In a way, I was doubting whether I should attempt a climb of Eagles Nest solo.  Eagles Nest, while a long hike, is not really that long but I generally like going with other people.  But, after playing a gig on Friday, I was ready to get out of town and I knew that if I just got in the car and went, I wouldn’t regret it.  I certainly didn’t, but unfortunately, I didn’t leave Denver until a little after 1:30pm.  It took me about two hours to get to the Suprise Trailhead which is at the far north end of the Gore Range.  This is a fee-collecting area ($5) and, along with the Lower Cataract Lake trail, is easily the most popular trailhead in the Eagles Nest wilderness.  The ample parking lot was jam-packed with maybe thirty cars.  I got my stuff ready, paid the fee, signed the register and headed out around 3:30.  On the register, I noted a group of twenty who were at Upper Cataract Lake.  I had originally though I’d climb Eagles Nest from Upper Cataract, but had decided earlier in the day to camp on Dora Mountain.  Seeing a group of this size cemented the idea in my head.  I thought maybe that was some other group’s strategy to ensure that they were alone at the lake!  No matter, Dora Mountain would be awesome, I was sure.

It’s a lot more strenuous and difficult hike to get to Dora Mountain.  From the trailhead, it’s about a 3700 foot climb and you have to bushwack to get to the mountain.  I wasn’t quite sure where I’d leave the trail to begin my bushwack but it looked like the best route was somewhere after Surprise Lake.

The parking lot was really hot and I was anxious to get moving fast and get up to cooler ground.  My overnight pack has gotten much smaller over time and I moved very fast up the moderately steep trail.  Everyone I passed had much bigger packs than I did, so I guess I’m getting pretty good at this.  Anyway, my map unfortunately didn’t have this part of the trail and it felt like I hiked too far southwest.  I started to think that maybe I missed the trail turnoff.  I really wasn’t that worried because the trails are really well documented with signs in this area.  Sure enough, I arrived at the Gore Range trail and turned right and headed for Surprise Lake which is only a couple of minutes past the turnoff.  The lake has lots of lily pads and logs floating in it.  In the distance, you can see Dora Mountain.  I continued on then arrived at the Upper Cataract trail and turned left there.  I thought maybe I could follow one of the creeks to the slopes of Dora Mountain.  I decided not to do that because the forest was quite thick.  I went maybe a half mile more and spotted a very faint trail heading south.  I followed it a bit just to see if it really was a trail.  It wasn’t, but the forest wasn’t quite as thick here.  So, I decided to start bushwacking.  Fortunately, the route was pretty easy for me.  I first found a fairly open, moist area, that lead to a really dense area with a lot of fallen trees.  I was able to see the open slopes of Dora Mountain in front of me.  It didn’t look like much more bushwacking.  I was able to walk along the fallen trunks and make pretty good time.  I then climbed up some very steep slopes for about 200 feet.  The slope began to lessen and I broke out of the trees and had a good view back on the Blue River valley (top picture).  After a while, I was beyond all the trees and hiking along the flat slopes of Dora Mountain.  In the distance, I could make out the two permanent snowfields that are notated on the map.  As I passed above the second snowfield on talus, the most amazing view opened up.  I had arrived at Dora Lake and had unobstructed views of the northern Gore Range peaks.

December 2007 Addition: I just reread my Dora Mountain report and I can’t believe I left out the most satisfying part of this trip: When I first moved to Colorado, I had browsed through a Fielder photo book and was awestruck at one of the pictures of the Gore Range. It didn’t say where, just something like “Sunrise in The Gore Range”. After I climbed Peak “C”, and realized that the Gore Range was the place for me, I looked forward to the day that I would find that view. I studied maps quite a bit and had some ideas where that view was, but Dora Lake wasn’t one of them. Unfortunately, I never found it, until I went on that solo trip. And, I wasn’t even thinking of finding it then. When I crested over that snowfield and small ridge and saw it, I simply dropped my pack in silence and just stared for minutes on end. I think that qualifies as my favorite moment in the Gores. I hope I will return there one day. Perhaps on the trip to Black Peak. After all, I’ve made the climb from the top of the Black Drainage to the slopes along Dora Lake. End December 2007 Addition
 
Once I regained my senses, I was sort of mad at myself for not leaving earlier so I could enjoy the view for a few hours before the sun went down.  As it was, I had maybe an hour or an hour and a half of sunlight.  I set up my camp at the southern end of Dora Lake looking over the vast expanse of the Black Creek valleys.  There were, of course, mountain goats up here.  They were interested in me but never came any closer than about 15 feet or so.  I could easily spook them by moving quickly and I had to run back up to my camp while pumping water and chase them off because they started messing with my stuff.  A month earlier, some goats had chewed through my canvas stove bag and I didn’t want that to happen again.  Fortunately, they didn’t bother my camp me after that.

