High Altitude Adventures

Silverthorne to Vail on Subway Sandwiches

Last week I got a call from some High School buddies, who were looking to do their first backpacking trip, they wanted to hike from Silverthorne to East Vail and weren’t going to let the mileage scare them away from their goal.

After looking over some maps to find the route I was super excited for the trip.  It would start out in Silverthorne in the Wilderness neighborhood on the Mesa Cortina Trail, which would then connect to the Gore Range trail and take us up to a large cirque created by Buffalo Mountain and Red Mountain. From here we would join the Gore Creek Trail and follow it up over Red Mountain Pass and down into East Vail for a total of 14.9 miles.

We headed up to Silverthorne late Thursday night to crash at one of hikers cabin. And after doing some early morning grocery shopping and convincing everyone that we actually would need more food than just grabbing a few Subway sandwiches.

It was actually really cool we connected with the Mesa Cortina Trail by just simply stepping off my buddies back porch and walking through a meadow of flowers. It is one of the more relaxing and beautiful ways I have ever started a backpacking trip.  Although these guys had not done any backpacking before they were in good shape so we were really putting on the miles. In no time were in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness winding our way up through the dense woods filled with Aspens and Pines. 

At 2.8 miles we connected with the Gore Range Trail following along the creek gaining elevation.  At about mile 4.5 we came across a pretty cool waterfall, this is the turn around point for most day hikers and made a great lunch spot for us. After lunch we set out again planning to either camp just before the river leaves the trailside or else at an alpine lake where the Gore Range and Gore Creek trails split. After winding through avalanche paths and meadows of wildflowers we finally found ourselves in the cirque just below the pass, this was at about mile 8 or 9.  We followed a stream down from one of the lakes and found an amazing flat spot to call home for the night. As we set up camp a rescue helicopter buzzed down over the pass, and I later learned that this was from a rescue that had taken place of a hiker on Mount of the Holy Cross.

In the morning we had to bust out the map and do some good map & compass work as the trail disappeared in the meadow and up over the pass until you got back down into the trees. In the shade of the trees we fought knee-deep snow, until around 9,800ft. or mile 10.5 where you cross over Gore Creek. There is also a historical grave of two brothers from Sweden who apparently were famous miners of the time. From here it is a very mellow 4 miles mostly downhill to the trailhead at East Vail.

I thought that this was a great through hike and the meadow on the East Side of Red Mountain pass was one of the more beautiful places I have been so far this summer. I would recommend checking this area out.

Cheers!