We got out and about in the local mountains quite a bit this summer. We didn’t do anything too epic but some good adventure was had. Below are some of the highlights and photos.
One of the highlights was following along the Hard Rock 100 Ultra Race course. Karen ran the course over a four day period of good weather in August. I went ahead to each days ending point and then would start hiking towards her. One night spent in Silverton, car camp in Sherman and one night in Ouray. We saw a lot of San Juan scenery and great wildflowers.
Another fun trip was going up the Weehawken Trail into Weehawken Basin. We spent the night at treeline in a beautiful meadow. In the morning we took off with fanny packs and went up to the 13,000′ saddle between Tea Kettle and Mount Ridgway. We follow
ed the ridge crest over relatively easy scrambling to the summit of Mount Ridgway. We descended down towards the saddle between Ridgway and Whitehouse peaks and back into Weehawken Basin. A beautiful traverse through the upper basin moraines took us back to our campsite. Sensational flowers!
We did a nice loop hike connecting Blue Lake, Porphyry Basin and Bridal Veil Basin. It included going to the top of the newly named Bridal Peak and of course checking out the Lewis Mill. It was a pretty photogenic day and I posted some details and photos on the Telluride Mountain Club web site. Check it out.
For my birthday we van camped in the Dunton Meadows and then in the morning climbed Gladstone from the Cross Mtn Trail. There was an Eagle on the footbridge at the trail head that I was able to get within 10′ of.
We had plenty of other outdoor fun and it was a great summer!