Avoiding Mosquitos in the Sangre de Cristo Range

Avoiding Mosquitoes in the Sangre de Cristo Range (Sangre de Cristo Range, Colorado)

9/4/2019

Looking south from Venable Peak.

Trip dates: July 4-5, 2019

Caltopo map here: https://caltopo.com/m/D2V8

I took advantage of the 4th of July holiday and planned a 3-day trip in the Sangre de Cristo range. I wanted to avoid areas with 14ers due to crowds (based on my experience later in the summer on the Crestone Needle, this would prove a prescient decision). This was my basic plan:

Day 1: Start at the San Isabel TH, and camp at 12,140 ft below Venable Pass.
Day 2: Phantom Terrace, and possibly a ridge traverse to peak 13,419' and down to North Crestone Lake. Then cross the un-named pass below Mt. Adams and camping at South Crestone Lake.
Day 3: Hike out to Crestone via the S. Crestone Lake Trail, and then hike on the 4WD road back to my car at the San Isabel TH.

My planned route vs. my actual route.

As per usual, the plan had to be adjusted once I got out there, but this was the first time the reason was fundamentally due to mosquitos. Usually bug pressure in Colorado is so low that I don't worry about it at all. In general I only think about bugs from late May to mid July when melting snow provides perfect mosquito breeding grounds. By choosing to "dry camp" away from water sources at campsites with moderate wind, I've been able to leave the bug net at home year round.

I'd always heard that the arctic had the worst bugs/mosquitos in the world, but it's hard to imagine worse mosquitos than I experienced on this trip. Before I left, I figured they would be bad based on rumors I'd heard about the Sangre de Cristo Range, but I figured once I got above tree line I'd be fine because of the wind. but I didn't expect to have competition for my preferred "exposed" campsites.

Day 1

The base of the Sangre de Cristo Range always reminds me of the west Texas hill country.

Except for the occasional snow covered peak in the background.

Eventually the "west Texas" environment would transition to big Aspen trees around 8500 feet.

There were 6-8 stream crossings like this.

Wet feet aren't so bad. Stream crossings take much less emotional energy once you give up on having dry feet. They dry quickly enough. Also note the 5-6 mosquitos on my left leg. At this point, taking a picture like this is unpleasant but deemed "worth it".

Then the Aspen's give way to Sound of Music type scenery at tree line. The mosquitos pressure also dropped to zero.

San Isabel Lake sits in this basin between two unnamed peaks. My route would eventually take me through the upper left corner of this picture, over an unnamed pass. The "slabby" nature of this range has always caught my eye and reminded me of the peaks in Glacier National Park similar to pictures I've seen from the Canadian Rockies.

Looking east. Here you can see the characteristic formations a bit better. My route eventually takes me to the right corner.

Looking back from near the pass.

Crossing over the unnamed pass looking South. From Left to Right: Venable Peak (upper left). The next pyramidal shaped peak in the distance is Mt. Adams. The interesting peaks to the right of that hold several of the ranges 14ers: Crestone peak, Columbia Pt., Kit Carson, Challenger Pt. The rugged peaks on the right side are mostly unnamed and unranked---and hold my attention much better.

In general water was pretty easy to find. There were unmapped streams everywhere.

I really liked these trees. They came out of nowhere. Looks like it was a tough but reasonably long life.

Looking towards my eventual camp (to the right out of view).

About 100 feet from my campsite I made an interesting animal find. It was a dead marmot which is not so surprising, but the strange part is it that one of its organs was laying beside it. At first I thought it was a kidney because of the shape. People with more biology education than myself said it was too large to be a kidney and was probably a part of the gut.

I'm not showing the picture of the marmot's back where the organ was removed but it looked messy so I'm thinking it was an animal. I looked around quite a bit to see if a mountain lion was around but it was hard to rationalize one being up at 12,140 feet. It was most likely a bobcat (or less likely, a coyote) in the middle of a meal. I worried about sleeping so close for about 20 seconds but soon forgot about it.

Both pieces were gone in the morning.

Those lines that look like slashes were pretty interesting. Maybe claw marks?

Day 2

Looking into "Groundhog Basin"(across the valley) from my sleeping bag early AM.

At the top of the pass I encountered a steep snowfield (which I should have been able to predict based on satellite imagery and average sun exposure mapping tools). I didn't see any steps in the snow from previous people. Since I didn't have an ice-axe I decided to stay high and the ridge where it was snow free.

Looking back at the snowfield on the east side of Venable Pass

I'm looking over the terrain the trail (supposedly) travels and realizing how it got to be called "Phantom Terrace".

Looking north from Venable Peak.

Seriously? There's a standard trail over that?

Looking west from Comanche Pass. You can see alpine, then Aspen forests, "West Texas" and then finally the San Luis Valley.

From Comanche Pass I'd take the trails over to North Crestone Lake where I planned to camp. This would position me well for summiting Mt. Adams (13,931') the next morning.

I'd preferred to stay high on the ridge between Comanche Pass and Fluted Peak (above N. Crestone Lake) but I couldn't find much info about what that terrain would be like so I skipped it and opted for the low route.

I'd have to lose a lot of elevation for this option but I got to see more Aspens (and this enormous avalanche path). Luckily I didn't have to drop back down to "West Texas".

My first views of the cirque surrounding N. Crestone Lake.

Mt. Adams above N. Crestone Lake.

At this point I'm very torn. The scenery at North Crestone Lake is among the best I've seen all year but there are two significant problems:

The gully I'd planned to take over the unnamed saddle below Mt. Adams the next day was full of snow and I didn't have an ice axe. Some other routes looked possible but I couldn't say for sure.
There are a few other groups here and they have literally taken every possible campsite in this cirque. This ruined my entire mosquito strategy! Apparently other people think this spot is beautiful also. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security by not seeing any people at all the up till now.

I dropped below treeline again, to eat dinner and make a plan. Maybe I'd camp there and try the route the modified route the next day? As I unpacked my stove to boil water I was swarmed by 30 or so mosquitos. I could put my rain jacket on to keep them from biting my torso but I had no solution for my legs. This stop only lasted about 5 minutes, at which point I decided the best option was to speed walk the 8 miles back to the car and skip my planned day 3.

The mosquitos would get unbelievably worse the lower I got. When I was in the Aspens (~8500 feet) I had to keep up a 4mph pace with constantly swatting my body with my hat. It was absolutely unbelievable. I tried to stop for a moment once to take a picture of the 30-40 mosquitos that covered my legs when stopped but I couldn't bear to stop long enough to focus the camera. Near the TH, I passed someone who was car camping so (while running) I asked him if he had any insect repellant. He was basically wearing a beekeeper outfit (why he was setting up a tent in those conditions is beyond me).

"Oh my god! You must have 100 of them on you!" he said.

I honestly think 100 was about right.