July, 4th 2010, Fourth Of July Trail. What a brilliant day for a hike! Quick stats:
12.44 miles
3,854 feet vertical gain
7 hours 18 minutes
5:08am trail start
Heading into the Independence Day weekend we knew there would only be my mom tagging along. With her schedule being the hodgepodge that it is, Sunday the 4th was her official day off. Everything was readied ahead of time, as far as food, for the shindig after the hike.
On Friday I finally decided that Ridik and Coco would be the only dogs to go along on this hike. Tambi is just way too susceptible to weather and Sioux had a back injury/spasm the week before. Expecting a generous amount of runoff for the dogs made for light packs on their end. The Malamutes are averaging almost one full liter of water each every two miles at altitude, and Ridik is half that. Five miles of above water hiking meant that six liters would be more than enough. In the end it was.
The three day weekend was completely screwing with my sleep. I tried staying up super late on Friday so that I would, in theory, crash out early on Saturday. This did not happen. Not only did I stay up late on Friday, I woke up at the usual 5:00am on Saturday and stayed up until 10:00pm. The buzzer sound on my phone literally hurt at 1:22am. Mostly out of it, I gathered myself up enough to get some coffee started and called my mom to make sure she knew we were leaving ever lovin' early. Pretty much at three on the money we headed out with a full tank o' petrol towards *shudder* Boulder Canyon and Nederland. Not even ten minutes into the drive I was destined to stick to the speed limit as the overwhelming presence of State Patrol dictated. This made for an agonizingly slow drive that took nearly two hours. Should have been under 90 minutes, dammit. At least it was still dark when we geared up in the light drizzle. An added bonus was the lack of vehicles at the normally packed trailhead...
We made quick work of the lower portion of Fourth Of July Trail, and the sun made quick work of lighting up the basin enough to ditch the headlamps after a few minutes...
Shortly after the first couple of switchbacks, a bit of a creek crossing signals the last push towards the mine, treeline and the trail for Arapaho Glacier.
Loud waterfall across the valley...
Slightly past the two mile mark the trail levels off nicely, and you work your way across a few runoff streams before taking the right at the mine. The fog filled valley lit up almost instantly as the sun broke over the Arapaho pair. Try as I did, the camera just couldn't catch the light right. It was spectacularrrr...
The two sleds were having a good time up to that point...
Immediately at treeline the wildlife started appearing and wouldn't go away until the way back down. Ptarmigan schmarigan. It was obviously trying to lure us away from a nest, but the stupid thing didn't realize we had a plan that didn't involve ptarmigan nests...
It was impossible to tell what was in store for us as we gained elevation. The fog just kept rolling up, down and every which way in every which color. One minute the entire route was in view...
Then the next minute everything was socked in...
Of course, my head down and forward movement approach left the wife and mom way behind. I'm in there somewhere...
They should rename Arapaho Glacier Trail to Marmots Everywhere Trail...
The dogs were beating a hasty pace up the trail, and around 11,500 feet it finally caught up with them...
The conditions were PERFECT. The
fog clouds were holding the sun back and the wind was just a slight breeze at ground level...
South Arapaho was starting to emerge more consistently...
Then the clouds would move in again. Never threatening in appearance, but them turning on me was always in the back of my mind...
At 12,500'-ish the trail reaches the saddle between South Arapaho and "Old Baldy" (13,038). There was wind there...
Pt. 13,038...
Taking a break and waiting for the others...
Dual marmots...
The destination just beyond. South Arapaho Peak friendly tip: Stay close to the ridge until the second pitch, then hang left just a few yards. This mostly applies to accommodating the dogs. By myself I would have straight lined it...
Lindsay's patented hoodie under the visor look...
Another 'above the clouds' day. This view can never get old...
Not knowing for sure what the clouds would do, we just layered up a fleece and light gloves then moved on...
I kept losing the trail as the multitude of off shoots tried to drag me left. It wouldn't be such a big deal, but the dogs would need to jump a good distance over and over with weight on. Cairns litter the hillside to the left and right. Stick close to the ridge until this second to last stretch, then go left just a few yards and wrap around back to the edge...
Summit!!! 13,397' Not a soul around. I was amazed that we were the first summit on the 4th on such a normally busy trail. The wind? None. The temps? A perfect 50-ish degrees. The next person on the trail behind us had barely gotten to treeline when we reached the summit. It was all ours...
Square Top Mountain out in the distance...
It was time for 9:00am drinks...
Here's hoping Longs gets taken off the list this year...
Parkview Mountain is gonna get hiked too...
The trailhead WAY down thar...
Holy Cross is the next project for July 10th. Far left...
Arapaho Glacier being all glaciated...
On the way down I kept veering right and away from the ridge. A straight across correction fixed things fast and the descent just happened...
Done and done. Again...
After reaching the saddle again, Ridik convinced me we should run up 13,038 so we did...
Okay, running at 13,000 feet is a bit harder than running in Loveland. I. Was. Kicked. But...
We only spent a few seconds on the summit. Then we turned around and hoofed it trying to catch up with the others...
Perfect. Both mountains held out long enough and we saw a total of a dozen people the rest of the day...
All in all the second summit set me and Ridik back 15 minutes. Then we booked it down the trail. Enjoying every minute of it...
The crossing means there's only a couple of miles left...
People left several bags in plain sight along the trail. If you're going to stash it, stash it where no one else has to friggin' look at it. Yeesh...
We wrapped it up and aside from a suspiciously placed shard of ceramic behind a front tire, things couldn't have been any better. Five summits and counting...
