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Aug 03, 2020 — Last August's injury prevented me from getting ample Colorado peaks in, so this year I was ready for three weeks of peakbagging catch-up, starting with San Miguel Peak. Initially, I wanted to hike San Miguel, drop back down to Hope Lake, and then complete the Vermilion Peak traverse, but weather prevented me from doing so and I had to come back for that lovely route a few days later. This did allow me to find an alternate descent route instead of the standard route to San Miguel Peak, shown as the southern orange line on my attached map. I don't know which of the two routes I liked more. The standard route had nice views and was straightforward, but the southern route skipped most of the loose crap on the standard route and also passed a couple of pretty unnamed lakes.
I left the Hope Lake Trailhead too late as usual, heading along the very popular trail up to Hope Lake. The lake was gorgeous. I wrapped around its northern perimeter over some Class 2 boulders and then across a small dam on its northern side. From here, I couldn't locate a social trail of any sort, but it was clear where to go. A grassy slope brought me above Hope Lake and continued on varying grass, scree, and Class 2 boulders to just below the summit of San Miguel Peak. Class 2+ boulders led up the northeastern slope, some parts very steep. I wonder if maybe sticking slightly more north would make this section easier, but I'm not sure. Either way, it's a somewhat fun section, if not a little steep and dangerous. This slope leads to a false summit. I followed the summit ridge toward the true summit, but was blocked by a rather treacherous notch. A social trail leads down the north side, and this part is not fun. It's short, but loose and dirty, and leads down to the notch. I continued on the left (south) side of the notch up more Class 2 to the summit.
From the summit of San Miguel Peak, I debated just heading back since clouds were forming, but thought maybe they'd dissipate and I could continue onward to Vermilion Peak. To save some time (really because I was feeling naughty and wanted to try a new route), I thought maybe I could get to the saddle between V 8 and V 9 to start the Vermilion traverse more efficiently. This would ultimately not be the case, but whatever. I dropped down off the summit, heading south. Happy to avoid the notch and excited to get down to some pretty little unnamed lakes below, I enjoyed some big granite boulders as obstacles on the descent. There were some cliffs that needed avoiding, and an occasional backtrack when particularly large boulders prevented easy downclimbing, but overall I thought it was a more pleasant route. The rocks faded away and I continued descending on a grassy slope to the lakes below. I passed between the two and began searching for a way around a rocky ridge on the opposite side of the lower of the two lakes that could potentially end my route-finding fun. Fortunately, with a small Class 2 climb, I made it to the grassy slopes on the other side of this rocky ridge and side-hilled on pleasant terrain with nice views down toward Hope Lake. I toyed with the ideal of descending down to Hope Lake, unsure if my plan would work, since the slope was narrowing and the cliffs becoming steeper. There very well may be a way down to Hope Lake before the spot labeled "Class 3 move" on my attached map, but I couldn't find one, or just didn't start looking early enough. I also removed my GPS route-finding jitter from my map becuase I romped around looking for a way down and made a lot of silliness with my track. My recommendation would just be to stick to the grassy slope until you no longer can. I encountered a Class 3 downclimb move, and then after this, I side-hilled along scree and grass until I stumbled on a social trail. This is the same trail that would lead to the saddle for ther Vermilion Peak traverse, but the clouds were saying no for me today, and I took the trail down to Hope Lake and returned to the trailhead via the (now early afternoon) very crowded trail.
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