Pawnee Peak:
Not wanting to let even
one weekend slip by this summer, I knew the coordinating would be tricky for the 21st. The kink was we had a birthday dinner at a top notch eatery scheduled, and hiking takes a lot out of a person who barley woke up at 2:30am. Hoping for a timely trip that would net us a nap, we took off at 4:26am for the nearby Indian Peaks Wilderness ($9 cash in hand, mind you). The drive was stupid easy and went quickly. At 5:45am we were donning headlamps and covering ground. Luckily, we don't encounter many of these...
Trying to take pictures in the dark resulted in 80MB of wasted memory. The dogs don't help much in low light either. Their start pace is constant and the longer exposure times are just blurs. But once the alpenglow began to warm the hills...
Tambi kept trying to base jump into the creeks for some reason. Lindsay had to keep catching her and lifting her back up onto the bridges...
The trail is very easy to follow...
More deer...
The dogs were doing awesome. Just a bit of squirrel fits and otherwise they even ignored the higher up creatures...
Here is where you think you've almost made it to the flat part up to the pass...
But it's not. There's still a short back and forth up the talus on the north and THEN you're on the final approach to Pawnee Pass...
This is a great area to see these mountains from. The views from within the Indian Peaks...
Shoshoni on the right, Navajo in the distant center...
Navajo up close...
On the right as you reach the pass. Pawnee Peak...
On the left. The first hurdle on the way to Shoshoni Peak...
The view over the pass to the northwest...
Parkview Mountain...
We decided to go ahead and try Shoshoni knowing that the terrain would only get tougher. Initially things went well...
Then it got steep and the Malamutes would not follow single file. I had lines picked so they could more or less step up like stairs, but they insisted on veering around trying to shortcut the path. Ridik followed behind and made it to the 12,878 high point on the ridge. I had to climb back down 30 yards and catch the retreating Malamutes. Turned them around and worked them over to the actual ridge with the 800 foot drop on one side. This was a much better approach. And as long as you ignore the open air on your right, it's much easier. I don't have any clear pics from 12,878, we decided to turn it right around and head for Pawnee Peak...
Pawnee across the way...
Going down was much easier. The dogs seemed to finally get that I was going the flat way on rocks that didn't roll around under each step. Idiots. Once off the rocks, we took a quick water break at the pass and continued up the opposite side to Pawnee. Looking back at where we came from...
Pawnee was simple...
The final approach...
Summit!
Stupids want salmon...
We knew we were pushing the time limits and packed up for the descent after about ten minutes. We didn't know how far behind we would be in the end...
I saw a helicopter coming in from the east and I grabbed the camera for some shots. What I didn't expect was the reaction from Ridik. He was TERRIFIED! Screaming, tail tucked, running and pissing himself while he tried his best to sprint for safety. It was a few hairy moments as he headed straight for the cliff, but running to his mom for safety won out in the end. When it was clear that was no ordinary chopper, we knew someone else was not in good shape...
We ended up spending most of the descent back to the trees watching the rescue take place. Flight for Life took many passes around the basin and a team assembled below us on the trail where they had a view of the area in question, Little Pawnee Ridge.
Then I realized that Ridik did not have a pack on and I had no dog pack in my hands!!! Crap. I sat everyone down with Lindsay, shed my pack and took off retracing our steps. About .75 miles up, I was once again at the pass and there was no sign of the blue-gray pack among the rocks. It hit me that the pack was left during the helicopter chaos just below the summit. I felt defeated. Still I hurried my up the mountain AGAIN because we had dinner plans after all. Half way up the side of Pawnee, two hikers with a 'doodle of some sort came over the ridge holding the pack! At least they save me some distance uphill. One eight minute mile later, I was back and needed a big rest.
During the break we watched the rescuers drop people on the top of a notch in the slope, and at the bottom of the gully it creates. Below the downclimb area, we could see the rescuers reach the victim. Eventually we continued on way behind schedule but carrying a new awareness of the surrounding terrain. People love the varied difficulty in this area. That's not a dog friendly route, you'd never see us in those areas.
Finishing up was drawn out because the trail was packed like a friggin' 14er. Stopping every 90 seconds for others and responding to the same old ridiculous comments. In the end all we lost was the allotted time for a nap. We drove, we hiked, we hit a summit, we drove, we cleaned, we drank, we ate, we got home at midnight-ish and the day was done...
You can see the notch to the right of the high point...
The last I heard, the guy that fell up there was taken to a Denver Hospital and was in serious but stable condition. He's a very accomplished climber, having done "The Seven Summits" (high points on all continents) and many many more mountains...
There. That was kind of thrown together. Going through so many pictures hurts my head.
