Chicago Basin (For Hart's B-Day)

Notes: This was an epic trip that took a year to plan. We had 13 people in our group representing California, Colorado, Missouri, New Mexico, and Hawaii. Just getting to the trailhead was a major feet. It involved driving five hours to Durango and then taking a narrow-gauge steam powered train deep into the woods. They literally stop in the middle of the woods two hours away from Durango and let off hikers. There is no station, bathroom, store, cell service, etc.

The hike into Chicago Basin is about 6.5 miles. We broke it up into two days because we had "newbies" with us. If it were just Hart and I, we could have done the whole 6.5 miles in one day. It would have sucked, but it can be done. The trail is easy to follow and not too steep. It follows a creek the whole way but in most cases would be a pretty serious hike down to get water. There was a creek crossing about two miles in if we needed to fill up. At 3.2 miles there was a perfect camping spot just off the trail for our group to spend the night. We were lucky that we found it because this was the last option for two more miles.

The next day, four of us summited Sunshine, a class 3/4 peak, and seven of us bagged Windom Peak.We had quite and adventure on Windom peak due to lightning and hail. My dad and I were hunkered down as lightning hit within a mile of us multiple times. Hart said he could actually see the lightning hitting on the summit when my dad and I were only a couple hundred feet away. "What's a little hail?" I stated.The trip ended with a great hike back to the train and a relaxing ride back into the Durango Station. Naturally we followed this adventure with a big dinner, several beers, and very long showers.