Julu 31-August 3
Day 9
San Juan Mountains where we are hiking are of volcanic origin, Sangre de Cristo Range we visited earlier was formed by uplifting. Clear difference in scenery. Mineral deposits brought mining, results of which are still visible in many places. Silverton is located at the bottom of a caldera (part of large San Juan volcanic field). Animas River cuts through it and then flows down to Durango, railroad runs along it.
Staying in Silverton at 2850 masl helped with aclimatization, even if only marginally, and we knew we had to go higher. Next day-hike: 12 km loop, 800 m total ascent to 3790 masl to Island and Ice Lakes. This is far better training before multi-day trek than anything we could do in Chicago. We followed the same strategy that worked for us in the past. The initial plan was to go just to Ice Lake, but we felt well and listened to other hikers recommending Island Lake detour. No regrets. Now in beautiful mountains, valleys and creeks, alpine meadows in full bloom, no heavy backpacks. We also got some training in rain showers, hail and thunders.
Day 10
The weather was not too good in the morning bringing rain and lightnings to the area. Not good for hiking, not above tree-line. We decided to visit local mines which there are many around Silverton. We started with self-guided tour of Mayflower Gold Mill: old buildings filled with machinery and tools. Plenty of interesting artifacts from 1929-1945. Gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper ore was brought here for processing, some by aerial tram connecting mines higher on mountain slopes. Next stop was guided tour of Old Hundred Gold Mine which history goes back to 1872 (last gold dreams finally shattered by 1973). We visited tunnels drilled into the mountain to collect ore dropped down through vertical shaft from mines above. We finished the afternoon milling around Silverton and then at Gatorfest organized by owners of Columbine Roadhouse.
Day 11
Quite rested after more lazy day, we were ready to push it harder again to Highland Mary Lakes with return via Sector 24 of Colorado Trail and Continental Divide Trail. 13 km loop, 640 m total ascent, to 3840 masl. Bad road to trailhead and again we parked before particularly damaged part. There were many people until the lakes and almost nobody further on, where mountain views were even better. Not a bad scenery for a workout. Kind of boring at the end to follow well established trails, so we looked for and found a shortcut with wet-crossing to get back to our car parked along the road.
Day 12
Keeping with “on and off” strategy, we stayed at our base in Silverton for entire day to rest and prep for the trek. We knew from our road trip to Canada and Alaska (we managed only one short 3-day backpacking there) that switching from “road trip” to “trekking” requires extra time (a day). Mostly to pull all necessary stuff out of the car storage and pack our backpacks. Surprisingly, we had everything we needed. We attended Gatorfest in the evening with music, food and controlled burning of gator sculpture.