Day 051 - Continental Divide Trail - Monarch Pass to Hancock Ghost Town

Day: 051

Date: Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Start:  Monarch Pass

Finish:  Hancock Ghost Town

Daily Kilometres:  29.9

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  1493.1

Weather:  Mild and sunny in the morning then overcast with occasional light rain in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Breakfast burritos 

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese subs

  Dinner:  Protein bar, brownies.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  None in particular.

Lowlight:  Disappointingly, it started to rain lightly as we set up camp.  Since we were very late already, and had eaten well during the day, we got into the tent as fast as we could and just had some snacks for dinner and wet-wipes for a wash.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Our kindly volunteer shuttle driver (we gave her money for gas, anyway), picked us up from the motel around 8:15am, a little later than scheduled and we didn't start hiking until just before 9am at Monarch Pass.

For the first couple of hours we were mostly above the treeline following a ridge that marked the back of the Monarch Ski Area, but also climbing, sometimes steeply, to 12500’ on the shoulder of Bald Mt.  The trail was mostly good and the views of the surrounding mountains spectacular, though it was a little more hazy than previous days.

From there we found ourselves descending steeply to a series of lakes and a reservoir, losing about 2000’ in elevation and encountering some difficult trail.  We had snowfields, rocks, mud, flooded trail, bogs and slippery mud.  Progress was slow, but the lake and forest scenery was very pretty.

Having descended so far, we then climbed steadily following the middle fork of the South Arkansas River to Chalk Creek Pass (12146’) on similarly challenging trail.  This took us above the tree line again and we had wonderful views over reflecting alpine lakes and to the high peaks around us.

By this time it was nearing 7pm, later than we usually hike, but we had a target in mind and, given our late start, pushed on to 8:15pm before stopping to camp not far from the old mining/ghost town of Hancock which we didn't visit, having heard there was not much left.

It began to rain lightly as we set up camp and we quickly got into our tent, satisfied with the miles we had covered on difficult trail.