Near The Boundary--James Peak Wilderness Area

Wilderness -- "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain ... an area protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions." —The Wilderness Act of 1964

The U.S. Congress designated the James Peak Wilderness Area in 2002. The wilderness encompasses 17,015 acres and lies along and east of the Continental Divide from Rollins Pass almost to highway US 40 at Berthoud Pass. It’s an alpine wonderland that provides sweeping mountain views across alpine tundra, hosts more than a dozen alpine lakes and tarns, and contains wonderful mountain peaks that rise majestically to elevations as high as 13,391 feet at Parry Peak and 13,294 feet at James Peak. The Continental Divide Trail traverses along the western edge of the wilderness, and a number of other popular trails provide access to more remote reaches of the wilderness. The trail systems includes more than 20 miles of marked trails. James Peak Wilderness is separated from Indian Peaks Wilderness by the Rollins Pass Road. It is administered by the U.S. Forest Service. I recall with some fondness my climbs of all the mountains in this wilderness area. Some were winter climbs that will always be remembered, especially a long winter night on James Peak spent with climbing buddies in a large snow cave we dug out of deep snow. We were snug as bugs while the weather raged outside!

“Heartbeat Peak”

The cache is located near the summit of “Heartbeat Peak”, elevation 12,251 feet. The wilderness area and Continental Divide run directly across the highest point of this mountain. The cache is well west of the actual wilderness boundary. It was placed on August 7th, the 10th anniversary of the death of my long-time climbing partner Carolyn Randall (Denali Queen). She died while descending from the summit of the Matterhorn during a severe electrical storm during our climbing trip to the European Alps in 2008. In early 2006 she made a winter ascent of “Heartbeat Peak” from the east while on a training climb for an expedition to Denali in Alaska. Today was my first time up the mountain. I went with a muggle friend who had known Carolyn well. My puppies Orizaba and Chimborazo were also with us. The purpose of the hike to this summit was to complete an interesting climbing objective both of us had: to have hiked or climbed to the summits of all the ranked and unranked-but-named peaks on the Continental Divide from Baker Pass on the western side of Rocky Mountain National Park, to Berthoud Pass. 54 mountains are crossed by the divide in this stretch, with 24 of them rising above 13,000 feet in elevation. This was the last one for Paul and for me. It was a lovely day.

To commemorate the completion of this objective I hid this Near The Boundary cache. Enjoy it. The cache is hidden on the downhill side of a highly distinctive triangular-shaped rock that projects above surrounding rocks by 3-4 feet. See the spoiler photo. Because the uniqueness of the location, when used in conjunction with the spoiler photo makes it such an easy find, I’ve given it a Difficulty of 1.0. The Terrain rating is based on the long drive on a bumpy, rocky road you will take on the approach toward Rollins Pass, followed by a significant but easy hike of about 5 miles RT involving about 1,200 feet of elevation gain. Use a high clearance vehicle to reach the trailhead opposite the old trestle.