Colorado Mountain Expeditions in the News

Colorado Trailblazers
Durango pair takes the edge off hard hiking days

August 25, 2006
By Gregory Moore | Herald Outdoors Editor

It may not have been the greatest show on earth, but for Beartown - an old mining camp near the headwaters of the Rio Grande just over Stony Pass from Silverton - it was quite a show.

"This is a bit like a three-ring circus," said Lisa Turner of Durango, who was directing the operation.

"Yes," agreed Holly Woodring of Mancos, who was starting dinner preparations to feed 20 people. "And this is the Big Top."

The circus analogy is popular with Pete and Lisa Turner, who spend their summers guiding supported hikes on The Colorado Trail.

Starting each June on Kenosha Pass, and assisted by an able crew that on this trip included Woodring, Jayne Griffith, Joan Kellogg, Charlotte Aycrigg and Marcus Appleton, the couple spend seven weeks working their way west to Durango.

And then they turn around, head back to Creede and do the popular San Juan Mountains stretch of the trail again.

Along the way the Turners shepherd, feed, encourage and form friendships with all kinds of folks who come to experience life on the trail.

"A circus? Hardly," said Don Wallace of Manitou Springs, a veteran of many miles on The Colorado Trail. "Pete, Lisa and their crew are the finest people you can imagine. Nobody can do this like they do, and to top it off, the food is amazing."

Helpful. Safe. Personable. A real bargain at the price. The positive descriptions poured from the 14 hikers who were spending from a week to five weeks on the trail with the Turners.

"Look, I was a middle school principal at Cheyenne Mountain for forever, and after organizing camping trips with the kids year after year, I know how hard it is to do it right," Wallace added. "To wake up in my tent to the aroma of blueberry pancakes already done - I can tell you there's no other way to do this trail."

A balancing act

Wallace was an early arrival in the stream of hikers who arrived in camp, collected personal gear, and set up small tents in the meadow.

And while dinner neared completion, he relaxed with a cold drink in the tent with his fellow trekkers, and waited his turn at a hot shower in a small enclosure set up a few modest yards from the main camp.

"That shower is probably the most popular aspect of our trips," said Pete Turner, who added that the crew heats the water with a propane blaster. "I'm not sure you need to shower very often out here, but human beings being human, they like to take one every day, especially when it's hot and dry."

Fabulous food, hot showers and a staff that bends over backwards at every camp - it's enough to make one wonder if the Turners' trail clients were doing more R&R than hiking.

But that was not the case. Hikers on the Turners' trips (the Durango couple are the "official" supported hike guides of The Colorado Trail Foundation) "pay to play" by putting in an average of 17 or 18 miles each day on the trail. That's a pace that most would be hard-pressed to match on a self-supported backpacking trek.

It's also a pace that makes Lisa Turner's impromptu foot-care clinic the second most popular stop in camp after the shower.

"This week has been fantastic," said Elliot Forsyth, one of the few hikers who could boast of blister-free feet three days into his week of hiking. "This is some intense hiking, and the days are not easy. But they've all been spectacularly beautiful."

It's that beauty and sense of adventure - and some close encounters of the furred kind - that keep the job from feeling like a job to Pete Turner, a fifth-generation Durango resident who grew up in the outfitting business.

"Today was an epic day for wildlife, which was just what we wanted," he said. "We saw a moose, some bighorn sheep, and a huge herd of elk, maybe 400 animals."

The sightings - and a day of fine weather - helped keep the mood of the group buoyant a day after they spent 40 minutes prone on the tundra above treeline at Carson Saddle as a violent thunderstorm raged overhead.

"That wasn't a lot of fun," said Lisa Turner, "but it was something we have to be prepared to deal with up here. Thunderstorms are just a normal part of the summer weather pattern in these mountains."

The good mood continued into a pasta dinner, but it was was early to bed for all hands, as Thursday's agenda promised another long day on the trail with some of the best scenery on the entire Colorado Trail.

Another day, another move to make

Reveille on the trail is 5 a.m., and breakfast was on the table by 5:30.

One hour later the trucks were being packed and the hikers were scanning a clearing sky to the south after a night of rain and more thunderstorms.

"Our goal is to have everybody on the trail by 7 a.m.," Lisa Turner said. "Especially when we have a long day like today ahead of us."

Pete, who led Thursday's hike along with Kellogg while Lisa and the rest of the crew moved camp on muddy roads to Molas Lake, described the day's hike to the group before setting out.

On the map it looked like a short leg to the top of the Continental Divide and a jaunt down the drainage of Elk Creek to the Animas River, followed by another leg to camp at Molas Lake.

In hiking terms it unfolded like this: four miles and 1,600 feet of elevation gain before a midmorning break for snacks; over nine miles and 3,600 feet of joint-pounding downhill trekking with one stop for lunch and another break before crossing the river near Elk Park; another four-mile climb 1,500 feet above the river canyon where cold drinks, hot showers and dinner would be ready in camp.

