit and still had plenty of time when I got back to visit St. Elmo.  Plus, the summer thunderstorm season was over. There would be no weather troubles on this perfect day!
 
The road is not rough at all.  The worst part is at the very beginning. So if you can handle that, you can get up as high as you want.  There is one stream crossing but it’s a breeze too.  A lot of people park at the small parking lot before crossing the stream.  I continued on.  The road was even smoother past the creek!  However, snow patches were becoming more common.   I parked about halfway up the road mainly because I was itching to start the hike but I also didn’t feel like getting onto some slick snow.  The roads turned out to be OK all the way up to the base of Antero.  Now, you can continue up the jeep trail on the slopes of Antero.  The road is in very good shape.  However, it’s very very narrow.  There’s barely enough room for one car.  I’d hate to meet another car coming down!  If you go, pick a Tuesday and go early, you’ll hopefully have the place to yourself.  This day, however, the slopes of Antero were not an option for 4×4′s; large drifts lay across the roads.
 
Hiking up these switchbacks is so easy.  It makes Antero a pleasure to hike up – if you’re in the mood for a mellow stroll at high altitude, which I was.  However, some of the drifts were pretty high so I ended up postholing quite a bit.  I got tired of this and figured if I was postholing, I might as well do it on a more direct route.   So I skipped the final two or three switchbacks and hiked directly up the gully to the highest road. It was actually quite easy. At this point, there was a climbers trail heading up to the upper slopes.  The road continued on.  I slowly crossed a huge snowdrift and hiked up the trail to the flat area at about 12,800.   From here you have fantastic and dramatic views of Shavano and Tabeguache.

At this point, the hiking was very easy for a while.  There was very little elevation gain as the trail rejoined the road and the road swung around to the east side of the mountain and began a few more small switchbacks.  I’d passed the 5 climbers when I exited onto the climbers trail and they were nowhere in sight.  Before beginning the switchbacks, I sat down and took a break, ate, and took some pictures, including a self portrait. After climbing up the final switchbacks, you arrive at a wide saddle. At this saddle is a small parking lot (sort of) for cars. This is as high as you can go in an automobile and if you make it this far, Antero is within 30 minutes! Of course, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who would call this an official climb of Antero. Anyway, from this saddle, you get the first view of the final ridge that leads to the summit.
 
The ridge has some fun scrambling on it but you certainly don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I went over the top of the ridge most of the way but wasn’t interested in doing anything to difficult or dangerous since I was by myself. The wind started picking up here quite a bit. I had to put on my gloves and hat. At the end of the semi-scrambling, you begin to gain the final altitude. The ridge widens dramatically to a big talus slope similar to Mount Princeton or Grays Peak.

Note the trail that leads to the right around the sub-peak.  This is a very deceptive trail!  I decided I would try to spice up the hike by taking this trail back to the flats.  Boy, was that a mistake!   The trail indeed started leading there and it was easy hiking.  Then suddenly, it ended!  Either it was hike all the way back up the trail to the saddle and hike back down the road, or descend to the road below.  Descending was certainly shorter but it looked like a messy talus hike.  It was!  It took me quite a while to get back down to the road.  If you’re ever tempted to take this trail, don’t!  It’s not worth it.  The road back offers much easier hiking and nicer views.
 
After taking this picture and a mega panoramic picture that ranged all the way from Shavano to Princeton, I called home, ate, and took about a 15 minute catnap.  The wind was very calm up here.  Very pleasant.  After I hiked back down to the aformentioned talus field, I arrived at the high road on Antero.  Instead of taking the road all the way back, I took the direct route and followed a gully out.   It turned out to be a good choice (though my 35mm Canon camera took about a 200 foot tumble – thank goodness for my case) and I was out in no time.  I sauntered down the rest of the road back to my jeep then headed to St. Elmo.   St. Elmo turned out to be a nice side-trip.  There’s also several other ghost towns in that area – Iron City, Tincup, and Romely (I think it was Romely).