When we left Music Pass after two days of climbing in this beautiful area of the Sangre de Cristos, I was in a good mood. My son, Randy, is working on Colorado's bicentennial (200 highest) peaks and had two left in the Sangre de Cristos: Tijeras Peak (13,604') and Pico Aislado (13,611'). Pico Aislado was his hardest remaining bicentennial, and to reach its summit we'd have to go over the summit of his hardest remaining tricentennial: Milwaukee Peak (13,522').

Thursday, June 18, 2020. Randy and I left our home in the late afternoon and drove to the Music Pass trailhead, prepared for a two-night backpack to the Sand Creek Lakes area. We grabbed our backpacks and a mile later reached Music Pass (11,380'), where we were greeted with a nice view of Tijeras Peak to the west. We continued to just west of a large meadow at about 11,000' and set up camp near the intersection with the trail to Lower Sand Creek Lake.

Friday, June 19, 2020. Today's goals: Tijeras Peak and, if the weather holds, Music Mountain (13,355'). Given that the forecast included a 50% chance of rain beginning at 6 AM and an 80% chance of afternoon thunderstorms, we'd be happy if we could at least reach the summit of Tijeras Peak.

We followed the trail to the north side of Lower Sand Creek Lake and then took what turned out to be not the greatest route NNW through the willows and onto the slopes north of Tijeras Peak.

We easily spotted the rocky ramp that climbs through a cliff band from lower right to upper left and headed to its base. We'd known there was snow at the ramp's base but thought we could bypass most of it. As it turns out, we couldn't.

At the top of the ramp, we made sure to note its location because from above it's hard to tell exactly where the ramp is. About 1100' of climbing up the rock/tundra brought us to Tijeras Peak's north ridge, and after another 350' up the rocky ridge we found ourselves on the summit.

We found a summit register on Tijeras Peak, along with great views in all directions.

We probably could have done the ridge traverse to Music Mountain but decided to play it safe rather than get caught in a thunderstorm without good bailout options. (The rain didn't start until mid-afternoon and there was less of it than expected.) Regardless, we headed back to our campsite, this time taking a better route back to Lower Sand Creek Lake.

After packing up, we backpacked to a new campsite just below Upper Sand Creek Lake and took much-needed and well-deserved naps in our tent for a couple of hours before cooking dinner.

Saturday, June 20, 2020. Knowing today was a good weather day, we slept in a bit later than we normally would have; no headlamps today. From Upper Sand Creek Lake, we climbed NW through the trees and onto a long ridge on the south side of the basin west of Marble Mountain.

We contoured NW toward the Milwaukee Peak - Marble Mountain saddle. The sidehilling wasn't bad because much of the way we could follow faint paths from others who'd taken the same route. A group of six below us in the basin west of Marble Mountain were also heading to the Milwaukee - Marble saddle.

Near the saddle, we took a break to let the other group catch up and learned they were heading to Milwaukee Peak, Pico Aislado, and Unnamed 13,020'.

From the north, reaching Milwaukee's summit requires climbing south out of a notch at about 13,120' and onto a highly-exposed ledge on the east side of the summit block. After traversing south on the ledge, we climbed up a series of ramps and ledges and eventually reached the summit ridge a bit north of the summit. Fortunately, the conglomerate rock typical of this area is fairly stable and provides excellent traction.

Before long, all eight of us were on Milwaukee Peak's summit. After taking a break and recharging with some food, Randy and I headed WSW along the tundra/rock ridge toward Pico Aislado.

As we approached Pico Aislado, two climbers were ascending the steep rock on the peak's east side. To avoid crossing any snow, we traversed at about 13,300' until we were a bit south of the summit and then began scrambling up steep gullies, chimneys, and ledges. In California, the route likely would be considered 3rd class, but by Colorado standards there were definitely some 4th class moves required.

When we were about halfway to the summit ridge, we had a brief chat with the two climbers, who were now descending an adjacent gully. We later concluded that their route was more difficult (i.e., steeper) than the one we took.

We saw some familiar names in the Pico Aislado summit register. The group of six reached the summit not long before we headed down. For safety's sake, we descended via our ascent route.

For the most part, we stayed on top of the ridge until we returned to the summit of Milwaukee Peak.

It felt good to return to the trail. Because it was still early when Randy and I returned to our campsite, we broke camp and backpacked out. This left us no alternative but to grab some tasty food at Chappy's in Westcliffe on the way home.

When my dad and I climbed Milwaukee Peak and Pico Aislado in August 1990, he called it "our finest double." Thirty years later, I still agree. Maybe I should schedule another repeat of these fine peaks for the summer of 2050.