Fall Creek backpack, Uncompahgre Wilderness, September 3-4, 2025

 I did a solo 2 day backpack up Fall Creek in the Uncompahgre Wilderness in early September.  Originally I had planned on 2 nights but weather moved in earlier than predicted and I decided to hike out early.  I had planned on hiking up the little Cimmaron River valley, the site of one of my favorite long ago backpacks with the kids (in that case it was Colin and Kirsten), back when they 9 and 13.  But when I got to the trailhead there was about a dozen vehicles there….woops, I forgot that bow hunting season for elk had opened up.  So they were all hunters.  So I drove up another five miles and there were still 8 cars at the Fall Creek trailhead, but there is a second trailhead there and a 4WD road, so I decided to go for it.  And on my way in I ended up only seeing one group of hunters (3 guys hiking out) a Montrose couple day hiking with their dog, and then a solo lady much later that evening at my camp who was hiking out after a very long day hike.   I saw a bull elk and lots of pikas at my camp and a ptarmigan on my long day hike on Thursday ( 9 miles, 1700 feet of elevation gain - high point 13,000 feet).  I got rained and hailed on from 1:30-4:30, and when I got back to camp, I decided to pack up camp and hike out (I was four miles in, camped at 11,300 feet), since it looked like it was going to precipitate more and at that elevation, there was a decent chance it would snow on me that night.  So I ended up hiking 13 miles that day, and I didn’t make it home until 2 am.  This could end up being my last Colorado backpack, since I will most likely be on Quadra Island for even longer next year, and by the time I’m back in CO it will be too late to go.