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This mini report describes a simple way of climbing Deer Mountain, a ranked bicentennial, hopefully useful if you don't have legs or time for multi-peak linkups or don't fancy difficult scrambling.
Stats: 9.4 miles, 3,000 feet elevation gain in leisurely 5 hours and 45 minutes.
About 8 miles of this hike are on an excellent, cruiser trail. The crux is a steep, loose rock ascent of only about 250 feet to reach the ridge of Deer Mountain. The rest is easy Class 2 ridge walking. Route finding is very straightforward.
Starting at the trailhead just off Hwy 82 take North Fork Lake Trail to an unnamed lake at around 12,400 for about 4 miles and gaining about 1,600 feet. When I walked there the first time with my dog Mojo jumped a porcupine in some willows. We had to turn around, ran quickly back to the car and drove straight to a veterinarian clinic in Frisco where he had multiple quills removed from his mouth and nose. I didn't take him on my second attempt, but otherwise it is a dog friendly hike along a creek and passing a lake.
Circle the lake on its north side and come to the crux of the hike. You have to gain the ridge of Deer Mtn but there are some rocks guarding an easy entrance. Bypassing the rocks on climbers right go straight up the talus to reach the ridge, then turn right and follow the ridge to the top - see the picture of the crux (sorry I had only one good picture from that trip, the other pictures are from a different outing in the same area).
Route crux
On the trail
View of the lake from the ridge of UN 13,738
View of UN 13,738 from the trail
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
My dog also got porcupined on the deer/champion loop a couple of years ago. He's a seasoned quill receptacle, so I yanked em and kept going. Must be a hotspot for porcupines!
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