A Most Unique Backpack Trip

For my dedicated readers who read me regularly, I apologize for being off the grid — we have been gone the past week out of cyberspace and into the wilderness.  But the trip was so full of interesting Colorado stories, that I find I must write about it over multiple posts, so here goes.

Chalk this trip down to an only in Colorado thing. While seeking the summits of Fourteeners is a very well known Colorado thing, just getting to the base, much less the top of them can be a challenge in itself. Chicago Basin, located in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado, is one of the most remote locations to begin a summit climb anywhere in the state.  To get there, one most either walk almost fifteen miles in from a Forest Service trailhead, or like most of the rest of us, take a train to the Needleton trailhead, and begin the six mile, 3000 foot climb up to the basin.

The train you take is none other than the historic Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad Train.  So you begin your journey to summit a Fourteener in downtown Durango or Silverton.  Wanting an earlier start to our hike with plenty of leeway to find a campsite, we started in Durango, where the train leaves at 8:45 a.m.  Backpackers must first load their big backpacks onto a cattle car up front of the train, where we met two guys from California who had made the trip just to summit Mt. Eolus, the one Fourteener in the area they hadn’t knocked off yet.  We had a fun conversation talking about mountain climbing in Colorado before boarding the train with about 20 New Zealanders on a tour of the U.S.

I felt transported back in time, as I sat on the old vinyl bench seats, the black engine pulling the train out of Durango, slowly but surely.  Because of the slope and steam engine that operates the train, it never exceeds 18 miles per hour.  As I sat staring out the window, I could hear the chug-chug of the engine and thought immediately of the book I so adored as a child, “The Little Train That Could.”  Steam periodically is let off from the engine, occasionally spewing drops of fine mist through the open windows as we round the bends.  At each crossing, and sometimes it seemed at random locations, a piercing whistle split the air.

The steep-walled Animas River Canyon came into view, reminding me that we are in fact heading deep into the wilderness.  Tinges of red line its banks, a reminder of the mining activity that spurred the building of the Durango to Silverton line.  Just a month ago, an old mine had spilled millions of gallons of water of toxic mine waste into the Animas River, turning its normally aquamarine water a rusty red.  While the EPA who triggered the spill has worked to clean it up, the rust red along its shored reminds me of the hazards.

Finally, after a 2 hours and 30 minutes, the train slows to a stop along a foot bridge crossing the Animas.  The conductor comes to remind us to make our way up to the front car to deboard the train.  We say good-bye to our newfound Kiwi friends, who wish us luck.  Before the train stops, the conductor quickly briefs us — letting us know there is a pumper car that comes along at 7 a.m. we can hail for emergencies.  Otherwise, we can only expect to find a way out twice a day — either on the 11:30 a.m. train to Silverton or the 3:30 afteroon train to Durango.  He shows us how to signal the trains, by waving our arms in a scissors motion horizontally in front of our waist.  With that, our brief is done and we are dispatched off the train.  Along with six other backpackers, we drag our packs off the box car, and the train quickly pulls us away.  I feel a sense of loneliness, having been dropped off by a train in the wilderness knowing civilization is a long, long away.  With that, we start our long, slow walk up the trail to climb six miles and 3000 feet into Chicago Basin.

To be continued…..