wildwanderer – Page 33 – Wild Wanderer

Electric Peak A – 13,618 and Lakes Peak – 13,384

RT Length: 19 miles

Elevation Gain: 6661’

I feel like I was just here. Well, actually, last week I climbed Cottonwood Peak which is 2 miles away, so it stands to reason.

I got a picture of the shoes on the drive in this time… easy 2WD dirt road to the trailhead.

This time I got to spend the night. I arrived at the trailhead early (around 2pm) after my failed attempt at 13,636.

I was excited to discover I had cell service, and the first thing I did was order a new water bottle (I’d lost mine on my last hike). So, what to do with all this extra time? I really wanted to sleep, but I just…. Couldn’t. It was too hot outside. I know, right? Too hot, in the first week of May? But there you have it, I was roasting in the back of my truck, so I kept the windows open. The view was great. I’d parked near a copse of scrub oak.

I decided to write down some trip notes from the day and text a few people (since I had service). There was a nice breeze outside. I heard a loud buzzing noise, and had a hummingbird fly into my truck and back out again. So cool! Someone drove in with a rather large horse trailer and I thought I may have neighbors for the night, but they lived adjacent to the trailhead and just drove through.

Oh, I should eat. But I wasn’t hungry. I forced myself to eat some tuna and a handful of pistachios. And I had 3 shots of whiskey. There, that should make me tired. But nope, I still couldn’t fall asleep.

So I set up everything for tomorrow and walked around a bit. When I got back to my truck a car was parked in front of mine, and I saw an older woman walking around. I said hi, and that I hadn’t heard her drive up. But that wasn’t her car. She lived across the street and was just checking the trail register. A man had signed it, saying he was headed towards Major Creek and should be back by 5. Well, now I wouldn’t be able to sleep until after 5. He didn’t show up by 5:30, and I decided to was exhausted by that time, so I fell asleep.

I only woke up once during the night, around 10:30pm, to barking. The barking didn’t stop all night, and I assumed it belonged to the lady I’d seen earlier in the day (ok, her dog). My alarm went off and I snoozed it for an hour (the dog was still barking), but eventually I left my warm bed and got ready for the day. I was on the trail by 3am, armed with 2 16oz bottles of water. The dog was still barking.

To expedite things I’d signed the trail register the night before, so today I was able to start hiking right away. The trail starts to the right (southeast) and hugs the mountainside.

Then the trail switchbacks down to Major Creek.

I must admit, this caught me off guard. Not the part about crossing Major Creek, but the part about losing 300’ of elevation to do so. In fact, I got out my map and compass several times to check that I was going the correct way. Unfortunately my compass wasn’t working correctly. It must have been the location, because I could clearly see the town lights to my right yet my compass was telling me I was headed in the wrong direction. In any event, yes, the trail does switchback all the way to Major Creek, and then quickly crosses it twice. I was easily able to rock hop across without getting wet.

The trail winded through brush and chaparral

Before entering Aspen groves

Here’s a look at the route

After a mile of hiking I could no longer hear the dog barking, and I started seeing discarded deer legs on the trail (and hanging in the trees) from hunters last fall. I even saw a dead mouse in the middle of the trail. Oh, how I was regretting binge watching Stranger Things last month! After hiking about 3 miles I heard a loud “Woof!”. I stood still for 3 seconds, trying to figure out if I’d really heard what I’d heard when I heard two more quick barks: “Woof! Woof!”. I thought to myself “What wild animal barks? Coyotes yip and howl and so do wolves”. I concluded it must have been a dog (a large dog) and continued hiking. Weird since I was the only one for miles…

There was one annoying aspect to this hike (besides all the horse poop): So far I wasn’t gaining any elevation. I’d lost 300’ going down to Major Creek, and from then on I kept hiking up and down small hills. I’d think I was gaining in elevation only to lose it again and head back down to the creek.

At 4.8 miles (10100’) I came across measurable snow on the trail, and at 5 miles I crossed a small creek and came to a camp.

It was obviously a horse camp and I figured the guy who lived adjacent to the trailhead spent a lot of time here (in the summer).

The trail had been nice up until this point. A few downed aspens here and there, but nothing major. However, it was obvious not many people used the trail after the camp area.

I just kept heading northeast, and every now and again I’d find the trail. And then the snow began. Around 10,900’ snowshoes became mandatory.

At 11,000’ I turned right (east) and rounded a boulder field. I put some surveyors tape on a tree so I could remember where I exited. I only barely skirted the boulder field, and then continued southeast through some trees and into a meadow.