As the sun went down, I relaxed and read a new screen play written by one of my best friends.  It was a good setting actually; the amazing vistas and glowing eyes of the goats really set the mood for the screenplay.  Anyway, I enjoyed reading for about an hour.  The full moon had begun rising over Peak “O” and illuminated the surface of the Dora Mountain so much that I didn’t need a headlamp (except for reading).  I went to bed fairly early, around 9:30 or 10:00.  I set my alarm for 5:50 because I wanted to take some sunrise shots.  I slept really well but woke up occasionally to the weird noises made by the goats.  They must have wandered all around me all night long.  My alarm went off but it was still dark so I snoozed for another fifteen minutes.  Once I saw daylight, I jumped up and witnessed an amazing sunrise and setting moon.  I took lots of good pictures.   As I took pictures, I ate breakfast and then got ready for my climb of Eagles Nest.  In a way, I didn’t want to go; I could have just stayed here and enjoyed the stunning views.  I headed out around 7:30 and followed broad gentle slopes for maybe a half a mile before beginning the climb up to point 13,099 along Eagles Nest east ridge.

The ridge began to get pretty thin near the top but never too bad.  I had a good straight down to Upper Cataract and Cat lakes.  I didn’t take a picture though because the were both still in shadow.  I arrived at the top of the point and noted that the benchmark read 13,091…so the map was off by 8 feet.
 
The rest of the climb up Eagles Nest was a series of pinnacles.  There was a giant drop between the third and the fourth pinnacle which was the crux of the climb.  I think it pushed 4th class on the 3rd pinnacle.  It’s definitely wise to drop sooner rather than later on this pinnacle.  The north side of the point is entirely 5th class.  

At the notch, I continued staying fairly low on the south side of the Eagles Nest ridge.  I regained the ridge right before the fifth point and enjoyed scrambling up more solid blocks along the ridge.  At first, as I was topping out on the 5th pinnacle, I thought I was on the summit but then I saw I had yet another pinnacle to climb up that was the true summit.
 
I arrived on the top of Eagles Nest a little less than two and a half hours.  It seemed a bit longer though – the climb had it’s moments but a lot of the ridge was tedious.  The views from the top were great, of course.  I found the summit register.  It was completely full so I replaced it with a small pad of paper and even supplied a small pencil.  I ate some food and then headed down to the seventh point which looked to be almost as high as the true summit and took some pictures.  

I wasn’t really looking forward to following this long ridge back to my camp.  I got the idea to drop down into the Black Creek basin and visit Cliff Lake and some of the other tarns that I saw from the top.  It looked like a fairly easy descent into the basin.  I headed down and mostly skidded and slipped down the scree and arrived in this super-remote basin (below).
 
The first thing I did was head down to Cliff Lake to take a short break.  Cliff Lake is absolutely awesome.  There’s a nice grassy shore and the bottom is sandy and very deep.  I hung around Cliff Lake for a while and even took a short swim.  It was so cold when I jumped in that I couldn’t have stayed in for more than a minute.  It felt good drying out in the sun though.  I spent some time taking pictures of various peaks from the lake.  I then decided to drop down a little more and head for some tarns that I spotted from above.  

I had to negotiate a small set of cliffs then arrived at the tarns, where I took more pictures and rested a bit more.  There was absolutely no evidence of any human activity anywhere down in this basin.  I wonder how many people have actually been up in here.  Not many, that’s for sure.
 
After hanging out at the small tarns for a while, I finally headed back up to Dora Mountain.  I spotted my route from below and began the climb back up.  I got up pretty high and wanted to cut over to some more gentle ground but I was cut off by a couloir that was deeply inset with 30 to 40 foot sheer cliffs.  So, I had to continue climbing up.  I ended up climbing straight up to the base of Point 13,099 and then finally was able to walk tundra back to my campsite.  The goats were still hanging out in their spot.  I took a bit of time to walk over to the lake and pump some more water, then headed out for the summit of Dora Mountain.

Dora Mountain is nothing more than a 100 foot rise of talus on the eastern part of the mountain.  From here I had great views of the entire Black Creek drainage and started making mental plans for a backpack to that region.  I also finally took a picture of myself on the summit.  The summit register had been there since 1986 and was maybe signed by fifteen people.  I recognized three Colorado guidebook authors and a CMC member.
 
After about thirty minutes of more relaxing, I headed back to camp.  I sat back down in my little makeshift chair and read some more of the screenplay while finishing up the last morsels of my food supply.  I still had a 6-mile hike out.  I took in some final views, packed up, and went.  

The hike off of Dora Mountain was really pleasant.  I spotted a large group of deer running across the tundra.  I found the spot that I had emerged from the forest and was able to retrace my steps pretty close.  I ended up coming out on the trail at the exact spot that I left it and then really picked up the pace and zoomed out.  I saw no one else on the hike out.  In fact, I hadn’t see a soul since passing Surprise Lake the day before.  Back at the parking lot, there were only three cars.  The sun was just starting to go down; I’d stayed up there longer than I had originally planned because I was enjoying it so much.  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to beat that campsite (right).

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