CDT Cottonwood Pass North Out and Back

With some time to use productively I wanted to get some high altitude exposure and move the legs a little bit today. So I decided a simple drive up to Cottonwood Pass with a short hike on the Colorado Trail would fit the bill. It also would just be scenic. After getting my little camp set up at the Sawatch Ascent trailhead where many of the runners were camping I made the drive up to Cottonwood Pass. The drive itself was quite beautiful with many of the aspen's already turning golden. I had the window in the car open just to soak in all the wonderful air. Up at the pass it was down to 58°. The recent dusting of snow had melted off in today's sun. I didn't want to work out the legs too hard today and so I decided to head in the northerly direction which has just a little bit of gain and descent. It's also a direction I really hadn't gone very far on before. Not to mention it's heading in the direction of the hike I did with my boys in June. We had come up from Texas Creek and instead of heading to Cottonwood Pass we made our way over to Brown's Pass and then on down to Hartenstein Lake. This section of the Colorado Trail I could hike today would give me some views of the upper portion of that June route.

From the past the trail climbs up to a saddle above the road. I saw a hiker coming from the right (east) on a faint trail. Not sure if he was coming from the 13er Turner Peak or if he had just hiked up to the shorter hump just to the east. At the saddle the Colorado Trail does a 180 and starts to descend into what is eventually the Texas Creek drainage. I wanted to at least go 15 minutes or about 3/4 of a mile. When I hit those benchmarks it looked like I could go a little further around the corner and see some more views. I hit a good turnaround point and then made my way back. I didn't want to strain anything today. I could feel a little bit of huffing and puffing in the lungs on the offense. Hopefully this will get all the systems opened up.

Trip Info:
Colorado Trail + Continental Divide Trail from Cottonwood Pass
Trailhead Elevation: 12,097 ft.
Distance: 1.84 mi. 
Elevation Gain: 455 ft.
Start Time: 3:19pm
End Time: 4:14pm

Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.