[Journal entry for March 20, 2014; Meadow Creek Trail, Eagles Nest Wilderness, Frisco CO]. Like the North Tenmile Trail that Dallas and I hiked earlier this week, the Meadow Creek Trail heads west from Frisco Colorado into the high elevations of the Eagles Nest Wilderness. The two trails are on opposite sides of Chief Mountain, a low east-west oriented ridge. The trailhead is about a half mile down a road that parallels Interstate 70, and which is connects to the rotary at the Route 9 exit in Frisco. The snow on this road was heavily rutted and a challenge to drive, though I suppose I could have parked near the rotary and hiked it, had I wanted to. The day was sunny with temperatures in the mid-twenties Fahrenheit. I wore just a long-sleeved shirt, though I carried cold weather gear in my pack, just in case. The snow on the trail was well-packed, so I wear just instep crampons, though I expected to have to switch to snowshoes, later on, on the less well-traveled part.

A few Telemark skiers passed me as I started out. The trail ascends through woods of Aspen and Lodgepole Pine. It crosses one big clearing that affords a nice view back east toward Dillon Lake, but mostly stays within fairly dense woods. Some sections of the trail must follow a woods road or fire break, for the trees have been cut back to make a straight lane. I come to the Lilly Pad Lake Trail intersection is a few minutes. It’s marked with a sign; I’ve been expecting it, for it’s on my map. A few hundred yards further along, I come to another intersection. It’s not on my map and is unmarked; furthermore, both paths seem about equally trod. However, I can see a Wilderness Boundary sign a little further along the right hand path, so I take it – and fortunately this choce proved to be correct. I suspect that the left track climbs up onto Chief Mountain.

Although the trail follows Meadow Creek, I saw very little of it, for the trail says high up on the north side of the valley. The only view of it that I found was where the trail crosses the creek. Meadow Creek is much smaller than North Tenmile Creek, which Dallas and I visited earlier this week. Like North Tenmile, it was flowing briskly, but mostly beneath the snow, with an occasional open trough through which its water could be glimpsed. A narrow log bridge spanned the creek, but it was heaped with snow and had seen no recent traffic. Everyone, including me, crossed a snow bridge a little upstream of the log bridge.

As I proceeded uphill, the trail began to bend to the north (though still following the creek) and became less and less traveled by people. One section has seen some elk traffic. Their large hooves had post-holed the snow. I had to pay careful attention to avoid tripping. Eventually, the forest opened up, and the trail crossed numerous small open glades. I switched to snowshoes here. The glades provided many pretty views, some back toward Dillon Lake and others to wooded Chief Mountain, a low ridge to the southwest, and to the bare arête atop Tenmile Mountain, beyond. I came to a place where the track I was following branched. The “real” trail seemed to descend down into a large open glade, but the few people who had come this way continued to follow the contour. The snow in the open glade looked quite deep and fluffy, whereas the snow on the hillside was compacted and easier to hike. So I, like my predecessors, followed the contour. I followed the snowshoe trail until it ended, and then made my own way, until I came to the edge of a very wide, open glade set on the hillside. I had been hiking for three hours and decided to make this my end point, so I hung my pack on a dead tree and had lunch.

The view northward across the glade was superb. The bowl-shaped end of the valley was below and ahead of me. Beyond it was set of peaks that formed a circular rock wall. The tallest of the peaks had a huge cornice, like a frozen break wave, on its southern slope. The trail somehow ascends up to Eccles Pass, just right of the peak, but from my vantage I could not quite see its route. Perhaps a half mile ahead of me was the intersection with the Gore Range Trail. Had it been summer, I would have been tempted to take it south to the North Tenmile Trail and make a loop of my trip. Today, I was doubtful that I would have even been able to find it, especially had it not been recently traveled. After finishing my lunch, I walked back to the trail intersection and explored the first few hundred years of the lower route. I found the eroded depression of the foot trail on one small rise of land, blown free of snow -everything else was guesswork. The view here was not as open as my lunch spot on the hillside, but still offered a great view of the largest peak.

I then headed back. On the hillside above the trailhead I passed a group of mothers with their children. The kids were snowboarding down the slope and then huffing back up. I saw very little wildlife on my hike – just a few squirrel and small birds.

About five and quarter hours.