Within the first mile the sun was clear of the morning's clouds, and layers of waterproof nylon and fleece disappeared into the hikers' day packs, and water bottles emerged.

A pair of elk could be seen in an emerald meadow, with more moving on a ridgeline high to the north. As the day warmed the hikers found their pace, began climbing toward the divide and watched as the scenery changed with every switchback on the trail.

In aesthetic terms the day defied description. The views were endless at the top, where The Colorado Trail merged with the Continental Divide trail for a mile-long walk in the sky.

Elk Creek greeted the group with wildflowers and waterfalls, and a close-up view of the Grenadier Range that made one hiker wish he could camp right there and explore for a day or two.

Into alpine fir and aspen, the trail descended steadily, heading into the occasional open meadow that revealed more postcard-worthy glimpses of the peaks.

Some hikers stayed up front with Turner, while others trailed with Kellogg, who acted as sweep for the day and stayed in contact with Turner by radio. In between, other clients had plenty of room to find their own pace, turning a group activity into a day of solitude and bliss on the trail.

Dick Severson, a wildflower fanatic from Rio Verde, Ariz., was one of the frontrunners. And while he occasionally found himself ahead of the group, he was never hiking alone.

"When my neighbor found out I was hiking the entire Colorado Trail this summer, he thought it would be a good way to raise some money for a charity in Mesa (Arizona) called Sunshine Acres," Severson said.

Sunshine Acres takes in abandoned and abused children and gives them a home and a college education, Severson added.

"We put on a 20-minute slide show on The Colorado Trail that turned into a two-hour question and answer session. I went in thinking I was going to be happy to raise, say, $5,000 in pledges. But we raised $60,000."

Norm Montgomery of Denver found the pace in the middle of the pack to his liking.

Montgomer, who at 76 was one of the oldest hikers in the group, had some unfinished business on The Colorado Trail, which he began hiking in 2001 and hoped to finish a year ago.

But he was pulled off the trail near Stony Pass in July 2005 after a thunder and hail storm left him chilled to the bone.

"There was a truck in camp making a delivery - one of the camp trucks needed a new tire - and Pete looked at me and said, 'Norm, you're going down to the ranch for a hot shower. We'll see you later,'" Montgomery said. "I was hypothermic. I couldn't even eat. And I stayed in that shower at Pete and Lisa's place for 20 minutes. It was the best shower I ever had."

Determined to complete the trail in 2006, Montgomery began preparing for his remaining two weeks of hiking in January.

"It isn't as easy to get in shape as it used to be," he said. "I have had to forego my beer in the evening."

But Montgomery, just a pound over his college football playing-weight of 176 pounds, brought the same determination to the trail that he needed to be competitive as the smallest linebacker in the Big-10 when he was a starter for the Perdue team that broke Notre Dame's 50-game win streak in 1950. His steady pace never faltered.

On with the show

It was a tired group of hikers that came into camp at Molas by dinnertime.

But Mexican food and margaritas revived everyone, and dinner turned into a celebration for both the hikers who were finished with their week of hiking, and the ones who would be back on the trail for the final stretch by Monday of the next week.

Happy with another good week in the backcountry, Pete Turner congratulated each of them, but in a quiet moment away from the group asked one question he has not been able to fully answer in his years on the trail.

"What do you think? Is this extreme hiking?" he asked.

It's a difficult question to answer, because while the mind - filled with a full day of indelible images of the San Juans - wants to say no, every twinge and ache in the ankles and knees says yes with emphasis.

"I think that's enough hiking for me," said Tracy Jennings, who teaches in the business school at CU Boulder. "It's been more difficult than I expected. Beautiful, yes, but more difficult. Now my summer vacation really starts."

Larelise Kintz of Boise, Idaho, said it was a tough question to answer, but decided the answer really didn't matter.

"I think this is just what I was looking for," she said, adding that she didn't grow up hiking and camping, and just discovered her love of the outdoors after moving to Idaho.

"I came here with high expectations, and Pete and Lisa exceeded them. It's so obvious that everyone on the crew loves what they're doing. I've already told my dad that I'm going to have to come back and do another part of the trail with him."

For the Turners, the celebration would be short-lived. They had just a couple of days to clean up and restock their gear, shop for the next week's food and supplies and get ready to be back at Molas with their next group of hikers on Monday.

"Sometimes I do feel a little like Barnum and Bailey," he said. "But there's no place I'd rather be."

His wife echoed his feelings just over a week later, as she led a group of hikers - including Severson, Montgomery and three other Colorado Trail finishers - into the trailhead parking lot at Junction Creek.

"Monday we go back to Creede to go at it again," she said, sounding a little tired but satisfied. "But hey, it's not a bad office."

special thanks to the Durango Herald for reprint permission

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