I was planning on doing a hike today, nothing long just head up the ridge line running west of the cabin and check it out. Since I had to jump a barbwire fence I wanted to do it bright and early before any livestock was in the area. There aren't any keep out signs and the previous owners said they did it all the time so I felt OK about it.
Directly above the water bottle is Colony Baldy Mountain, 13,750ish feet. The ridge line runs all the way up, but I was just planning on breaking treeline if possible, and I was very pessimistic on that goal.
I had to have enough light to see without needing to take my headlamp, so at 05:30 I headed out.
This is looking back, I was keeping an eye on the sun as I didn't want to get cooked on the first hill.
I'm holding my camera level, this hill was a bastard. It took 30 minutes to get up and my reward was tons of stickers and cactus pieces in my shoes and socks. I stayed on the right side of the fence, the left fence was marked. 8,750 feet.
Ha, up top of the stupid 'cut bank hill'. They did some testing about putting in a reservoir and never bothered to fill in the cut, hence the name.
It wasn't very difficult, sometimes I had good forest to stroll through.
At 1 hour in I had a snack. I was trying to keep my energy up for the entire trip. I raided an MRE, cheese ravioli, and this energy bar was actually pretty awesome. 1 hour in, 9750 feet, 1.25 mile.
Here I linked up with the ATV trail that runs the length of the mountain range, called the Rainbow Trail. From the cabin up the regular way, this is 8 miles exactly. From the ridge line way it was 1.5 miles.
After I hit the ATV trail for a few feet I went back into the woods, the trail runs down the hill and that wasn't my plan. Here is a shot of Mount Humbolt (left) and Crestone Needle (middle small spires).
2 hours! The old MRE goodness again, peanut butter and crackers. You can see what the hiking was like in the forest as well. In fact, sometimes it was so bad I was swearing to myself, in my outside voice. 2 hours, 2.5 miles, 10,300 feet.
The elk make a nice path to follow, for the most part. I'm tall and not very nimble and have 2 hooves instead of 4. It was a relief to hit a 'trail'
The elk path wasn't easy, they are very graceful on a slope and going uphill. I found this huge rock clearing that I had seen from the road. I figured it was just bare but it wasn't and I decided to give myself a much needed sit down break.
No tactical gear, I had my running hydration pack on with food and of course water, about 60oz. I had blister pads, chap stick, toilet paper, a large knife and my SPOT GPS search and rescue summoning beacon.
end pt.1
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