Uncompahgre Peak

Peak(s): Uncompahgre Peak
Location: San Juan Mountains, nearish Lake City, CO
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Start time: 3:40 AM
Summit: 6:47 AM
End: 10:18 AM

They say keep Colorado wild and we met some wild people on this hike.

After summiting Capitol Peak, we took a rest day and headed for UMCOMPAHGRE! After stopping in Lake City for some dinner at the Lake City Café, we hoped on Engineer Pass and then took the 4WD road to the trailhead.

Getting to the 4WD Trail Head

Once you take a right off Engineer Pass (coming from Lake City), you’re on the 4WD road to the trailhead. The road is very narrow, includes a few stream crossings, and a couple really tight turns to go up some steep switchbacks. Take your time, watch out for people on dirt bikes, and the crazy amount of RZRs whipping around turns. If you have a vehicle with adequate clearance, take your time, and you should be fine.

Setting up Camp

Once at the trailhead, we got to partake in one of my favorite parts of the outdoors, the people. We met a 71-year-old who had clearly had a few and was out on his RZR for his honeymoon. We talked about where we were each from. He bet he had done something in St. Louis that I never had and proceeded to tell me about the time he did Cocaine while going up the arch. I think it was true since his next question was attempting to confirm that the arch went over the river. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t.

We also met another gentleman at the trailhead who we will call Rice Guy, a fast talker, and a fast drinker. He spent the summer hiking the most challenging 14ers, working the traverses, and working the bong. The man loved to talk. Read on to see why he will forever be Rice Guy.

Lastly, we met a gentleman who was big on the long-distance hikes. As a section hiker, he had done the ACT, CDT, PCT, and others such as the Florida trail and many more I was not familiar with. This guy fascinated me as I would love to do the PCT one day and asked him how he was finding the time with work and everything to which he told me he was 59, retired at 50, and I could do this too, just don’t buy shit you don’t need — what a hero.

We had good conversations and broke bread, asiago three-cheese bread that Rice Guy had got in lake city at Get Some… Groceries earlier that day. If you’re ever in Lake City, stop by and give it a whirl. They bake it daily on-site, we crushed a loaf on the way out of town as well. I learned a lot from these strangers on thru-hiking and what was possible. While meeting new friends, I was was also confused by the number of people who would drive up to the trailhead and then back down after a few minutes. Spoiler alert, there are no amazing views, and you cannot even see Uncompahdre Peak from the trailhead. We then set up camp right by the trailhead/parking lot. There are not a lot of spots, and we kind of made our own. We then invited out rice guy for some more exchanging of words and some rice with pineapple junks. All three of us enjoyed it, and then we called it a night to get some Zs before going for the summit the next morning.

The Hike

Erick and I kept with the early start theme, packed up our tents in the morning, and left the parking lot at 3:40am. Let it be known that for Monday, August 17, 2020, within the scope of the first person to summit that day, I earned the king of the hill!

The hike is relatively easy, with only one technical area about 3.6 miles in assuming you go right at the tower rock figure. Both options have loose rock, but I think going right has less.

Once through the short, challenging section, it is back to easy hiking. It took us three hours and seven minutes to get to the summit. Just in time for some sunrise action! The summit area is huge, and the views were amazing. Shortly after, the section hiker we talked with the night before made it to the summit. We chatted some more and then headed on our way, leaving the summit at 7:30am.

We followed the trail down and ended up taking the other way down, like if you went left at the rock tower and definitely found it to be a little more sketchy with loose rock. After that is was smooth sailing. We started passing several people on their way to the summit. Remember Rice Guy? We ran into him on the way down as well. The first thing he said was that the rice was bad. He most definitely wanted to get his wig split. We asked what was bad? No response. Feeling confused, hurt and with a knot of emotions in our stomach from these harsh words, we went our separate ways and got back to the trailhead at 10:18.

From there, we drove back into town to get some food. We landed on going after Handies Peak next had some time to kill. We stocked up on some asiago three-cheese bread from Get Some… Groceries and looked into renting a RZR as they look like a blast. However, most places only do all day rentals at 300ish a RZR, and everyone we called was out. So we headed on our way to set up camp and get ready for our next and final peak of the trip, Handies.