Rummaging through the maps during the State Forest drinking festival, I decided on the Four Mile Creek area as the destination for the June, 12th weekend. The slight frustration of being denied Clark peak by incredible amounts of slushy snow made me gung-ho for a multi peak trek. As the week went by, my mom and brother were the only parties signed on to what would surely be a wet weekend of camping. Just to mix things up and make the departure REAL interesting, I had to leave here solo, drop off/crate Jasmine and pick up Lindsay. During the Jasmine stop I ended up being a bit rude (a lot rude) to a pregnant lady after her dog charged us while on potty walk. It just wasn't the right time considering how far behind I was. At least I was eons ahead of mother, who was stuck for almost two hours in construction traffic trying to get to I-25. After picking up Lindsay, creative rush hour route finding and some Sonic, we finally made our own way to the interstate. Thornton was a quick jaunt from Lafayette, and that's where the drive turned into a slog.
We could see a massive storm cell moving off the foothills and into the Denver Metro-West area. It wasn't until the windshield fracturing ball of ice that we realized the storm was a bit severe. The radar maps on the cell phone confirmed that the entire NW Denver area was under red and dark red. Turning to AM radio for updates on the 15MPH traffic and weather warnings, we were assured that traffic was backed up on the whole of I-70 westbound from I-25 to nearly Idaho Springs. Then the tornado sirens began blaring. We never saw anything, but multiple funnel clouds were reported that afternoon. Achingly slow we started up the first row of mountains...
Genesee got six inches of hail just before we rolled through. Cars were all over the medians, in the ditches and emergency vehicles littered the landscape up the hill. The intensity of concentrating on a class 4 drive means I forgot to take pictures until we were just about out of the storm...
That wasn't the end of it either. We drove through two more heavy rain bands and three more peltings of hail. Then upon exiting the Eisenhower on the west side of the divide, we were greeted with sunshine and dry roads for the rest of the drive. Although we arrived almost two hours behind schedule, we were quick to setup and the Four Mile Creek Road had but two other campers. Not quite an hour later my mom and brother got there and we had everything setup just minutes before the clouds we couldn't see rolled over Sherman and into the valley. It rained lightly all night long and I actually had one of the best sleeps I've ever had, especially in a tent.
The terrible sound of my phone's alarm clock snapped me out of slumberland at 5:00am. There was just enough light to see and I stood up to realize it felt kind of warm. Then I poked my head out of the tent and had about the clearest view of the day...
The overhead in the van confirmed it was warm (52F) and we slowly got everything together for the hike. Yup, we were still going to give it a go. My brother had suffered a skateboard injury during the week and coupled with the conditions, he stayed bundled up in his sleeping bag and we shoved Tambi in there with him. Then we were off...
The road wasn't too bad until the final push to the gate. The running water and mud made us park a whole tenth of a mile down from the trailhead. Dogs got leashed, rain gear got sported and I'll let the pictures tell the rest (except pictures don't really convey what it's like to get shredded up by 40 MPH graupel in 50 yard visibility)...
Visibility was so bad that I actually used a map and compass like a map and compass. It helped me get to the 13,000' saddle where our day ended. I was able to just crest the divide and the wind damn near knocked me out. I gathered myself up and tried again, but this time the dogs were done. Time to head back down. Almost 800' below I was able to take out the camera again...
The snow was finally snow, and it had been falling at lower elevations for a while...
I believe it was right about here that I threw in the towel and decided to pack it up and head home...
My mom was intent on staying, but the site setup and horrendously filthy dogs had my mind made up. We didn't really pack, just kinda crammed...
The drive out was uneventful and soon enough we were under the cloud deck...
Going over Hoosier Pass I felt that we made the right call...
It was indeed the right call. That area got eight inches of snow overnight, and thunderstorms the next morning at 9:30am. Later on Sunday (in the comfort of the house), I found out that storm produced funnel clouds at 10,000'!!! I think it takes massive wind speeds and dropping temps to do that in the mountains. What fun.
Fin.
