Day 18: Herman Gulch

View Herman Gulch in a larger map

Herman Gulch is in Arapahoe National Forest and the trail composes a section of the CDT or Continental Divide Trail. From the trailhead you head up a couple hundred yards to a fork - Watrous Gulch to the right, Herman Gulch to the left. There is a lake at the terminus of the gulch that is about 3.2 miles or 5k or so. The sign says 3.75 miles, but I think the winter use trail is slightly shorter because it doesn't wind into the trees, but stays in the clearing by the creek.

The view North West up the gulch from the clearing above the initial climb.

Looking South at Mount Sniktau . . .

We were the first group at the trailhead this day, although others soon followed. Fortunately we had no one in front of us, which made for a solitary and tranquil hike up. After the first steep hill, things graded out a bit, and it was a steady trod up a slight hill. We worked our way in for about 1:45 before resting at a tree around 11600' (marked on the map with a star). In hindsight, we were quite near the lake and should have finished the trek, but we decided to turn back as Ryan and Dom were getting fatigued and we didn't know how far we had come. Here's more pics of Dom and Ryan in action.

While there appeared to be several places to take in some turns, the snowpack was very striated and the hollow thud from our steps didn't make me feel any more comfortable. We found this treed and viable ski run at ~1:15 into the hike, identified on the map. Good slope aspect, enough vertical, not too steep, good tree coverage.