Hike Cataract Peak, Carson Peak, Bent Peak, Coney Benchmark Gunnison National Forest, CO

Aug 12, 2023 — There was dried snot all over my pillow. I'd slept for 10 hours and still felt like trash. My head hurt a lot. Finally, after a few days of this, I begrudgingly admitted to myself that I was quite sick, but there was no way I was going to let it ruin my summer trip. After downing an unhealthy amount of ibuprofen and caffeine I started toward Lake City, CO to meet my friends. I'd committed months ago to pacing Whiley for part of her High Five 100 ultra, an insane undertaking consisting of 40k+ vertical gain and 100 miles. The plan was that I'd hang out with friends at camp while we waited for Whiley to reach a checkpoint, likely late in the day, at which point I'd join her for 20+ miles when she needed company most. I figured I had the whole day to rest and decide later if my immune system would allow this.

Upon my arrival at the checkpoint, the Cataract Gulch Trailhead, I found Whiley resting in Ben's van. She was very behind schedule. Our friend Luke had dropped out of the race, which I thought was absurd since last I'd checked he was among the lead runners. After gleeful greetings and ample warnings of my illness, I was informed of a simultaneous blizzard and thunderstorm on a couple of the peaks the night before, a tiring and dangerous combination that delayed many of the racers, many of whom decided to call it quits. I was thrilled I hadn't paced during that section, but this left the next stretch potentially very wet and cold. Low-hanging clouds hugged the mountains around us. Certainly, this was a bleak situation for the racers. I sat with the group, prepared for my nice relaxing morning while my sinuses cleared. "So, want to pace Whiley now?" Ben asked. I laughed. He smiled. "I'm pretty sick. And does Whiley even want to keep going? I don't think I even have a pair of pants with me," were my quick and clumsy responses, sloppy attempts to avoid the looming, horrible shift in my day's trajectory. I had illness-suppressing drugs. Whiley did want to keep going. And I did have pants. I had no other excuses, so we packed up and started out from the Cataract Gulch Trailhead.

The huge silver lining of pacing Whiley was that I had the opportunity to bag a handful of 13ers in one traverse, complete with a free shuttle. The summits on this hike included Cataract Peak, Tundra Top, Carson Peak, Bent Peak, Coney Benchmark, Peak 13256, and unranked Peak 13138. When setting up the shuttle, place a second car at the Camp Trailhead, here: 37.91701, -107.33273. Any vehicle can reach both trailheads.

We ascended along the Cataract Gulch Trail, which parallels a gorgeous creek for its majority. Often, the Cataract Gulch Trail is steep and has some light overgrowth, but it was in excellent shape and fortunately all the rain had already evaporated from the hanging leaves, so we managed to stay dry so far. There were a few easy creek crossings, we passed a couple of pretty waterfalls, and small meadows created clearings that offered a view toward Sunshine Peak and Redcloud Peak across the valley.

The Cataract Gulch Trail creeped above tree line, entering a unique landscape comprised of lumpy, colorful tundra and rocky talus. Continuing south, the trail would ultimately reach Cataract Lake, but I started getting antsy about a couple of 13ers just to the east, Cataract Peak and Tundra Top. Cataract Lake was part of Whiley's race route, and as her pacer I felt I should stay with her. She laughed, saying she'd be upset if I didn't go get the 13ers. Permission granted, I left the Cataract Gulch Trail well before reaching the lake, heading toward a gully that separates the two peaks. I had no idea if this would be a viable route, but it seemed reasonable enough and would provide the fastest access to Cataract Peak. After some very minor brush, I stumbled onto an unexpected and really well-defined animal trail that led me painlessly up the north side of the gully. The animal trail fizzled out a bit before reaching the ridgeline separating the 13ers, so I just headed north toward Cataract Peak.

There seem to be two approaches from Cataract Peak, so I did both. On my ascent, I headed up a social trail that makes an ascending traverse up a steep scree slope, but it's defined enough that it's not too tedious. Despite the trail, the slope feels steep enough that I wouldn't recommend taking a slip, particularly toward the top. I descended using the west side route of Cataract Peak, a slightly more tame option. It has some light Class 2 and is generally more rocky. Both options were fine and straightforward, in my opinion.

