Though the track shows 3 miles, my real distance was about 4.5. I did a bunch of back tracking that I took out of the track. First of all, I had a hard time finding the walking trail turn off from the ATV trail. After finding it on the way down, I'm not sure I would ever have found it without a track on my GPS. There was a cairn but I had seen it and thought it was a marker for a camp site or something else private.
The first part of the trail is an ATV trail that ends up following one of the CCC terraces. The ATV trail ends abruptly. As you can see from the track, the path up I took included an out of the way loop which was somewhere between bushwhacking and following game trails. As it ends up I covered this section three to five times from backtracking various sections. First I went back down to see if I had missed the trail at the end of the ATV trail. After searching some more, I decided I couldn't find anything better so went all the way up to another terrace about 0.2 miles up steep mountain side with sometimes thick aspen. I walked along that terrace to the left which was a wrong turn. I let Nutmeg off the leash and she got herself stuck in a ravine. I couldn't find anyway down since the ravine was lined on the near side with incredibly thick aspen. I headed back down to the ATV trail to see if I could get to the ravine there. Nutmeg found a way up and I headed back up that section again realizing I need to go the other way on the terrace.
We stopped at a spot of snow where Nutmeg got her fill. When we finally made it to the correct ridge we picked up signs of other hikers and headed up to the Peak. The trail was very steep and rough. I could see boot tracks that looked fresh. Eventually I spotted two hikers ahead in white shorts. They were on a steeper section above and were separated by a fairly big distance. The lower hiker kept looking back at me seemingly bothered that I was catching up.
Nutmeg an I took our time and stopped for a snack and water a few times. Subconsciously I wanted to hurry and catch up but Nutmeg was showing signs of being uncomfortable from the heat I hoped. I made sure she got plenty of water and rested often. This was the highest I had ever taken her so I didn't want to push too much.
There were several false peaks as I had been warned. I lost sight of the hikers above after they went over the first one. After I had made it to one of them I found a 16-20 year old male laying on the grass above a rock outcropping. He said he didn't think he was going to make it because he had spent the last two weeks at sea level. I told him it was only 0.22 miles to the peak and he started moving again following me up. He mentioned that the other hiker was his father. We got up another 0.08 of a mile when his father came down from the peak. I lingered as he conversed with his father for short time and then started following him down. I was amazed that he abandoned the climb just over a tenth of a mile from the top.
Nutmeg and I made it to the top eventually. We hung out up there, had a snack and took some photos including a few panorama sets. We started down and I noted a large snow bank we could reach from one of the false peaks. We stopped there and Nutmeg chowwed down on the snow. You can see the short spur on the track about a quarter of the way down (from the right). I got out a drink mix packet and made a snow cone in my canteen. I ate it as we headed down.
Eventually we came across a couple come up the trail. They had a well behaved dog that Nutmeg greeted nicely. I gave them the measurement to the top and we chatted for a while. I mentioned the snow and snow cone (they could see the red color on my lips). I gave them a drink mix packet. They had come up the same way as me, it probably looks like a well worn trail now! They didn't ask the father and son either. Eventually we both moved on in our opposite directions.
I took a few spills on the way down. The rocks and gravel were very unpredictable, some times firm and sometimes gave way with little resistance. I really scared myself once when I fell forward but my knee went into a 'soft' pile of gravel and it stopped me and really didn't hurt. I did get a few bruises on one tumble. Some sections were worse than others with soft or hard dirt, loose or stable rocks and crumbly ledges.
I was able to follow the 'correct' trail all the way down. When I saw the missed turn I wasn't at all surprised at all. The walking trail up was totally invisible from the level ATV trail. I took a few minutes and made a large arrow with rocks on the trail near the cairn I (and the couple) had ignored. I still doubt I would have turned there but I may have returned to that spot when the I reached the end of the ATV trail. It really needs and official looking sign but I don't think that it's really even an official trail. All photos on the blog dated 7-13-08 are on the hike.
GPS Tracks: kml gpx
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