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Chicago Basin Group
Sunlight Peak, Windom Peak, Mt. Eolus, North Eolus
~25 miles and 10,000' of elevation gain
I thought I should post my trip reports from my "Epic Adventure 2011" last year. Yes, the title is a bit cheesy and overblown, but to us in our limited experience it seemed like such a grand undertaking. If you are considering trip to this area you will absolutely LOVE it as long as you are properly prepared. If I had to do it again, it would have been nice to have one more day in the basin, so we could have done Jupiter, a centennial 13er.
Myself, Chaos Penumbra, and another coworker did our "Chicago Basin" trip last year.
Here's our rough timeline:
Thursday: Worked until 2PM, Drove to Durango, Stayed at Durango Hometown Hostel (A+)
Friday: Train to Needleton (arriving at noon), hiked ~6 miles into Chicago Basin
Saturday: Sunlight and Windom
Sunday: Eolus and North Eolus, packed up and hiked out to train, rode back to Durango.
Monday: Woke up early, drove back to Colorado Springs, in to work by 1PM.
We did stay at the hostel in Durango and we would recommend it. Very nice place and reasonably priced. The rooms were clean, affordable, and the shower was nice.
Your time working the photos is appreciated! That's a treasure trove of great shots, and a great writeup. Your appreciation of the beauty of the area shows through. I hope to experience Chicago Basin and those four peaks this summer, just about the same dates.
Great report! Very detailed and lots of photots...just what I like to make me feel a little more aquainted with this route. Considering this trip in late August this summer. Congrats! Kinda weird, but I appreciate all this pics with people in them; helps give more perspective and I like to see what kinda of clothing everyone is wearing. (I always seem to struggle with what all to bring/what to leave behind) I was also wondering if people packed a daypack on their overnight pack and how it would be done. Now I know! Thanks again!
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