When determining the various hikes through the season, my biggest resource was individual trip reports posted on obscure blogs. The big sites often have generic info in poorly written reports with nary a picture. Add the fact that Buffalo is just a lowly 12er and you have a recipe for little information. What I did find filled me with wondrous thoughts of a quick five mile round trip mountain. So it was decided that Saturday would work out peachy for a short hike to return the van for Lindsay's plans at 4:00pm. "No sweat", I thought confidently to myself.
The weather last week was wet, as you Coloradans may remember. 50's and 60's along the front range with precipitation every day at altitude. But, it was an up-slope event which typically isolates the moisture to east of the divide. Most of the hills got some amount of dusting above 10,500'. Thursday brought some sun into the mountain valleys and we all coordinated for something on Saturday. I was glued to every Summit County web cam I could find. The snow slowly retreated to the tops of the mountains and Friday's non stop sun excited me. We truly were headed for one last hike!
Two big factors played into Saturday's late start time of 7:00-ish am. First, the fact that there might be some lingering fluff on the top meant that the sun was needed. Second, it was a five mile hike according to every report I came across with stats. PUH-LEEZ, five miles meant we could be off the trail by noon. Heh.
My mom arrived ready to roll at 4:30, but I was still one cup of coffee behind. At 5:00am, Casey fidgeted and mumbled something about not going. I helped get my mom's stuff into the van, loaded the five dogs, grabbed my junk and we were moving at 5:10am. We made great time drafting a Supra down I-25 until he got nabbed by State just before 120th. Losing our pace setter did nothing to slow our progress. From my driveway in Loveland to the parking lot at Wendy's in Silverthorne took us 1hr 47min. A new personal best, AND IN THE VAN NO LESS! Emerging from the tunnel brought forth a glorious sight. Buffalo was practically dry...
The rest of our party took just a bit longer to arrive, and we were off to the trailhead above Wildernest. Seconds before 8:00am we were in the trees hiking...
The first segment through the trees was a fight against layers. The sun was shining through just enough to sweat, but not strong enough to fend off bitter cold by shedding a layer. Boy was I glad I went with a wind layer only...
From reports I knew to expect a fork in the trail and we arrived there rather quickly. The furthest left trail is the one to Buffalo Cabin, and it gets a little steeper from the fork to the cabin. Nothing this well conditioned gang would be phased by though. Sure enough, we reached the "cabin" after what felt like a morning stretch...
No doubt layers were headed for the packs...
Invigorated by adjusting to the rising temperature, we hammered out another 600 vertical feet like no one's business. The trees were thinning and the views were widening...
Six hundred feet is six hundred feet no matter how you cut it. We took our first water break around 10,600'...
Not too long after heading up again, snow was gradually appearing through the trees. This is also where Jack discovered exactly how his pack was attached. (You can still see the puppy in his crazy eyes.) The thing is, this caused an ongoing dilemma for Jennifer as his pack shedding proficiency increased...
Ute Peak to the north, northeast...
As we emerged from treeline, a large cairn marked the beginning of a rather large rock field...
Following the trail left of the cairn things got interesting as the dirt went away. Lose the the trail interesting. We must have scrambled some 200 yards up the rocks before I reached a level spot and found... THE TRAIL!
Visibly I could see we were supposed to go right of the cairn and into the rocks. There's a slight ridge that hides your view from below, making you think the trail heads left. A trail DOES go left, but only because so many people go the wrong way. Then it ends promptly at the rock field.
I had barely reached that spot when I heard an all familiar rock clack followed by cussing...
She gave us a teeth clenched thumbs up and we continued the scramble through what would come to be the worst part of the trail...
Even Ridik grew weary of the rock scramble. Despite the warnings posted at the trailhead, I let them off leash through the rocks. They were phenomenal. I second guessed their choice of route twice and ended up rounding four foot vertical rocks. That's what it took for me to trust what they were doing. There should be a rule that the route is right or left of the cairns...
The rock field was over, but a false summit remained...
Coco bringin' up the rear of the front group...
There was a nice little snow patch the dogs chilled in while the rest caught up...
Idiot (sorry Jennifer, he's a Husky)...
The final push...
Cresting the ridge and visualizing the summit...
I remember seeing this mountain as a 10 year old kid on my way to Glenwood to visit my uncle. It has been on my list for as long as I have had a memory. I'm sure no one else knew because I never mentioned it to anyone, but this mountain was a special and significant hike for me. Glad everyone made it. Summit shots!!!...
We could see Silverthorne/Dillon from there...
The previous weekend's hike hidden against Torreys and Grays...
Bubba came up from behind me and demanded a hug...
Mount of the Holy Cross. I know going in that's not going to be an easy hike...
Red Peak looking nasty to the northwest...
My dogs have finally given up on pica...
One last solid view of Copper Mountain as we descended...
That rock field can kiss my...
I really need to give my dogs more credit. They have become very accustomed to low class three rocks. This hike really opened my eyes to their capabilities. Coco no longer hates rocks and they all know exactly what is going on. The capacity of a dog brain is something to behold...
Like a Kanye style jackass, I made it to the bottom of the tough part while half of the group still remained fighting the rocks on the downside. At least we got a long break...
Bit by bit the rocks were conquered...
The others deserved a break and none of the dogs had a problem with that...
It was well past 1:00pm and we all had curfews to meet. I had to get back between 3-4pm and it was looking bad. The rock field screwed us like something that screws things. There are very few pics of the end as we hurried our way back...
One last stop in Silverthorne for gas and wine relief. Then I was off on an attack of the I-70 corridor. Until left-lane-Jenn jacked the Bakerville to Georgetown stretch. After the Element was disposed of, I rocketed to I-25 only to get a flat at the on ramp. That made me totally super late. Luckily, Casey's decision to stay behind left Lindsay a way to Longmont. Damn, I was about to make the trip in less than 90 minutes. Alas, it was not meant to be...
6.15 miles, 9,726' to 12,777', 6hrs 21min and 3,151 vertical gain. Add the nasty fall I had entering the trees and I was a hurtin' unit. I logged about 14 hours of sleep that night. Telling the story again is worthy of a nap...
Fin. Now for Jennifer's take.
