We headed out into the Pecos Wilderness for what has become something of a birthday backpacking tradition over the last couple of years. This year, we headed up the East Fork of the Santa Barbara trail, camping just below the ridge line. Day two was spent hiking along the ridge to the west, and on Day 3, we strolled down the West Fork. Check out this map for some route context. (P.S. If you’ve never explored Caltopo, you should check it out. I can spend hours on this site, planning out my next adventure. I love maps!)

Hiking along the Divide trail last year, specifically the stretch between Jicarita peak and the East Fork, was the final motivation to buy my camera, so of course, I was super excited to haul a couple extra pounds 3,000 feet up the mountain for this trip. Finally, 3 months later, I’ve finished the photo edits. You tell me if it all was worth it!

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There were some beautiful wildflowers near our campsite Day 1, so I tried my hand at some closeups of them. I spent hours editing these photos, only for M- to like the originals better in several cases. Oh well. I learned some Photoshop tricks on the way that may be useful later on (if I can remember them). And in the end, whether or not you can tell a difference with the original or think these edits are actually improvements, I still think the flowers are pretty.

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After hiking for miles through the cow-poo-filled marshy mucky-muck that was the East Fork trail, we stopped for the first night with several hours of daylight left, because we found a superb campsite by the stream and didn’t know what may or may not be further up the trail. That meant we got to enjoy some of the afternoon relaxing.

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Morning of Day 2, we started the final push up to the ridge, which turned out to be a bit further and higher than we estimated when we stopped the night before.

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When we made it up to the top, though, the views were every bit as vast and mesmerizing as we anticipated.

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Up along the ridge, on the Divide trail, we saw more wildflowers and (real) wildlife.

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From our previous trip, M- and I were acquainted with the “Hill of Woe” (aka, Santa Barbara peak) that inserted itself rudely on the trail between the East Fork and Middle Fork. It wasn’t as bad this time, since we hit it earlier in the day compared to last time, but we still got beat going up it by fat yet fast marmots.

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The Big-I of the Pecos Wilderness (Betty’s, Middle Fork, and Skyline trail) marked the start of a relatively easy portion of the hike, where we had a lovely promenade along the Skyline trail. Expansive views surrounded us as we followed either a well-worn trail or the faintest of paths connecting cairns that sprouted at just the right intervals, all the while keeping our eye on the storm developing to the south.

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While we enjoyed the stroll along the ridge, we were also trying to keep a good pace, since we needed to get around Chimayosos peak to the south, up and over a saddle between Chimayosos and North Truchas peak, and then down a scree field on the north side to our target campsite just below treeline at the top of the West Fork—all before we got caught out in the open during the afternoon monsoon and lightening storm. Unfortunately, I was the weak link and just after the last photo above, I called a halt for a brief break that turned into me trying not to puke, presumably from a combination of exertion (climbing up to the ridge), sun exposure (being solidly above treeline) and high altitude (above 12,000 ft. all day). A- felt better than me, but was also impacted by the environmental effects; we both dove headlong into a small copse of pine trees and sat in the shade for an hour or so, trying to recuperate enough to continue the journey. At some point in here, I was seriously considering bushwacking straight down to the south and making our way to and then along Betty’s trail, since the only real cure for altitude sickness is to get to lower elevations; I wondered which would be worse, continuing on my own empty energy reserves or calling (and waiting on) mountain rescue (if we even could).

Finally, M- interrupted my reverie and impressed upon me that we really couldn’t stay where we were any longer—while the storm to the south that we’d been watching all day meandered away, a different storm had brewed out-of-sight just over the ridge to the north and was popping up and over immediately onto us. Luckily, enough time had passed that I no longer felt completely inept (though I was by no means fully recovered). M- and Z- graciously offered to shoulder some of my weight, and we all slung on packs and continued along the trail.

As we rounded the south side of Chimayosos peak, we dipped below treeline while the storm to the north evaporated (or in hindsight, more likely just hid behind Chimayosos; but at the time, we thought the monsoon had missed us for the day after all). Bolstered by the trees and the sunshine, we took another break and contemplated setting up camp here. After a couple of hours of napping and rehydrating, though, we all felt much improved and decided that since the storm had disappeared, we could make it over the saddle and to our original target destination after all. Off we went again, along what turned out to be a gentler-than-expected final climb to the saddle, during which, you guessed it, our storm-friend reappeared with gusto. By the time the lightening and hail started, we were simultaneously back above treeline (not good), but also closer to the trees on the north side where we were headed than on the south side from whence we came. Nervously, tensely, and quickly as we could muster, we made the final push over the saddle and down the scree, luckily (and I’m pretty sure it was just luck) without electrocuting ourselves. Naturally, to continue to follow Murphy’s law, as soon as we got to the relative safety of the pines on the north side, the storm went who-the-hell-knows-where, full sunshine shown upon us, and the air turned muggy as the Midwest.

After all that excitement, we had a fairly pleasant walk down the West Fork a mile or so to the campsite M- and I had passed by on our previous trip. It’s an absolutely lovely spot, good flat ground covered in soft pine needles, next to a small stream that’s perfect for refilling water supplies, and also for an invigoratingly ice-cold splash-off “shower”. While we made dinner, a gentle rain began to fall, so we bid each other adieu, crawled into our tents, and slept off the day’s adventures.

The next morning, we were all more-or-less refreshed (as long as no one asked us to turn back uphill). We drank some coffee while watching the sun rise, and then headed down the last stretch of the West Fork to end our loop back at Santa Barbara TH, thus concluding this year’s birthday backpacking adventure.

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Bonus content: I snapped some pictures with my cell phone, which maintains a convenience factor over my Nikon. Below are some amusing anecdotes from the trip.

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