There was a lot of evidence of elk and moose in the meadow. I think they may bed down here at certain times of the year. At the end of the meadow there were cairns and I turned left (northeast) and followed a much better trail up the mountainside.

At times this trail was covered in several feet of snow, and at times it was bare, but it was always easy to follow. Postholing wasn’t fun, so I put on my snowshoes for a bit, and kept them on until the snow subsided.

Making it to the saddle was easy

From here I chose to do Electric Peak first, mainly because it was the taller of the two ranked peaks, and a little longer of a hike. I turned right (southeast) at the saddle, and followed the saddle towards the peak. This is much easier than it looks.

However, this is not the peak

As with Cottonwood Peak just a few miles away, Electric Peak A has a hidden summit

Luckily it was an easy ridge walk, first starting out with tundra, and then moving to larger rocks (all pretty stable)

I summited at 9:15am

Electric Peak A

There was a summit register. I don’t normally sign these things, but since it was apparent I was the first person to summit since October of last year and it was warm enough for me to take off my gloves, I signed it.

And turned to head back. I was a little worried about where the true summit to Lakes Peak was, considering all the false summits in this area. Originally I’d thought it was the peak to the left of the saddle, but now I was worried it was the peak behind that peak. I decided to get out my altimeter when I made it to the top of the false summit and do the math. Here’s a look at the ridge back

When I made it to just above the saddle I was very pleased to find out the peak before me was indeed Lakes Peak. I headed down to the saddle, and then up the ridge, being careful to stay just to the left of the snow

There was still a lot of snow in the basin to the east, but not much to the west. While hiking down I saw a boulder the size of a microwave break off and roll down the hillside, coming to rest in the basin. It was neat to see the trail it left behind.

The trek up Lakes Peak was full of very loose rock. I felt that at any minute I was going to cause a rockslide, so I placed my footing accordingly. By this time I was quite tired, so it was slow going.

I summited Lakes Peak at 11:10am

Lakes Peak:

There was a summit register here too, but I couldn’t open it so I didn’t sign it. Also, the clouds were moving in quickly and I wanted to get below treeline. I turned to head back down the ridge

When I got to the saddle I stopped to fill one of my water bottles with snow. It was a hot day and I wanted to be prepared in case I needed more water: It was still 7 miles back.

From the saddle, here’s the route back (after you make it to the basin)

The snow at treeline to about 11,000’ was awful: Mushy stuff that I sank in with every step (with snowshoes on) for about 2 miles.

I made it back to the basin, found the cairn, and headed back over the boulder field, found the yellow surveyors tape I’d left, and headed southwest back down to Major Creek

No, it was not a fun trail to follow, even in the daylight

I passed the horse camp, and an old abandoned cabin at 9780’

The entire way back there were hundreds (thousands?) of dead trees littering the sides of the trail. It looked like an avalanche had come through, or the trees had all been killed off and the wind had blown them over. Speaking of wind! It didn’t stop! It kept getting stronger and stronger, and I feared one of the dead trees would fall over on me as I was hiking. I heard lots of creaking and swaying.

I’d been worried about the last 300’ of elevation gain climb from Major Creek up to the trailhead, but it ended up being easier than I’d thought, mostly because of the great cloud cover and wind cooling things off. I just took it slow and kept putting one foot in front of the other. The cactus blossoms were nice.

I made it back to the trailhead at 3:45pm, making this a 19 mile hike with 6661’ of elevation gain in 12 hours, 45 minutes.

OK, I’ll do my whining here: I bought a new pair of winter climbing boots last week and wore them for the first time yesterday. I didn’t think much of it, and my feet did well. Today however, not so much: my feet did fine on the way up, but on the way back I was limping. The new boots were just too tight around my shins and when I took off my shoes at my truck noticed large bruises (3 inches in diameter) and blisters on my ankles both inside and outside. I really, really like these shoes, as they kept my feet warm, but I’m worried they’re going to take a lot of breaking in. Tonight I’m going to put them by the fire and hit them with a hammer for a while, trying to loosen them up, after soaking my feet in a salt bath.

13,626 – (attempt) from Grouse Canyon

RT Length: 5.67 miles
Elevation Gain: 3772’

Note: My successful summit of PT 13626 can be found here.

I got a late start on this one. My alarm didn’t go off and I woke up an hour late. Then I got stuck for an hour on HWY 24 around Manitou. I’m not sure why the road was closed, but I sat there for over an hour behind a Lay’s Delivery truck, stuck about 100 feet from the off-ramp. I could see flashing red and blue lights, but other then that it was dark. I’m guessing there was an accident just before we arrived. This made me really late to the trailhead, but I was hoping that since this is a shorter hike I’d avoid the mushy snow. I was wrong.

