Mt. Shavano

My family (minus Brandon) and friends from church decided to enjoy the Labor Day weekend camping in Coaldale, CO at Cutty's Resort. The campground was appx. 30 minutes from Salida so I began wondering about going after a 14er while we were there and decided on Shavano.

I left the campground around 0500 (quite dark!) and drove into Salida. Once there I got a bit turned around with the directions I had. My initial reading made it appear the fork in the road would be right in the middle of the town. Come to find out I needed to continue heading west on Highway 50 for about another 10 minutes or so until I reached 285. From here I turned north for a few miles until the small marker for the Shavano/Tabagauche trailhead. (I actually used my GPS to give me warm fuzzy!). The road condition quickly detiorated but I did arrive at the trailhead about 20 minutes later (only 7 miles). I noticed a few campers before approaching the trailhead and appx. 10 or so cars at the trailhead itself. I parked, heated some water for coffee and collected my stuff and was on the trail at 0700. The trail is extremely well marked and aside from a brief parallel with the Colorado Trail, easy to navigate.

I really didn't care for the footing itself down low due to the large amount of rocks but made fairly good time. Around timberline I debated whether to shed a layer or 2 but just unzipped my jacket a bit and kept on. For food this time around I brought only energy gels (3 on the way up) and a Powerbar for the summit.

Once I approached the final ridge and was fully exposed to the north winds, I was grateful I didn't take my jacket off because it got cold FAST, primarily because of the wind. At this point I fished my gloves and kept them on till well through most of the descent.

There were quite a few people on the trail and I was surprised to find out I appeared to be one of the first to summit for the day (1030). Another guy was right behind me and I spoke with a young couple who were getting ready to head down as I reached the summit. I was hoping to also bag Tab but the clouds convinced me otherwise. I spoke with a couple of guys who had just gotten back. They were obviously younger and in better shape than me and said it had taken them almost 2 hours to make the round trip.

While at the summit I spoke with a father and son combo (and their dog). They had started at 4:40 in the morning and summitted just a few minutes after I did. The boy said this was his 9th summit and he is only 5 years old. Wow! I suppose he will have no trouble bagging all of Colorado's 14ers in his lifetime.

After appx. 20 minutes I started the trek back down. I should have taken a slower pace but the weather and the desire to get back to everyone at camp caused me to push myself a bit. I did fine with respect to my knee but did have a bit of discomfort for the last couple of miles. At this point the weather was beautiful and I of course wondered if I should have tackled Tab. I suppose it's not going anywhere and will give me an excuse to come back another day. I made it back to the car around 1300.

This makes 16!