Monday, August 11, 2003

Once again, Nathan and I hopped (crawled?) out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and drove up to the Williams Lake trailhead at 36°34.752'N, 105°26.370'W. We started hiking by first light and remained in shadow until we were nearly up to the ridge above Williams Lake. The hike from the trailhead to Williams Lake is along a good but moderately steep trail, gaining 1,000' in about a mile-and-a-half. Once you reach Williams Lake, a use trail takes off at 36°33.474'N, 105°25.794'W to the east and climbs steeply up to the ridge. Within 3/4 mile, you gain roughly 2,000' from a little over 11,000' to 13,000' at a shallow saddle not far from the summit.

The views as you ascend are spectacular, with the ridge line across the valley catching the morning sunlight as the valley remains in shadow. At points, Williams Lake is visible as you climb, reflecting the rocks and trees beyond in mirror-smooth waters calmed by a lack of breezes.

We were greeted by several marmots as we climbed up the slope consisting variously of grassy ledges and blocky talus fields. This particular moocher was not to be dissuaded and followed us for some distance. It was bold enough to come right up to us and sniff our boots when we stopped for a brief water break. A hundred feet or so farther up the slope, we entered the territory of a larger and more defensive marmot, and this medium-sized guy was summarily dismissed by his superior, who insisted on chasing him a good 150 feet down the slope, much to our amusement.

Nearing the ridge, we were finally greeted by the sun rising over the saddle. As it did, Nathan and I cast particularly long shadows back down the steep slope we had just climbed. Some of the ski runs from Taos Ski Valley are visible on the right, showing how far we had come by car and by foot from the resort itself.

Once we attained the ridge, we were greeted by the first in a short series of false summits. Looking back north along the ridge, you can see the saddle where the trail drops down toward Williams Lake on the left.

Fortunately, the false summits are neither steep nor particularly high bumps along the ridge, and a quarter-mile or so of hiking along a good use trail takes you up to the summit, proper.

We arrived at the summit at 9:20 a.m., followed a few minutes later by a couple of backpackers who had approached from the opposite side. We shared picture-taking duties and observed that we probably wouldn't be sticking around the summit for long, since puffs of clouds were already forming over the higher peaks in the area.

I recorded the summit location at 36°33.409'N, 105°24.982'W, took my usual summit panorama and took photos of the summit marker and two benchmarks we found in the summit area. By that time, the puffs had blown over us and were starting to coalesce, so we quickly retreated down the ridge to the trail back to Williams Lake, pausing only briefly along the way to snap a few more photos.

The summit marker is unique, with a plaque commemorating Major George Montague Wheeler, after whom the peak is named, and a sturdy iron pipe holding the summit log. We found a notebook placed there by a local Boy Scout troop and signed in, contributing our names to their list of Scouts and Scouters who summitted Wheeler Peak this summer.

There are two benchmarks in the vicinity of the summit, one a reference mark pointing to the summit benchmark, the other the summit marker itself.

The clouds drifted over at intervals as we made our way back along the ridge and back to the saddle where the trail returns to Williams Lake. The left-hand shot below gives a good idea of the variable quality of the footing along the steep use trail up the slopes above the lake. The intense purple of these flowers brightened up the patches of grass among the rock piles.

Once back at Williams Lake, we took a bit longer break and were attacked by hordes of golden mantled ground squirrels seeking handouts from our granola bars. Looking at the photo below and to the right, the trail meandering down toward the lake forks off to the left and leads through the woods to the steep climb up to the ridge.

The hike from Williams Lake back to the trailhead was uneventful, although it was punctuated with occasional thunder from the rapidly-gathering clouds over the peaks. It was clear that only the foolhardy among the later hikers we met along the trail would summit that day!

We found the Bavarian restaurant was closed on Mondays, but a small pizza place back at the ski resort was open, so we stopped there for lunch before driving back to Taos.