I arrived at the trailhead and was on the trail by 6am.

The sun was already starting to rise. I followed 292 for a tenth of a mile and turned right onto the trail

You can drive a vehicle up this road, but I’d say it’s more 4WD than I’d like. I was glad I’d parked where I had.

Just before the real start to the trail there was a warning sign:

Hmmmm. I looked at my topo map and couldn’t find Agnes Vaille Falls anywhere. Well, I was planning on summiting 13,636 and not Mt Princeton, so I figured I’d just keep an eye out for danger and not ascend/descend anything that looked like a “falls”.
There wasn’t much of a trail, but there were cairns

The problem was the cairns didn’t lead me to the right place. They led me to a small waterfall (oh no! Was this the falls?)

So I turned right (northeast) and headed up the steep mountainside to avoid the falls and ascend to the ridge.

This is actually much steeper than it looks. I found game trails and cairns everywhere, but none of them seemed to lead anywhere. Around 10,000’ I reached a plateau/ridge of sorts and turned left (north) and followed some cairns across the mountainside

It was pretty obvious to me I was the first one on this ‘trail’ all year

I came to an avalanche area. I don’t think it’s from this year; maybe last year? I just headed towards the ravine, being careful to watch for rolling logs

I followed the ravine to treeline. This was actually harder than it sounds, as the snow was already mush in areas, yet solid in others. It was like playing a reverse game of whack-a-mole.

I stuck to the rocks wherever possible

At treeline I made my way for the ridge. Unfortunately, what little snow there was unavoidable here. It doesn’t look like a lot, but I was postholing in areas and needing crampons in others.

When I reached the ridge this was the route I was supposed to take towards 13,636

So I headed on down to the basin. The first step I took onto the snow I sank up to my knee. Drat! The snow here was crunchy: about 6 inches of crust sitting on top of millions of small boulders (think toaster ovens and microwaves). I could tell trekking over the snow here wasn’t going to be safe and would only get worse as the day went on.

OK, plan B: Maybe the ridge goes up and around the basin? Looking at my topo map said it was worth a try. I headed back up to the ridge and followed it northeast

It had been my goal to find another way towards 13,626, but as I climbed higher I realized that was too dangerous: the ridge didn’t connect properly and there was potential for rockfall. It looked like this was a popular hangout for mountain goats (tons of tracks/scat/hair).

Plan C: Well, if I couldn’t summit 13,636 today I’d just change plans and summit 14er Mt Princeton. I knew I was close (probably a mile away) and I knew I could summit from this side. Here’s the route I intended to take (Mt Princeton is actually a little further to the northeast, on the other side of the ridge

I kept trudging along, until finally I decided to stop and put on some sunscreen. It was around 12,800’ I here I noticed I’d lost my water bottle! Oh no! I wasn’t thirsty, but I knew it was supposed to be warm today and to go on any further without water would have been a bad idea, even if I rarely drink on hikes. Drat! Because I didn’t have any water I made the decision to turn around. I felt it was the responsible thing to do. I turned around and headed back down the ridge

The snow was getting soft, and I was postholing in areas I’d walked across before

Yep, it was wise not to summit 13,636 today. I followed the ravine back down, bushwhacking a lot of the way to avoid postholing up to my thighs

I took a slightly different route back down, as there were cairns and game trails everywhere. I never knew which trail I was on, but tried to mirror my ascent as much as possible. It kept getting warmer and warmer, and I was glad I’d turned back: I was getting thirsty! I ended up descending a little more east than I’d ascended, down a heavily forested scrub oak/chaparral area. It was not pretty: I had branches hitting me in the face and used my pole to fend them off

It was all to avoid this huge boulder (I ascended to the left, descended to the right). It didn’t feel like either way was correct, but in hindsight the left (west)was probably the safer option up and down.

I was so excited when I made it back to the trail!

I took it the short distance to my truck. When I got there I got out a bottle of juice and downed most of it. Yes, turning back had been a good idea today. I got in my truck and started driving to the next trailhead.

Here’s the topo of my route. I still got in some decent elevation gain (3772’)

After driving for 5 minutes I ran my hand across the back of my neck… and felt something. I pinched it and looked at it: a tick! Ah! I flapped my hand to get it off, and thought I had, but when I turned my hand over it was crawling on the back of my hand. Luckily I had a pair of pliers in the front seat. I pulled over, picked up the pliers, and squeezed the tick before throwing it out the window. Wow. That’s the second tick I’ve seen in Colorado ever, and the second tick I’ve seen this year (the other was on the east coast in March on a highpointing expedition).