Tundra Top was next, a quick hike with a short Class 2 section. Its true summit is difficult to locate since it's a wide tundra-topped peak. Hence the name, I suppose. I continued along the rim toward Carson Peak, to my left a steep cliff, my right a gentle slope. Initially this was a straightforward tundra hike with lovely views all around, but as I descended to the saddle separating Tundra Top from Carson Peak, the ridge became more rugged. Now the gentle slope that was the right side of the ridge was steepening into a more treacherous incline. I met back up with Whiley at some little eroded pinnacles and we started together across the crux of the day's route. Although you could drop to the right on the slope to avoid the crux, this would add a bunch of extra vertical to regain the crest. Doing so would reduce this entire route to Class 2, but we were content to give it a go. Fortunately, the ridge was dry enough to allow passage, but neither of us liked the loose nature of this exposed nonsense. First was a Class 3 short down-climb, followed by two small wannabe-knife edges. Both of these were too eroded on the crest for my comfort, so I preferred to cling to the ridge's crumbling south side while Whiley gingerly stuck to the crest. Past this crux, we ascended a more calm bit of Class 2, wrapping just below the ridge crest, which was still cliffy for a short time until giving way to tundra up to the summit.

Carson Peak was a nice perch for viewing the traverse so far, plus what was to come. We continued east, a couple of short Class 2/2+ moves along the way before we were strolling on glorious sweeping tundra again. Bent Peak was next, which we found was best accessed by ascending to its south side to avoid a talus field and then gain the summit from there. From here we could see the ghost town of Carson, as well as ATVers and Colorado Trail hikers at Carson Pass. We descended from Bent Peak on its rocky east ridge, but soon picked up an old mining road to get down to the pass. For Whiley's race, a checkpoint required us to hike down to Carson Ghost Town and then return to the ridge, but I excluded this from my route description and stats. I only mention it because I was happy to see the ghost town, a well-preserved set of buildings that normally requires 4WD to reach.

The ascent from Carson Pass to Coney Benchmark began on a dirt road which ascends quite high, but we opted to take the Colorado Trail as soon as we reached its junction. We both always prefer the trail option when offered. The Colorado Trail makes a few lengthy switchbacks sort of unnecessarily before finally spitting us out back on the road. We took this road to the summit of Coney Benchmark since the Colorado Trail totally avoids the summit and wraps beneath it. A storm was rolling in, but we were delighted it had taken this long to start raining since we predicted we would be drenched all day.

After dropping down from Coney Benchmark, we rejoined the Colorado Trail. The remainder of the traverse along the rim followed the trail, except for two short detours to reach the unnamed 13ers farther along. These were little more than lumps, and since the Colorado Trail nearly reaches both summits, I scampered off to bag them both whiley Whiley stuck to the trail. She definitely wasn't interested in adding unnecessary vertical to her race. I found the rim traverse to be fantastic, gorgeous tundra and wide-open views in all directions, nearby San Juan 14ers poking the sky, and Lake San Cristobal near Lake City seen in the distance. We even hiked through a herd of sheep, and fortunately the rancher was there to keep his dogs at bay so we could pass through without getting barked at.

Before reaching the junction where we would pick up Camp Trail #476, the Colorado Trail bends away. We left it here and continued down a tundra slope and then through little grove of trees. The Camp Trail is not easy to locate at first, since there's nothing more than a sign indicating its junction and no obviously treaded trail. After locating it, following the singletrack was a no-brainer. Well-maintained, we switchbacked for miles down to the Camp Trail Trailhead. Along the way were some open views toward the rim traverse we'd hiked, but it's mostly just a pleasant forest walk. We almost ran into a moose on the trail because of the dying sunlight, a scare we were definitely not prepared for. It was dark by the time we got back, and I couldn't believe Whiley still had 20+ miles to go. She was cheered on by the race crews when we arrived, she joked: "He was a horrible pacer. He left me to go get peaks and kept telling me to go faster." Although I appreciated her humor even after her 80 miles of delirious racing, my throbbing sickness headache beckoned me to bed. I was just happy I didn't have to go run up more 13ers in the middle of the night like she was about to do.