I had previously attempted to summit this mountain 4 years ago. https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=21698 I was not successful. It's been on mind my ever since. I've passed through Colorado multiple times the last few years on vacation, but kept ending up in Montana and never really got a chance to visit this part of the state again. This year, I stayed in Colorado for the entire time. I took multiple hikes before I knew I was ready for this. The first was Brent's Trail in Iowa a month prior to my trip, it includes 1900' of elevation gain over 8-9 miles and then another 4-5? on gravel back to your car. It's the closest thing we have around here to prepare.

I was certainly sore afterwards, but it put me in a good position physically. My second day in Colorado I hiked to Porphyry Peak after seeing it from the pass to the south the prior year. I then visited Lost Lake off Cottonwood pass, followed by Mt. Peck from Monarch over the next few days. After staying the night at a hotel with mice in Gunnison (RIP Ozzy), I headed to Eddiesville!

The road in was not bad. The highway between Gunnison and the gravel road appeared to have been repaved since last time and was an amazing drive through a canyon with a creek! After the high clearance sign after miles of gravel roads, there was one shallow creek crossing with concrete, 2 culverts, and then Animas Creek. Driving a stock Ford Maverick XL, I got out and checked on the depth on the last crossing and it appeared to be 8-10 inches.

I had driven through similar in Missouri earlier this year, but this had concrete underneath. There is in fact a beaver dam that is raising the water level as stated on trailhead reports. I arrived around 1230 in the afternoon and parked at the horse trailer lot after crossing through a puddle in the road. I was quite a bit earlier than last time, but I had nothing better to do. I sat there watching the clouds build while I prepared my backpack because I arrived much earlier than planned. Had a nice conversation with a lady waiting for her husband to finish fishing. Saw a few through hikers pass by, ate lunch, and looked suspiciously at the chipmunks. Packed 4 liters of water because I knew there was none after the creek (after the upper ridge of canon hondo, there are 2 ponds on the south slopes from snow melt that may be an option. You would have to descend to them). Around 1330, I determined the storm chances had passed, I was tired of waiting, and took off. I met her husband as I got on the Colorado trail and he said the fish were biting "ferociously". It made me wish I had any clue how to fish a river with rocks... It was the last person I talked to or saw for the next 26 hours.

After the wooden post, before the creek, I went right, into the deadfall. I could hear the creek below me for about the first mile and a half before it went silent. Which was just as I remembered. Still lots of trees to cross over the top of. After about a mile in, the trail was closer to the creek. When I reached the trees covering the creek at the end of the third opening, I decided to head toward the left and the opening with rocks I saw on Google Earth instead of staying to the right as I did on my previous trip. There was a trail through part of this, but there was still deadfall to navigate over and around. I eventually reached the opening, and it was much steeper than I expected. Rather than follow the right side I identified, I decided to follow the left side of it. As I got near the top, it did start to sprinkle so I took a break under the pines, enjoyed a beautiful rainbow to the east and regained my energy. I did have to climb a section of rock to reach the next section of trees/willows, but after that I just kept marching to the ridgeline. Eventually I reached the edge of the trees and made camp. It was cold up there in sweaty clothing, I loved it! As I sat there, I felt like I should have taken the right side and ended up hiking a lot farther than I needed to, but I was 20 minutes from where I stopped last time. I considered my return route as I sat there. After getting settled in, I tried to watch the new South Park as I discovered I did indeed have cell service and was declined due to being out of my home area and it being live. 5 minutes later, the episode finished and I was able to start watching. After a few great laughs, I called it a night.

I woke up early around 0430 and it was so dark even with my headlamp and the stars were covered by clouds, so I went back to sleep. I woke up again around 0545, packed everything up into my backpack, watched the sunrise, smelled the wildfire smoke from the Black Canyon, and continued on my journey as I wasn't coming back this way. From my prior trip, I knew there was a game trail that skirted the ridge to the left that overlooks Canon Hondo. I followed that until I got to the midpoint between the left and the right sides of the valley and left my backpack and continued with my day bag. Right before I stopped, I adjusted my backpack and the ring holding the ring holding the pin in for my shoulder strap disappeared. I had to tie a knot in it to my hip belt. Cotter pins will be the new future of my backpack. From here it was a straight walk up the tundra. I saw at least 5 ptarmigan? along the way. There were Elk in the valley to the north of the mountain (last time the herd was on the south side of the mountain). They saw me and paid attention the entire time. There were multiple false summits and then I was finally on top! Success! I let out a few yells into the pipes that had responses, had breakfast, enjoyed the sights, looked for a summit register that I did not find, and then prepared myself for the return trip.

Going down, I decided to maintain elevation and walked around the final false summit instead of up and over as I came up. As I walked down, the elk started retreating away toward the upper tundra area in the middle of the north and south sides of canon hondo away from me going to the same spot I left my backpack. As I continued toward my backpack, they all went off down the ridge in the middle of canon hondo. I have no clue where they went after that, but I did hear some footsteps on the way down while I was back in the deadfall. Due to not wanting to take the same route down that I took up as I thought the north side would be a quicker trip back to my vehicle, I went down the north side of the canon hondo ridge. I tried to stick to the tundra before I entered the willows as long as I could and I ended above the rock field that I camped at last time. There was not really an easy way down, but I eventually found one on the east side. My advice is to enter the willows about half way in along the tundra and move down towards the bottom of the valley. While at this vantage point, I also wondered if it would be better to continue to follow the creek up the valley. There is a small set of trees that I ascended to on my last trip. It may cut mileage and navigation through the trees off from any current routes if you stay near the rock field along the south side of the upper valley.

Once I got back to the place I slept at last time, I found some kind of trail heading back toward the trailhead. I lost it multiple times, followed game trails up too far on the ridge, but each time I descended closer to the creek valley I picked the trail back up.

Around 1315, I finally reached my truck. I saw 2 chipmunks scurrying away and scolded them. Thankfully, they left it alone. The clouds were building and I had to just put my pack in my truck after a quick change into clean clothing and footwear. It then started raining and since the next 3 miles were uphill, I had to leave. I made it out from the trailhead with no issues, crossed the creek, and after the high clearance sign, the rain stopped and I was able to refresh. Once I found cell service again, I booked a room, had an awesome flight of IPA's, a nada smashburger, 2 of the best from the flight, and I called it a night after observing the L. Ron Hubbard section of the motels little free library. I haven't seen that before. After that I went panning for gold at a museum in Victor, camped, and saw The Dillinger Escape Plan and Converge in Denver before heading home Sunday. I'm not sure if I will ever return to this peak, but I will never forget it.