I kept driving, touching the back of my neck every few minutes checking for another tick. This tick was in the same place as the last one I’d had a few months ago. Wouldn’t you know it, 5 minutes later, another tick!!! In the same place. Ewww! I pulled over and got rid of it the same way as the first.

OK, now I was seriously weirded out. Every 30 seconds or so I’d touch the back of my neck, searching for another tick. By the time I made it to the next trailhead I hadn’t seen/felt one. I parked and got out my comb to do my hair. When I looked in the mirror I saw ANOTHER tick climbing up my braid! This was getting ridiculous! I disposed of this one the same way and decided to do a thorough tick check. I re-braided my hair, careful to use the comb and try to comb out any stray ticks. I didn’t find any more, but I was weirded out for the rest of the night (and much into the next day). Nope, I definitely wasn’t hiking 13,636 through Grouse Canyon on my next attempt: too many ticks!!! 3 in one day, when I’ve only ever seen 1 in the 13 years I’ve lived in Colorado.

Cottonwood Peak A – 13,597

RT Length: 11.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 5110’

I got a bit of a later start on this one that I’d intended, as when my alarm went off at 12:30am I hit snooze and slept another hour or so (I’d already summited 7 peaks in the past 2 days and was a little tired). I made it to the Hot Springs Trailhead after first being led by GPS to the Hot Springs (which the sign indicated clothing optional: it was also closed due to Covid-19 fears).

The drive to the trailhead is easy 2WD on a dirt road.

There was 1 other vehicle parked there when I got there, which I thought was odd. It was a newer VW and didn’t look like it had been there overnight. I tried to be quiet in case someone was sleeping in their car but thought to myself “Great! Someone else is trenching the trail for me!”

The trail is a loop, and I was surprised to find out it was actually an established trail. The morning was getting better and better!

Just as an FYI, you cannot see the peak from the parking lot, but it was dark so that didn’t matter anyway. I signed the trail register (which was difficult due to the cold temperatures and ballpoint pen available). I wanted to summit Cottonwood Peak first, so I took the trail clockwise, starting to the left

The trail starts off wandering through chaparral

Here the trail was clearly marked and easy to follow.

I rustled a sleeping ptarmigan as the trail switched to scrub oak

Once I entered the aspens the trail started to deteriorate. What I’d been pleased to discover was a good trail became a trail in much need of maintenance. I was navigating over fallen trees for the rest of the hike, and it became increasingly obvious no one had used this trail since the Fall and no one would be trenching for me today.

Around 2.4 miles there was a great spot for a campsite (10130’)

What I found disturbing were the number of dead animals I encountered on this hike. There were deer remains everywhere (I’m pretty sure it was more than one deer, spread out over a few miles) and a lot of bird feathers. It let me know there was a predator in the area, I just wasn’t sure which kind?

I encountered the first real snow after about 2.6 miles. It was still early in the morning so I didn’t need traction, but I did posthole from time to time. Here the trail was difficult to see, as it was both covered in fallen trees/branches and snow.

Here things got interesting: I came across bear tracks! They looked like they were from the day before, and since there was only one set of prints I knew it wasn’t a mama, and that it was just passing through. I followed prints along the trail for about a mile

Since the trail was difficult to follow and the snow was getting softer I found myself straddling the ravine and following the small stream around the mountain

It became increasingly apparent I was the only one to use this trail in a long time. I circled around to a gully, which would have been challenging if there’d been more snow. Instead it was a steady climb up, and when I had the option, I took the gully to the right, also easy to navigate

The second gully ended near treeline, and I became excited as I thought I could see the peak.

Of course in my mind I knew I was too close to treeline for that to be the peak, but surely it had to be just behind it? As I continued on I saw another peak behind the first one and figured that was the summit

Up, up, and up I continued, doing my best to avoid the snowy areas.

