Passes and Goats

As many of you may know, and for those of you who don't, one cannot access Guanella Pass and Mount Bierstadt from the North (Georgetown) side. So last Wednesday as I approached Guanella from highway 285, I was curious to see what the parking lot would look like. I figured this closure would have an impact but did not realize its extent. There were exactly 18 cars in the lot when I arrived at 7am. I have been here before a this time on a Wednesday and have counted over 60-70 cars in the lot, with an overflow of parallel parking running for about a quarter mile on each side of the pass. Literally over 150 cars on a WEDNESDAY!!

Well, sure enough, Guanella Pass will not be seeing the car traffic this season and Bierstadt will definitely not be seeing its typical foot traffic. This is a good thing and will create less ecological impact in the area that CFI and the Forest Service will have to deal with in the future but could also be a bad thing.

What would you do if you were planning on hiking a fourteener only to find out that to access it you would have to drive an extra 2-3 hours. Would you (A) drive the extra 2-3 hours or (B) drive an extra 30 minutes to the closest 14er you could find? I think the answer for most of us would be easy to make and that's what the masses are doing...driving to Grays and Torreys, to Quandary, or to Evans. So the fact that one access point is closed will actually push this traffic into other areas!

Some info on goats: The mountain goats that you see in Colorado are not native and were actually introduced in the late 1940's for the purpose of hunting. They have essentially become part of the cultural landscape and many hikers look forward to seeing them on 14ers. Below you can see a group on Quandary taking advantage of the goats habitualized behaviour. They will get so close up you don't need a zoom to photograph them...but remember, NEVER APPROACH THE GOATS!!

Just like all the animals in the alpine zone, goats are salt deprived and seek it out under all circumstances. LNT protocol says to urinate on a rock when you are above treeline. Because animals are salt deprived, they will lick up your urine and if you pee on vegetation, they will just eat it too. Below you can see a section of tundra that has been scuffed up by some goats. This section was about 2 feet off the trail and about 3 feet in diameter. I was at this exact point 3 days before this picture was taken and this soil was not exposed at that time. Chances are that within those three days, someone urinated directly off the trail and the goats came by to consume the salt. You can even see goat fur on some tundra on the right side of the photo.

So needless to say and as the photo depicts...if you have to relieve yourself in the alpine ecosystems...GO WATER A ROCK!

-BW