10/10/2024 Route: Machin Basin trail from Eddiesville Posted On: 10/12/2024, By: 9patrickmurphy Info: The Machin Basin trail is actually in quite good shape; I never lost it for more than a minute, and it was always easy to get back to. The trail shown on Gaia is accurate, the trail shown on forest service maps is not. The crux is crossing Cochetopa Creek - I was able to keep my feet dry by hopping across islands, but I walked through a lot of dry/frozen marshy ground which implies this is likely only doable this late in the season. If doing this trail any other time of year, plan on wet feet. I dropped into Canon Diablo to get over to 13026, just a lot of elevation loss then gain. Instead of attempting to find the Canon Diablo trail (I've heard mostly negative reviews) I dropped north towards the CDT, taking an obvious grassy gully. Long mileage but easy travel the whole way. |
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5/28/2022 Route: From Eddiesville Posted On: 5/29/2022, By: BobbyFinn Info: Via Machin Basin Minimal snow - the only snow we had to cross was a small gully right (maybe 30 feet?) before the final uphill to the summit. We needed no winter gear, spikes, or flotation. You might want water shoes to cross the creek depending on how nimble you are / if you find an easy crossing. 1st pic - looking at the final uphill 2nd - looking down Machin Basin 3rd - looking at Organ |
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10/17/2020 Route: From \"Phoenix Peak\" Posted On: 10/18/2020, By: supranihilest Info: If you like literally miles and miles of tedious, infuriating, exhausting talus then this route is for you. Simply drop north off of "Phoenix Peak" (on which you've already climbed more talus than any reasonable person would say is good) on talus and follow the ridge north for a short distance on talus and then east for a long distance on more talus. Only very brief sections of the ridge contain tundra, the rest is all blocky, angular talus that shifts and rocks around as you walk on it. Did I mention this ridge is like seventy miles long? And that it's all talus? And that to get back you either have to return the way you came over all that talus or you have to drop down a super steep and loose talus gully into Canon Diablo and up 13,015, returning over an even longer talus ridge with five or six talus bumps en route back to the talus king "Phoenix"? Do yourself a favor and do 13,402 and 13,015 from Eddiesville Trailhead instead. We descended "Phoenix"'s standard route via the La Garita Trail, which if you aren't already familiar with the descent to it goes south down talus and grass slopes until you're past some chossy cliffs a couple of miles south of "Phoenix". The other drainages along the way probably don't have trails and definitely would not be as easy to follow back to the approach road. |