Imagine my surprise (and dismay) when I finally reached the top of the second peak and noticed I wasn’t anywhere near the summit: it was still quite far away

Not only was I still a good distance from the summit, but I would need my ice axe and snowshoes. Luckily, I had both. I sighed, broke down, and put them on. There was no way I was turning back now. The weather was great (the best day I’ve had all year) and while I’d already done 30 miles this weekend with 15K of elevation gain and was physically exhausted, I wasn’t quitting this close to the summit. I left my trekking pole here and continued on, ice axe in hand. The only way across the ridge was to walk directly on top of the cornices. Luckily the snow here seemed firm

The last bit to the summit was easier than expected

I summited at 9:30am

Summit Views:

There was even a summit tag on top

This hike is traditionally done as a loop along with Unnamed 13123B, so I went over to get a good look at the route

Hmmmm…. The route didn’t look that difficult. Actually, the ridge looked better than the one I’d just traversed, but it was a really nice day and the snow was warming up fast. I knew I could summit 13123, but I was unsure of the snow conditions on the route back below treeline if I were to make this a loop. I didn’t want to re-summit Cottonwood because a) I’d already done 5000+ feet of elevation today and b) the snow was getting softer by the minute on this side as well.

In the end I decided to go with the safer route and descend the way I’d summited, figuring that while the conditions wouldn’t be ideal, at least I knew what to expect.
I turned and headed back the way I’d come, first over a pretty cool cornice

And then back down the ridge

My favorite part was toe-heeling it across the cornices

Here’s the route back

I decided to keep my snowshoes on, and this time stuck to the areas with snow.

The snow was a terrible mush and I was glad I’d decided to return the way I knew, even if it meant postholing and navigating felled trees

I kept my snowshoes on for longer than needed, but they came in helpful when I hit the boggy areas where there was no discernable trail but a lot of willows/snow/downed trees

They were cumbersome in areas such as this:

On the way back I scared the same ptarmigan as this morning and saw a cactus in bloom

I made it back to my truck at 12:30pm, making this an 11.5 mile hike with 5110’ of elevation gain in 7 hours, 15 minutes. The VW was gone.

I was really happy with my decision not to make this a loop today, and look forward to trying the trail counter-clockwise next time, when there’s less snow…

Mt Muscoco – 8020 and Mt Cutler – 7220

RT Length: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2436’

Miraculously as we were coming down from Helen Hunt Falls we pulled up just as someone was pulling out and got the last spot at the Mt Muscoco trailhead. Woot!

We didn’t have a map, but there was one provided, so I took a picture and we were on our way

This is another class 1 route that’s easy to follow, so I won’t provide a lot of details, but just some pictures from along the way. You start by crossing a bridge

And continuing up the well defined trail. Steffen found a hole he wanted to check out….

Nothing was in it, so we continued on.

The trail has great signs

You actually work your way around the mountain to summit

Here’s the summit

And summit views

We headed back to the saddle, and decided to hike Mt Cutler too. The trail is once again easy to follow, class 1

And provided some great views of Mt Muscoco

We were surprised with how many people we were seeing along the trail, since there were only 15 parking spots. We must have passed 100 people. When we made it back to the trailhead we discovered why: people were parked illegally for miles along the side of the road, making it difficult to back out of your parking space (I was so glad I’d backed in) and making the road a one way road. People were playing chicken the entire way down. We need to open up our state or people are going to go nuts! Also, at this point I’m done staying close to home, I think I’m safer, and everyone else is safer Coronavirus wise if I head to trailheads and summits that are remote and NOT close to home.
Here’s my topo of the route

Mt Muscoco and Cutler topo

Helen Hunt Falls

RT Length: 1 mile
Elevation Gain: 492’

We’d intended on hiking Mays Peak after hiking 8130 but the parking lot was full at 9am. We circled the lot 4 times before heading down the hill and getting the last spot at the Helen Hunt Falls Trailhead. I backed in, and used my driver side mirror to park, not realizing there was a several foot difference between the drivers side and passenger side before a large drop off. Let’s just say I caught it just in time and floored it before falling over the side…

Helen Hunt Falls is a really easy hike off North Cheyenne Canyon and I’ve done this hike several times. No route description is necessary, as the trail is class 1 and easy to follow. Because of that, I’m just going to post some pictures from along the trail…

And my topo

Now, on to the next trailhead (I hope we get a spot… this Coronavirus thing is causing North Cheyenne Canyon to be full of vehicles before 9am every morning, and it’s a Saturday…). Everyone’s been great at social distancing, but it’s more crowded than I’ve ever seen it, even on a weekend in the summer.

8130

RT Length: 4.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1742’

It was COLD when we woke up this morning, but thankfully, the heater did it’s job.

However, unlike yesterday when I woke up and got up with my alarm, today I decided I needed another hour of sleep. So we didn’t make it to the trailhead until much later than we’d wanted (we got the last spot in the parking lot).

The trail was well marked and easy to follow. Every time there was an option (junction) we turned left, following the mountain and heading up.

