San Juan "good" Itinerary

[Vincopotamus]

Will do. Does anyone know if I come down that drainage to the river, can I cross it there? Looks to be a bushwack on the east side of the river.

From the bottom of No Name it's shorter and easier to hike about 2-3 miles south down the east side toward Needleton to cross via the bridge there, and there is good trail at least from about "North Pigeon Creek" to Needleton. The other option would be to bushwack north on the east side of the river up to the bridge near Elk Creek, which is probably about 5 miles with no trail that I'm aware of. Fording the river at No Name would likely be very challenging, even in late summer.

[DaveLanders]

Will do. Does anyone know if I come down that drainage to the river, can I cross it there? Looks to be a bushwack on the east side of the river.

From the bottom of No Name it's shorter and easier to hike about 2-3 miles south down the east side toward Needleton to cross via the bridge there, and there is good trail at least from about "North Pigeon Creek" to Needleton. The other option would be to bushwack north on the east side of the river up to the bridge near Elk Creek, which is probably about 5 miles with no trail that I'm aware of. Fording the river at No Name would likely be very challenging, even in late summer.

+1
I once ran into an Outward Bound instructor at Needleton while waiting for the train. He showed me his topo, which had a bunch of "routes"
marked on it. He said that they don't allow students to do the bushwhack north from Noname Creek without an instructor.

[steelfrog]

OK thanks; that's what I thought; so we will head to the Needleton bridge then

[SnowAlien]

Will do. Does anyone know if I come down that drainage to the river, can I cross it there? Looks to be a bushwack on the east side of the river.

From the bottom of No Name it's shorter and easier to hike about 2-3 miles south down the east side toward Needleton to cross via the bridge there, and there is good trail at least from about "North Pigeon Creek" to Needleton. The other option would be to bushwack north on the east side of the river up to the bridge near Elk Creek, which is probably about 5 miles with no trail that I'm aware of. Fording the river at No Name would likely be very challenging, even in late summer.

Completely agree. I was hiking down the train tracks from the Elk Park and my goal was Ruby basin - but there was no way I could wade the Animas river before Needleton bridge, at least not with a heavy pack (this was in July).

[yorksman]

About 3 years ago I hiked north from the Needleton stop along the east side of the river heading for Noname Creek. It really is a pretty straight forward hike with some sort of trail for most of the way. When you get close to the Needleton Water Tank you climb a couple of hundred feet in a short distance but it is not that bad, then you decend fairly quickly as well. After that it is pretty level all the way to Noname Creek.

I hiked all the way up Noname creek to the small lake just northwest of Jaggeed Mountain then proceeded over the saddle to the eastside then south to Sunlight Lake, headed south again to the unnamed lake south of Sunlight lake which is about the same size but higher up on a plateau from here I proceeded west for the saddle between Sunlight and Windom Peak down into Chicago Basin. I did this all solo in 3 days, 2 nights. I never saw anybody up Noname or on the eastside of Windom Peak.

[steelfrog]

Well that sounds promising!

[steelfrog]

Ok here is the Sick Lake Loop:

[steelfrog]

OK--here's another idea--to remove the huge hike down No Name drainage and back up the RR tracks; call this Sick Lake 2, after doing Arrow we go up onto that ridge that leads to Peak 3 and then over to Lake Silex, then loop around to Sick Lake then over to Leviathan and back to Silex then to Molas; thoughts? 34 miles and 17k gain

[geojed]

Why not just do this? Removes backtracking and unnecessary elev gain/loss .

[steelfrog]

You see. This is why I love this site! Thank you! There is actually a trail over that pass on Google Earth! That is stinking awesome!

[steelfrog]

With that change I was able to avoid duplication and at the same time add Vallecito Lake and El Dorado Lake, the views from which look astounding on google earth... Now 32 miles and 16k gain

[steelfrog]

OK; further refinement; it seems that going from Beartown/Kite Lake cuts like 7-8 miles off and about 3000 feet gain, so that may be the way to go; turn this from a 5 dayer into a 4 dayer; 24 miles instead of 32.

Thoughts?