Saguarche Park Road to Eddiesville TH
The hot, dusty CT track weaves up and down along the rocky slope above lovely Cochetopa creek (right-hand track.) Nicer, but potentially muddy, trails follow the stream bed.
Long views in ranch country.
This is the messy intersection at 2.4 -- the pic is taken looking back from the way you come (if you're headed to Durango.) You can see the post marker -- the cows promptly knocked it back down again after I left. Careful here!
Had the Gunnison Sherriff stop me at the beginning of this segment. Yep. He wanted to know if I'd seen two hikers, who'd called in due to a sprained ankle. I had to tell him that I'd not seen anyone matching the description. He nodded sadly. "This happens every couple'a weeks," he said, "they almost always get a hitch into town long before we can get here. But I had to drive sixty miles to find that out." He sighed. "They never do let us know." He drove on, planning to look for the hikers for another hour or so, then head back -- half a day's work and a whole lot of taxpayer dollars for nothing. I'm not sure the moral here needs repeating... but I'm going to do it anyway. For heaven's sakes! Don't call S&R and then go do your own thing without letting them know! Honestly. Ok, no more soapbox now. Really.
The first half of this segment is cowtown central. If you've been so lucky as to escape seeing cattle before now... well, never fear, there are lots of spotting opportunities here. This is a real problem around mile 2.4, where the road becomes a morass of mud and hoofprints and dirt tracks going everywhere. There is a signpost towards the middle-right of the tangle -- just push cows out of your way until you can find the pile of rocks where the sign is supposed to stand. One of those fallen posts near the base will have a triangle marker on it. Don't worry too much about wedging the post upright again; the cows'll promptly just push it over -- people following two hours behind me found the sign as flat as it was when I arrived, with a cow laying atop it, to boot.
Fortunately, you soon cross over a high grassy saddle and descend towards Cochetopa creek, which is beautiful. There are abundant grassy campsites -- the first one lacks nearby wood for a fire, though, so you might want to choose a spot a little further along or spend some time collecting from the hillside above before dark. The Guidebook names this the loneliest segment, but I chatted or camped with a good half-dozen or more hikers, so don't let the threat of solitude frighten you off.
After you head upstream across the creek and then enter the wilderness, the trail heads up the narrow Cochetopa valley, keeping high over the river bottom, probably to avoid mud and floods. But parallel trails below looked much more temperate and far more interesting, albeit possibly slower. The CT and these fishermen's trails lead to the same place... but once you start seeing expansive pale white cliffs to your left, it's time to head right, up the hill, to rejoin the CT. It's then only another two miles to the ranch houses of Eddiesville.
Well-worn track meanders along the valley bottom around mile 7.
The bridge over Cochetopa creek, at mile 9.7, isn't nearly as hard to find as the guidebook implies. The 'strange' rock formation mentioned in the guidebook is also pictured here.
Suggested updates to the guidebook:
0.0
The segment begins where the trail splits from Saguarche Park Road, so keep an eye open to your right.
1.2
There are a few steep, but very brief, climbs, then you dip down into Ant creek. It was flowing, when I passed -- it probably flows several days after each rainstorm. However, it was thoroughly trampled by cattle, and the water resembled tea.
1.5, 2.2
Neither of these turns, mentioned in the databook, was particularly noticeable.
2.4
This is the spot where I came closest to being dangerously lost. The phrase 'maze of roads' in the databook is an apt description. The signpost is probably laying where a cow pushed it over. If you can't find it, head straight and slightly right, towards a place where the trail threads between two fenced long-grass/marshy areas.
3.6
After you come over a hilltop with awesome views, and go through a gate, you'll drop down into a broad valley stretching off to your left. At the bottom, there's another fence-protected wetland/long-grass area. There is sometimes water at the down-slope edge of this wetland area.
5.4
Large, pretty meadow atop this saddle. This area would make a nice camp... but unfortunately, everything is plastered in cow poop. If you have any choice in the matter, keep going -- just another 1.5 miles!
5.6
FS gate
7.0
At long last, Cochetopa creek. This valley is beautiful, and the fly fishing is fantastic. There are numerous campsites all along the river.
9.8
The CT climbs high above the river. It dips up and down and is much hotter and more boring than the pretty little paths that follow the river. So far as I can tell, the river and hillside paths all go the same direction -- upriver. However, near mile 11.5, you should probably abandon the river paths, as the valley narrows and grows rocky. (See picture below.)
12.0
FS gate
12.1
This 'grassy bench' is actually a big, rolling, clifftop meadow -- signs of cattle reappear abundantly, alas.
12.8
You can finally start spotting ranch buildings up ahead.
13.1
This 'split' is no longer very visible -- just follow the marked trail. It's hard to get lost up there.
13.7
Gate, register, and parking area at this trailhead.
The elevation profile is roughly correct for this segment -- though again, the places which look smooth on the profile... usually aren't.
----> Onward, to Segment 20!
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