We even encountered some nuns. At first I thought they were hikers dressed as the grim reaper (hey, it’s been going on with this whole Coronavirus thing). They told us to have a blessed day.

You hit a kind of saddle after 1.6 miles. Here’s a basic overview of the rest of the route

The tricky part is knowing when to veer off trail. After hiking for 2.1 miles along this trail you turn right and bushwhack northeast up the mountain, or use one of the several of available game trails. All are equally steep. We took a different one up and back so we’d have a couple of good gpx routes.

At the top you’ll come to a boulder, and yes, this boulder is the highpoint.

There’s a class 4 chimney you need to climb to get to the top (towards the left… the boulder on the right isn’t the summit).

Some people might consider this class 3, but to anyone under 6 feet I can assure you, it’s class 4 and requires commitment.

There was a summit register at the top with tons of cool stuff inside.

We headed back down a slightly different way to the main trail

And easily followed it back to the section 16 trailhead

Note: the elevation gain was constant and more difficult than anticipated, especially for such a short hike. Here’s my topo of the route:

Now, on to the next trailhead!

Bull Hill – 10,808’ (Attempt)

RT Length: 1.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 558’

Turns out this one’s illegal. We knew once we arrived at the trailhead and saw what was before us our chances of summiting were slim, but we decided to try it anyway.

The gate was unlocked so we passed through and started our way up the road. It was supposed to be a quick, 1 mile hike on a road and then a short distance to the summit. We walked about a third of a mile and turned right

And headed up a wide, rocky road

We had a great view of Big Bull, the mountain we’d just climbed a few minutes ago

As we were walking along the road we heard a loud rumbling and saw a dump truck the size of a house drive past us, full of rocks. We were on an active mine, and immediately began to worry we were going to get in trouble for being here. We saw a water truck drive by, and then after hiking along the road for eight tenths of a mile we saw a white pickup truck with lights coming towards us. We asked the man in the truck for directions to the summit, to which he very politely told us we weren’t allowed to hike here and asked us to turn around. He said we could try to summit another way, on the other side of the fence (but we knew that wasn’t possible because the fence went all around). He actually offered to drive us back to the gate, but we declined. He sat in his truck and watched us hike the entire way back. I’d wanted to take more pictures, but figured he wouldn’t appreciate my doing so.

We had a gpx file for this route, and that person either a) made the file on CalTopo and never actually hiked it, b) hiked it illegally, or c) somehow got permission. There are no trip reports on this hike with more information. I’m thinking b is the most likely option, but I’m not going to name names.

We made it back to my truck and pondered how we were ever going to hike this ranked summit? Legally that is. I’m sure this mine is operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There was a phone number listed on the gate. I’m going to try to call that number and get special permission to hike. I don’t have high hopes that will work, but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

Here’s a copy of our topo. We were so close!

Oh well, on to the next peak!

Big Bull Mountain – 10,832’

RT Length: 2 miles
Elevation Gain: 828’
The start of this hike was a little fuzzy. I parked my truck at the dead end of Independence Avenue, near an old, boarded up house.

We started out by going through an unlocked gate and just heading up the mountain, hiking southeast. In fact, the entire hike to the summit you just need to continue heading southeast and you’ll make it there at about a mile’s distance.

There’s actually a drainage here that makes the path easy to follow

We headed up the mountainside through grass and into some aspens. Here we found a mule deer antler!

As we entered the pine trees the snow became thick and we needed to put on our snowshoes. I was glad we’d brought them, as from the truck the hike looked clear of snow.

The pine trees ended up becoming very thick with young growth. So thick it became difficult to find a hiking route.

Eventually the pine trees gave way to a flat ridge less dense with vegetation

We wanted to remember our exit point, so I brought out some of the surveying tape I’d pre-cut for just this purpose and we marked a tree

We followed the ridge east now until we came to a wide cairn.

It was difficult on this flat mesa to figure out where the true summit was, but we figured the cairn was a likely indication. There was no summit register, and we’d forgotten to bring one, so we just took a picture

And headed back the way we came

It was surprisingly easy to find our yellow marking tape, and from there we just followed our tracks in the snow back down (we removed the tape, as we didn’t think it would be useful to anyone else and were practicing leave no trace)

We made it out of the trees and back into the grass. From here we could see my truck, so it was an easy exit

I kept looking for another deer antler, but unfortunately didn’t come across one. This is the first deer antler I’ve ever found on a hike, and I do a lot of hikes!
This was a quick, 2 mile hike through some soft snow and densely wooded areas. Our third summit of the day, now we were off to attempt our fourth! Here’s a topo of the route:

*If you plan to do this hike, please get the appropriate permissions before potentially roaming onto private property.

