Adventures in the Colorado Rockies!

“The Never Summer Range is high on my list of hikes for later this summer.

Hey, Em - what did you do to the color of the "experimental photo" on page 5?”

“looks like the wildflowers were out in force there as well! Nice pics!

Eddie...Yes, there was a ton of snow melting. Jasper still had a lot, as only 2 campsites were snow-free there. Snow wall up to devils thumb was scary. There were steps already made by some other people, but my poor legs were too short to reach. Going back down it was even harder.

Tim....I altered that photo on my computer.”

“Just got back from our 3 day carcamping/dayhiking trip to the Long Draw Area. We saw 12 moose, a group of big horned sheep and a bunch of elk with babies.

The one trail we went on through Little Yellowstone was quoted by EddieS to be one of the best trails he's ever been on in the state of Colorado.

I'm going to load up pictures now.

BTW...EddieS won't be coming back, he got carried away by a cloud of Mosquitos.”

“Waiting........

j/k. Looks like i missed out on a good weekend. Glad yall had fun.”

“Shhh you...I'm almost done. :-)”

“Here ya go! Pictures are up. Enjoy.

http://community.webshots.com/album/551920564PZchJp”

“great pictures, beautiful country.”

“Here's info on Long Draw Campground, where we camped.

http://www.resourceanalysis.com/camps/camp26/camp26.html”

“nice pics and TR. I see EddieS is still the same...lol”

“Thanks, we had a great weekend with EddieS.”

“Bump”

“very cool man. I like moose!”

“Moose are cute and cuddley..I like to get up close to them and give them a big hug.”

“they really like when you give them big slobbery kisses too. A lot of times they'll kiss you back - especially the big bulls!”

“Yeah, with a big hoof to the face.”

“Nice, I have yet to see any moose in CO. Why are they hiding from me?”

“Head north young man..

There's a lot up near Cameron Pass and the Rawahs.”

“What, you can't start a NEW thread? Slacker.
:p

OMG, the pictures are awesome!! No pics of the bighorns? I can't wait to get out there!!! Can you please put in a special order for moose sightings, since I've never seen one in the wild?! mmmkay, thanks.”

“Thanks.

We looked at the big-horned sheep through binoculars so the little specs wouln't show up on the camera.

I'll see what we can do about you getting to see Moose. What do I get if you see one?

BTW...your new throne has been installed.”

“LOL...good, I'll be sure to bring my tiarra. :p

Sheesh, you will already have the pleasure of my company for over a week...what more could a person want in life?
:)”

“Here's a photo of the new throne we installed just for you. Hope you approve.

”

“We saw Moose

Lots of Moose

Everywhere there were Moose

Here a Moose, there a Moose, everywhere a Moose, Moose



Moose”

“hmmmm...”

“What? It's not good enough for your toosh?”

“no...I much prefer to dig a hole with my trowel and squat somewhere. :p”

“Blatant Hijack of John's thread!

------------------------------------------
Eddie picked me up at my place right around 6 am, just as planned. The sun camp up just enough so that we could see Mt. Audubon briefly as we came around Standley Lake on the way out towards Hwy 72. We enjoyed the fall morning drive out to Nederland and Ward and arrived at the trailhead just about an hour later. We were able to see a fair amount of rock protruding through the fresh snow and so we decided that we would leave our snowshoes in Jeep.

On the way there Eddie told me that John and Danielle might show up but they had said not to wait on them. As we were getting ready in the parking lot a group of college aged kids took off up the trail and John pulled into the lot – it was cool to see them again; since I moved to Arvada and don’t see them too often any more.

Eddie and I headed up the trail and I stopped shortly into the hike to put on the yak-trax. The snow here in the trees was maybe 6 – 8 inches deep and the trail was in good shape thanks to the kids that went ahead of us. We quickly reached the point where the trail begins to switchback up the lateral moraine that runs due east from the Audubon massif and we could see the Southeast ridge. We had considered taking the SE ridge to the summit, but due to the snow and ice that was gleaming on the rocks we thought it might be pretty slippery in the notch that we’d have to negotiate and thus we opted for the more standard approach.

As we gained the top of the moraine and the junction with the Buchannan Pass trail, we could see where the tail bent towards the north and worked its way towards the summit from the north side. We had spectacular views of Longs Peak along with Meeker and Pagoda to the north as well and we stopped here to have a snack. Moving along a little further we had a better perspective of the mountain and decided that we would just attack the east face head on rather than waste time walking all the way around to the north and following the trail. There was enough snow cover to obscure the talus, but not so much that snowshoes were required – most of the time.

As we proceeded towards the east ridge slopes, we crossed a field of willows that were buried in drifted snow thus showing us the first hazard hidden by the snow. The willows had caught snow and drifted to three or four feet, but luckily this persisted for only about 100 yards. We continued on, now climbing and able to stay on talus and mostly out of deep snow by being careful with our route and avoiding when we could the small gullies that seem to run horizontal across the ridge which held drifted snow at times up to our hips.

