Pecos Wilderness Route help

Sounds like an awesome trip! I am contemplating a Memorial day weekend trip to the Pecos this year. If you don't mind my asking, how are you getting to the trailhead? I would likely fly in to Sante-fe or Albuquerque, but haven't figured out how to get to a trailhead without renting a car.

The plan is to rent a car in Santa Fe and drive to the trailhead. I am not sure of any public transportation that goes to the trailhead so we just decided to rent a car.

I just uploaded my gear list to my profile.

Just an update to whoever may be planning a spring trip; many ski areas are starting to close despite a decent base of snow. Article:

http://m.santafenewmexican.com/opinion/local_columns/there-s-a-trick-to-making-the-most-of-spring/article_c6a4b5b6-32d8-5303-b91d-407bf4293fb4.html?mode=jqm

Of course a late snow storm could deposit some big drifts to practice those postholer skills but right now it's looking muy caliente for this summer.

Thanks for the update. I can't wait to hit the trail. We will be there in two months!

Does anyone have an update on the trail/snow conditions in the Pecos? We are supposed to hit the trail this Sunday but I am worried about snow especially as we are coming up the north slope.

Trip plan as of now is to start at the Santa Barbra trailhead and take Trail 25 along the west fork of the Santa Barbra River up and over the ridge to Truchas Lake then follow the high ridge east/northeast to Serpent Lake then back up to the ridge past Jicarita Peak and down trail 27 to the car.

Will it be too snowy for that?

If so should I change trailheads and routes? There aren't any real options from the Santa Barbra trailhead that don't go up to the main ridge.

The weather looks good with highs in the mid 50's at elevation and lows around freezing.

I was up on the west side about 3 wks ago and ran into decent snow in the drainages. However, there has been some snow and precip since then from both south and north.

Ed: Caleb has better info below:

See my post here:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=103455

Two weeks ago, I went in at the ski area and snowshoed around lake katherine, then hiked over towards jacks creek area.

Snow Line was around 10,500 ft on north/east facing slopes. Above that, I used snowshoes. The Pecos drainage looked more melted out from what I could see, at least the south + west facing slopes.

I was planning on returning this weekend to do a similar trip to you starting at Santa Barbara trailhead. While I didn't reconnoiter the Santa Barbara drainage, I am switching to a Jacks Creek TH start because I expect it to be more melted out.

Maybe I will see you out there…

Now I am scrambling to find something lower and on the southern side. Any suggestions for areas in Pecos to check out? I really like alpine lakes and above tree line hiking but that may not happen without serious post holing. My wife would probably not be happy with tons of snow. If we were to come in at one of the trailheads around jacks creek are there any highlights, lakes, good crampsites, meadows, etc that would point me in the right direction. I really need to sit down with caltopo tonight.

Pecos and Santa Fe have some historical sites themselves but a lot of private ownership around them, big fishing areas on either side of NM 63. The jacks ck TH connects to Beatty's Tr 25 and there's an intersection with Jack Ck trail (Tr 257) at a scenic view with scenic meadows on either side going into Jacks Ck. (pretty mellow after initial switchbacks).

http://www.summitpost.org/east-pecos-baldy/709223#chapter_2

Jacks Ck itself has plenty of camps next to the creek and if you continue north you hit the Pecos Baldy region with Pecos Baldy Lk, Trailriders, and (watch for cornices) another neat alpine lake down a cliff from there. From Jacks Ck, I've usually continued onto this Pecos Baldy region but have been west from Jacks Ck, there's Tr. 259 (Dottweilers) down towards Panchuela and Tr 288 Cave Ck reroute to Tr 251 and Lakes Johnson and Stewart – think that's Manez's thread that Caleb responded to.

Add normally if there has been snow after Jacks Ck on Tr 257, it's older and in the sunny clear weather. I've been able to fairly easily posthole and just base camp on some exposed soil. This May has seen early moisture from the south (turning into high altitude snow) that I've never experienced before in my 20 years coming up to the Pecos. May be a bit more snow than I'm used to. In fact our group BPL trip there a few yrs ago was sandwiched between two drought/fire closures on or a bit after Memorial Day.

If it is a pretty lake you want, I'd consider visiting Stewart lake. It is snow-free getting there and quite pretty. You could go up the Windsor trail and loop back around via Tr. 259. See the thread I linked to earlier. Panchuela creek along Tr. 259 was very pretty when I was there. If you want more, then you could head up to Jacks creek and try to visit Pecos Baldy Lake (snow depending) or some lower trail in the Pecos drainage.

Also… If it freezes at night, there will be a nice crust that may allow you to get through the shaded areas without too much postholing. I was able to hike for a few hours in the morning without snowshoes on the nights that it got into the 20's. Once you get up on the exposed ridgelines, I'd expect them to be a swept more free of snow.

Another word of advise. Take a look at the recent burn map below. I hiked through some of the fire affected area near horse thief meadow, and the deadfall was horrific in places. I would avoid fire affected trails.

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3818552.pdf

Bradford, I'm planning a trip to Pecos Wilderness and am trying to figure out what to do given all the snow. If you went through with your trip, it would be great to hear where you went and how it went.

I did winsor trail up to the creek junction near Stewart lake. It's all snow free, beside little spots here and there. I talked to park office and told me snowshoes are needed for Katherine lake, which I can see the peak close to it all covered by snow. As Caleb said, as long as you are 10500 f or below, you should be fine.

Also I want to mention that it's a great hike, really nice place. The weather is kinda similar to mountains, where clouds form afternoon and you start hear/see some thunders. When starting winsor trailhead, there will be a creek after about a .7 mile, then nothing I saw till we got to the junction near Stewart lake, which is 5 to 5.5 miles after the first creek.

Adam,

My wife got sick the first night (headaches, nausea, dizziness, etc) so we spent one night at 10,300 feet above Jacks Creek and then went back to the car. We just saw a few scattered patches of snow left over but nothing major. It snowed on us the first day but didn't stick ( I am guessing temps were in the low 40's) We ran into some people that had gone to Pecos Baldy Lake and they claimed 3-4 of snow.

I wish I could be more help.