Covid Peak – 11749 and Corona Peak – 11510

RT Length: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1654’

I know these peaks are NOT named Covid and Corona, but they don’t actually have names, and these seemed appropriate. Also, I don’t expect these to become permanent names, as I know naming a peak is a process.

The story of these peaks actually begins a few months ago, when I ordered a topper for my truck. I ordered this topper weeks before the stay at home orders, but due to the Coronavirus scare it was slow to arrive. Very slow. Finally, this week it came in and I was able to have it put on. I spent the next few days sprucing it up, adding a mattress, blankets, pillows, and storage containers with necessities (food, cooking gear, toiletries, etc.). I added the curtains and lights. I was pleased with the setup.

We made it to the spot we planned to spend the night early, and had elk sausage and baked potatoes for dinner, heated over a fire.

We found a grub in some firewood. I wanted to eat it, but it slipped into the fire…

We cleaned up and waited for the sun to set. And waited. And waited. Steffen dug out some rhyolite rocks with my ice axe and I just relaxed and waited for the sun to set.

But it just didn’t seem to want to set! I wanted to see the city lights before going to bed. It took me way too long to realize we’d be getting up in the dark anyways, and I’d see them soon enough. I decided to err on the side of sleep and see them in the morning.
Lessons learned during the night:
• 4 blankets/sleeping bags aren’t enough for 25* weather
• Wear a hat and jacket and gloves to bed
• The metal on the side of the truck is cold
• Set out everything you need for the morning before you go to bed (clothes, food, toothbrush, etc)

OK, so it wasn’t as warm as I’d anticipated, but that’s why we were doing this the first time close to home, to figure this kind of stuff out.

My alarm went off at 4:30am and I didn’t want to get up. It had snowed a bit overnight. I wasn’t warm, but I didn’t want to give up the covers either. Eventually the need to pee won and I got up. We decided to drive to the trailhead with the heater running in the truck and warm up, then have breakfast/coffee in the truck before heading out for our hike. Oh, and the lights were indeed beautiful!

We made it to the Mason Reservoir trailhead, parked, and made breakfast. We were on the trail by 6:30am. To be fair, the drive took us over an hour (Old Stage Road is in need of repair!!!)

We did not head towards the reservoir but instead went west

Crossing a creek and heading up the mountainside to the ridge

In the beginning it looked like there might actually be a trail, but we soon lost it in the snow

At the ridge we turned right (north) and followed the ridge to the end

The snow ranged from non existent to several feet deep. We were able to get away without using snowshoes all the way to the peak

We just kept aiming north, towards the peak

The summit of the peak wasn’t obvious. There was no summit register or cairn or anything indicating we were at a summit. I figured that was because this peak was so obscure. So we decided to leave a summit register and name Peak 11,749 Covid Peak.

We left the summit register where someone would find it and were on our way

We followed the ridge northwest down, immediately needing snowshoes

The snow was very deep and we were both glad we’d decided to take this hike in a clockwise direction: this would not have been fun to hike up! At one point we saw a well defined (but old) trench that was pretty large and looked like a human trench but weaved through the trees without breaking any branches. We realized it must be a trench from a large animal (thinking mountain lion, not bear). This area was very steep

At the bottom of the ridge we came to a marshy area and headed east towards our next peak

The marshy area had what looked like water gates

We crossed a dirt road, and then just headed northwest up the ridge

Snowshoes were needed here. We came across some recent orange flags and figured they would lead us up the peak. They led us about ¾ of the way, and then disappeared

The actual summit of this mountain was difficult to surmise. We weren’t sure if it was on the north end or the south end of the mountain, as both points looked equal. We hiked all the way to the south end and found this rock.

It felt like the highest point, so we climbed on top and I took a reading with my altimeter. It’s a serious class 5 climb, and we used the tree as leverage to get to the top.

Then we hiked back to the north side (about 1/10th of a mile away) and I took another reading with my altimeter. This point was anticlimactic and measured 10 feet higher. I was kind of disappointed the summit didn’t require a class 5 move, but it made the summit more attainable for everyone. There wasn’t a summit marker/register/cairn, etc. so we made one, naming 11,510 Corona Peak.

We left the summit register in the middle of a pile of snow at what was the highpoint

Making this a loop we set out again towards the south side of the mountain, passing the large boulder and heading down the south ridge towards the reservoir.

We made it back to the road and followed it around the reservoir

We found a frozen drain and Steffen had fun trying to break the ice with my ice axe

The road was easy to follow

There was a major cornice forming off the reservoir

We made it back to my truck without incident and headed back down the mountain.

