[Journal Entry for March 16, 2015; South Willow Creek via the Loop Trail, Eagle’s Nest Wilderness, near Silverthorne Colorado] Dallas and I hike the Mesa Cortina Trail to South Willow Creek, a beautiful valley nestled between Buffalo Mountain and Red Peak, in the Eagle’s Nest Wilderness. We park at the hikers’ lot off of Royal Redbird Drive on the outskirts of Silverthorne. I have walked the Mesa Cortina Trail before, and so am familiar with its twists and turns as it follows the edge of the pediment around Buffalo Mountain. The trail is mostly through pine woods, but with occasional viewpoints. The views of Ptarmigan Mountain, across the wide valley that includes the town of Silverthorne and Dillon Lake, are very nice. The snow is still pretty deep, maybe three feet in places. We wear microspikes, for the trail is packed hard, though we carry snowshoes on our packs, in case we run into softer conditions. We have to walk exactly on the most trampled part of the trail; if we stray even a few inches off to the side, we post-hole up to our thighs.

We are in unfamiliar territory once we cross the footbridge over South Willow Creek and turn onto the Loop Trail (Gore Range Trail 60). The trail follows South Willow Creek, which soon widens out into a large wetland, perhaps a half mile upstream of the bridge. Dallas and I switch to snowshoes and bushwhack to the edge of the meadow, where we find a bare spot beneath and evergreen tree for lunch. Had we been able to see under the snow of this wide meadow, I suspect that we would find ponds impounded by beaver dams. But today we can see only a white plain of snow, with willow bushes and occasional pine trees poking through, and with several sinuous depressions were water flowing in little creeks has melted through the snow.

After lunch, I snowshoe across the meadow, following deer tracks as far as the main channel of South Willow Creek, which flows along the far, southern side of the meadow. The views are just extraordinary. The U-shaped Red-Buffalo Pass, a highland region connecting Buffalo Mountain and Red Peak, is especially beautiful. I have explored this wetland once before, but today I am approaching it by a new route. I am unable to find any definitively recognizable feature from my previous visit. One willow bush looks pretty much like another!

While Dallas rests, I return to the Loop Trail, switch back to microspikes and walk a bit further along it. I want to close the gap between this and my previous hike. I try to find a spot along the trail that I recognized. Although the terrain looks familiar, I can pick out no feature that is convincingly the same as one I encountered before. I turn back before reaching the intersection with the Buffalo Cabin Trail, the only real landmark in the area. I returned to Dallas and we turned about and retraced our route. The afternoon sun has warmed the trail and the post-holing is worse, yet we persevere with our micro-spikes.

About five hours.