Saturday, July 1, 1989: Mount Antero, 14269'

By Alan Silverstein

I had ideas of spending eight days on the road and in the moun- tains over the long Fourth of July weekend. As it happened, I was pretty busy at work the week before, so I saved my leave time and only spent four nights out. I revisited three Fourteeners in the Sawatch Range. Meanwhile, the jet stream was in Canada, so remarkably consistent hot, dry, clear weather reigned over the state.

On Friday, June 30, I left Fort Collins just before noon in my Jeep Wagoneer along with Jeff and Anna Hargis in their car. Halfway to Denver I encountered a brand new problem with my old, old Jeep. The 1973 two-ton green 360 V8 dinosaur, which I call Triceratops, began balking at higher speeds. It lost power in- termittently and surged along if I tried to go over a maximum speed, between 40 and 55 (and sometimes less) depending on the steepness of the hill.

To make a long story and afternoon short, we executed a number of unplanned stops as I tried to deal with the problem. All advice said it was ``merely'' vapor lock, about which little could be done. The gas tank was almost too hot to touch, and the fuel filter was boiling hot, like the weather. That afternoon, and before returning home, I replaced the fuel filter twice (with an old one and then a new one), tried adding new gasoline, drove with the hood latched one inch up, put wooden clothespins on the fuel line (no kidding), and even spray painted the gas tank and fuel line white to keep them cooler.

We limped through Fairplay, passed Mount Princeton Hot Springs, and reached the Mount Antero turnoff, 9400', on the dirt road to Saint Elmo, 12.7 miles from and 201 miles from at 1845. We took nearly seven hours to make what should have been a five hour drive. At the junction I met a fellow from the Forest Service working with a bulldozer to improve the road. They also planned to do some work on it above Baldwin Creek.

Jeff and Anna loaded their backpacks into Triceratops and we started up the road at 1935. It immediately became rough and steep. After one short stop to reattach the shift linkage (sigh; but at least I had no more vapor lock problems), we crossed Baldwin Creek at 2027, 2.9 miles in. We camped for the night among scattered pine trees just past the creek.

Saturday morning I'd have happily slept in, but Jeff and Anna were raring to go as I'd proposed earlier. So we were awake by 0540, just after sunrise, and rolling up the mountain at 0638. I was surprised to find the infamous Mount Antero Jeep road less hazardous than I'd heard. It is narrow and crosses steep slopes, but once out of timberline it is relatively gentle in grade and not too rocky. Fortunately we didn't meet anyone coming the oth- er way on it.

We reached the 13100' ridge east of the summit at 0735, 3.5 miles from camp and 6.6 miles from the road. This is a high, grassy, flat area with a tremendous view in all directions. It was a cool, windy morning.

I decided to continue on a south fork nearly a mile down toward the huge valley separating us from Shavano and Tabeguache. It was very green and pretty from above. After a 12-point turn and a return up the hill we arrived on the ridge again. Next we drove east toward the high saddle just west of Antero's summit. This stretch of road is steep, rough, and narrow, but we made it 1.0 mile further, to the last hairpin turn at about 13600'.

We parked in the middle of one of the bright white (pegmatite?) outcroppings that contain Mount Antero's famous gems (aquamarines and quartz, mostly). After collecting rocks a while, Jeff and I sauntered up the ridge east to Antero's summit in half an hour, gaining about 670' total. Now the easy way to climb a Four- teener! We enjoyed the view for an hour until 1040. I counted 40 (!) identifiable Fourteeners visible from the peak (with bino- culars).

We returned to the saddle at about 13700' and collected more rocks. I was disappointed that the area was quite well picked over. We found only small scraps of blue quartz. Playing with the rock hammers was fun, though.

At 1245 we drove 1.8 miles down, across a broad bowl, and up to the end of the road on Mount White, directly south of Antero. Here we did more rock hounding for over an hour on talus slopes and in mine tailings, along with several other parties. Again, we didn't find any noteworthy gems. The weather continued clear and beautiful; just being up there with all the distant peaks around us was enough.

We returned to the 13100' ridge at 1450 and proceeded 6.3 miles down the mountain to the road in just 1:50, including a 20 minute wash-up and wading break at Baldin Creek (ahhh!). I've noticed that my Jeep's mileage consistently is lower on the return (downhill). I guess the tires slip going up and slide going down.

By 1720, Jeff and Anna were at the Hot Springs Pool, and I had decided to spend the night on Mount Princeton - coming up next.