Here’s the topo:

Oh, and that truck that was off the side of the road last week? It’s still there…

We were now on our way to Cow Mountain. This took us further down Old Stage Road, and through a tunnel.

Unfortunately, we met up with some unanticipated locked gates and private property, so we had to change our plans. Scott’s Ranch blocked our drive with a locked gate. On the positive side, we saw a flock of turkeys

Mt Rosa – 11,499 and Rain Benchmark – 11,310

RT Length: 6.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 2520’
Thinking this would be an easy hike I got up at 2am and worked out on the treadmill for a while before heading over to Steffens house at 4am. His truck is lifted and we wanted to see how it handled as compared to mine on the 4WD dirt road (pretty similar actually). We started from Frosty Park, the same place we began last week. Rain was predicted by 1pm so we wanted to be on the trail early. We started at 6am when it was just light enough not to need flashlights, crossing a fence and hiking east along a faint trail.

I was immediately a bit upset, as one of my microspikes had broken. I could still wear the spike, but the chain was loose and it made an irritating clanking sound every time my foot hit the ground. Mental note: get new spikes before my next hike.
We turned right onto trail 672 and began retrenching an old trench, following the mountainside and losing elevation as we went.

After 1.5 miles of hiking we turned right (south) onto 673 and encountered a lot of snow.

In some places an old trench was visible so we tried to follow that whenever possible, but at other times we just made a new trench. Snowshoes weren’t needed this early in the morning.

There was a windswept area

And then more snow.

Last time I summited Mt Rosa I summited from the south side (same trail at this point) but this time the trail wasn’t visible, so we just went straight up the north side of the mountain

The summit was windswept and clear.

We took a summit shot and stayed for a few minutes, since it was such a nice day

There was no summit register so we left one, and built up the summit cairn while we were at it.

Mt Rosa:

Heading back down was a breeze, as we just followed our previous tracks

Ok, time for the next peak. It takes so long to drive out here and the summits are so short it’s worth it to try to get multiple peaks in in a day. We drove back down 379, noticing there weren’t nearly as many people out as there had been last week. We only passed 1 vehicle, and last time we’d passed dozens.

Turned right onto Old Stage Road, we then followed the road for a few miles to 376, turned right again, and drove for 1.9 miles before parking on the side of the road.

We started out by bushwhacking east, following a gully up the mountainside.

This gully had more snow than we’d anticipated, so we stayed to the left of it. There was a little bit of snow here, and a lot of fallen trees.

We made it to about 10250’ and decided to cut across the mountain and head southeast towards the saddle. Once again, no trail, and lots of downed trees. We came across another gully that led towards the saddle and decided to mark our exit so we’d know how to make our way back. We found this cool root that looked like a bighorn sheep skull and used that to mark our place.

We continued east up the gully on what kind of looked like a trail

Things changed when we hit the saddle: snowshoes became necessary

We donned our snowshoes (thank you Steffen for fixing mine!) and started up the ridge that led to the summit.

The snow just seemed to get thicker and thicker the further we went, and several times I thought we’d need to turn back, but we just zig-zagged our tracks and kept pressing forward.

To the right of the snow is a rocky area. The summit is at the southwest point

And check this out: there was a summit marker AND two summit registers!

Unfortunately, the views of Pikes and Almagre were interrupted by trees

The clouds were forming quickly so we didn’t stay too long on the summit. The snow was helpful on our way back, as we just followed our tracks back to the saddle

And then we followed our makeshift bighorn sheep cairn across the mountainside and back down the gully. There was less snow here, and we were surprised every so often to find our tracks!

Following the first gully back down was easy: we just stayed to the right of the snow

This led us back to the road and Steffen’s truck.

Here are the topo maps for the hikes
Rosa:

Rain Benchmark:

I’m not quite sure on the time for this hike, and to be honest, I wasn’t really paying attention because about halfway back to Old Stage Road we were stopped due to a tow truck blocking the road.

We parked the truck and got out to see what was going on. Apparently someone was driving too fast on the dirt road last night; his truck launched and hit trees before going over the edge and landing in the creek. Check out how high those tree marks are!!! The driver was alone and miraculously unhurt. He spent the night in his vehicle and climbed for help this morning. We hadn’t come across him because we’d decided to hike Rosa first.

We sat and watched them try to remove the truck for about half an hour.

Eventually they decided their tow truck wasn’t large enough and they’d need to come back with a bigger vehicle. Stay safe out there driving my friends!