The weather was spectacular. We were in total sunlight beneath azure blue skies with the plains out behind us and the continental divide just to our west. At one point before haze started to settle over the city, I could see the buildings of downtown Denver. The large bank of cloud that seems permanently hung on the Divide was present and regularly gave up small wisps that quickly evaporated in the bright sunlight. At times the wind would blow and bring with it the feel of winter and then it would abruptly stop and calm would envelop the mountain leaving us standing in two feet of snow on a warm summer morning. We were working pretty hard and were comfortable in base layers only except when the wind was at its worst, which wasn’t very often.

We reached the summit about 3 ½ hours after we started, covering four miles and around 3,200 feet in that time. Given the route we took and the difficulties encountered in the snow drifts and willows we felt like we made good time. We could barely see Paiute Peak to our west and we watched as the clouds fully engulfed both the peak and the ridge leading to it. We had thought that we would make a long day of it and summit Paiute as well, but couldn’t see the point in going over there merely to see what the inside of a cloud looked like. We rested on the summit, adding layers now to stay warm as the wind was a constant force here. We peered over the edge to the west where the mountain just falls away for what looks like at least 1,000 feet and we hoped that John and Danielle would reach the top while we were there. After some snacks and a glance to see if we could see them, we decided to head on back down.

Just after we dropped from the summit block, we met John and Danielle, so we paused for some discussion and they suggested to us that we glissade down a large snowfield on the way down. We reached the snowfield and left the trail to hopefully lose about 500 feet the fast way. The snow however was wet and mushy and didn’t let us slide very easily at all. We were able to scooch down a ways though and it was probably faster than walking. This path dropped us out at the edge of those willows we crossed through on the way up and we had to wallow though the deep snow again which wasn’t any fun at all.

We then decided to just drop down the ridge towards Mitchell Lake which deposited us on the trail about half way down the slope of the moraine and from here it was a short walk back to the parking lot. We had come up and down the mountain in about 6 hours.”

“Sure, you don’t buy his pack and now you hijack his thread. 8D

Great trip report. Someday I’ll find my way to CO.”

“don't need his pack.

I did need his thread! LOL

I've got some pics, Eddie took them coz my camera died in its sleep the night before.”

“
by feeney3co
last edited: 9/26/06 6:10:14 PM”

“great pics!”

“Oh, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! :-) I tried to avoid looking but the temptation was too much. Looks gorgeous, great trip report.”

“BTW.. it was little scary along that back corner.. don't you think?”

“that was a little exposed wasn't it?! :)

I thought it was kinda neat. I like exposure like that where you've got solid footing and your not dangling over the chasm.”

“Ha.. Danielle wasn't think that on the way down when she slipped on the snow and wedged her leg behind a rock. Kinda freaked her out for a minute.

But it was a cool mountain with awesome views!”

“oooh yeah that woulda sucked! Not a good place to slip at all. Glad nothing bad came of it!

the views were superb, and the clouds hung on the divide made it look like we were on top of the world!”

“And everybody thinks you need to climb the 14ers to have a great mountain experience.

Mt Ida is another good hike we did this summer. It's 12880'. There's pictures of that in my webshots album also.”

“Very cool guys...early snow this year, huh?

BTW Roam, where are your pics and TR of Maroon Bells from August?
last edited: 9/27/06 10:52:17 AM”

“sorry.....I've been moving and vacationing!!! I'll check it out now.”

“:P”

“show off :p

(I'm so jealous!)
I don't miss you guys, but I sure miss those mountains...
sigh...
;)”

“Hey, wait a minute! I thought I was the only Coloradan here. I'd love somebody to hike with, if you don't mind an old tarp rat with an ancient camptrails moosebag.”

“Apparently you missed the great migration. Several of us moved here within the last couple of years. Where in Colorado are you?”

“Yep, we've got our own little crowd out here now. I'm in NW Denver metro, work in Boulder.”

“Not too far north of denver. work in field from longmont to Castle Rock.”

“ooooh, he said TARP RAT!!

=:0”

“The wife and I just started "hiking" in June this year, been doing the trails in the Pike National Forest and the Open Spaces around Colorado Springs. We can't wait to get up to the "real mountains" to do some hiking but transportation is bit of a problem right now, RATS! :( Gona hike some trail in Muller State Park on Sat. The Aspens should be really good there!

Take a Hike! :)

B.J. Ondo”

“I'm A tarp rat, not THE Tarp Rat. I'm just cheap.”

“Just thought I would share some photos from some late spring hiking that we did over the past 2 weekends. Enjoy!

Thunder Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park:
http://travel.webshots.com/album/559399985gZRhba?vhost=travel

Browns's Lake in Commanche Peak Wilderness:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/559495273cLEEwD?vhost=outdoors”

“Wild basin, yep another must see place, one day.”