Silverado Loop with Emmett

Last Friday, January 22, I left about 6am to meet up with my friend Emmett in front of the Christmas tree farm on Black Star Canyon Road. Originally, we had planned to hike to Santiago Peak from Maple Springs Road. But I learned online just before heading out that morning, that the gate at Maple Springs Road was closed. A gate closed here would add about 7 miles to my pre-planned route. So, plans changed on the spot. We still drove my truck into Silverado Canyon and began our hike on Maple Springs Road. But we began it on the paved road, where the gate was closed and hiked it to the dirt road and then up to The Main Divide. But instead of turning right on The Main Divide toward Modjeska and Santiago Peaks, we turned left, toward the minor peaks, Bald and Bedford, to close up a giant circle that is often called The Silverado Loop.

Heading up Maple Springs Road:

It was a beautiful day and quite chilly. So chilly, that my teeth chattered during the earliest hours. But hiking up that mountain tends to warm things up, especially when hiking up with Emmett. One step from the ultra tall ultra runner is about three of mine (and I suspect that he was even slowing down for me).

Being that the gate was closed, there were no vehicles anywhere, which is very nice. As a matter of fact, there were no people anywhere either. We didn’t see another person until the very end, just a couple of miles from my truck.

After climbing Maple Springs Road, there’s a nice little down hill section, but after that, there’s more climbing. There’s a tremendous amount of climbing on this loop in fact. Talk about suffering. There’s plenty of glorious suffering on the Silverado Loop. Also, plan for lots of hours away from home if you do this hike. Our moving time was 5:41:33 (actual time was of course greater due to occasional stops.)

The Main Divide:Looking back on Maple Springs Road:Heading down Silverado Motorway:

Great company and great trails encompassing approximately 17 miles, with 4,500’ of elevation gain I didn’t get many pictures however. I didn’t notice until I arrived home that there was gunk on my lens and many of my photos were blurred (even the “group” photo of Emmett and I at the top of the motorway was blurry).

Oh, and there was lots of climbing! Did I mention that? My Gluteus maximus muscles ached for 3 days (just in time for my next hike).