Backpacking in the Comanche Peak Wilderness

(Note: links go to big pictures -- most on the order of 60-100kbytes. You are warned.)

We hiked in from the Pingree Park area, on the Beaver Creek trail. We chose this trailhead so that we could do a loop trip, but we hadn't picked our exact route, figuring that we'd make a decision when the trail divided, about 5 miles in.

After around 4 miles, alongside Comanche Reservoir, we ran into a Forest Service work party. The nice but somewhat patronizing ranger dude suggested that we not try to make it "all the way up the steep climb" to Browns Lake, but instead go to the lower Comanche Lake, or even camp at the far end of the reservoir. (Britt told me later he had to work hard to keep from laughing at ranger-dude's assumption that I was too weak for serious hiking.)

An encounter with two dayhiking fisherpeople who reported lots of campers "with at least five dogs among them" at Comanche Lake decided us on Browns Lake. The "steep climb" turned out to be fairly trivial, and we camped above the lake. In the evening, the lake was alive with jumping brook trout, but they were much more interested in the real flies than Britt's artificial one, so we did not have a trout dinner.

Morning at our campsite shows my solution to backcountry coffee. Mmmm good. After breakfast we hiked above Browns Lake on the Browns Lake trail, to its junction with the Flowers Trail, where there were ruins of an old cabin and a stream where we filtered water. The Flowers Trail curved back above the head of the valley we'd been in, and gave us a spectacular view of Browns and Timberline Lakes (large version of photo to right).

We continued on the Flowers Trail (uncropped and larger version of backpack photo on my main hiking page), which gave a nice view of the Rawahs to the northwest, to its junction with the upper stretch of the Beaver Creek Trail (there was a ruin of a cabin here, too!). As we started up the snowfields which covered the trail at this point, the weather got a bit dark and threatening, but it looked worse lower down than it did higher up, so we continued to the ridge, crossing many snowfields.)

At last we reached the junction with the Mirror Lake Trail (no wrecked cabins, just lots of elk tracks). This trail descended briefly and crossed Willow Creek, and then climbed out of the drainage and across a meadow with a fine view of the Rawahs (uncropped version of photo at top).

I'd picked as a destination a spot on the map marked "Munroe Cabin," expecting it to be a ruin similar to the others. Much to our surprise, Munroe cabin turned out to be relatively intact, with a sod roof complete with flowers growng out of it. Sure, the windows were just holes, the door would neither open or close all the way, and there were gaps between the walls and the roof large enough to throw a hiking boot through, but home is where you hang your hat, right? So we decided to set up camp at the cabin (large version of photo to left) , laying our sleeping bags inside but setting up our kitchen outside in the meadow, where we could enjoy the view of the cabin with the mountains beyond while we ate dinner.

The next morning we hiked to the junction of the Mirror Lake Trail with the Hourglass Trail. The Mirror Lake Trail eventually goes into Rocky Mountain National Park. Near the junction, we dropped our packs, taking only daypacks with some clothes, food, and water, and headed cross-country for Comanche Peak.

On our way to the summit, we skirted the shoulder of the mountain on the southwest, in order to get a view of Mirror Lake below. The summit consisted of three small rocky humps along a ridge; according to the map, the easternmost was the true summit, but we did not find a benchmark as we expected there. The westernmost Comanche Peak summit (uncropped and larger version of photo at bottom) is the neatest, though, with lots of big rock blocks to climb.

We enjoyed a quick glissading descent, then rejoined our backpacks. After a long lunch break we headed down the Hourglass Trail, which eventually rejoined the Beaver Creek Trail just downstream of Comanche Reservoir, and hiked back to the trailhead.