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Peak(s):  Mt. Antero  -  14,271 feet
Date Posted:  09/26/2007
Date Climbed:   09/26/2007
Author:  yrastorza
 Antero: Baldwin Gulch Jeep Road   

Delayed report from August 2007.

It was a great climb, but harder than I anticipated.

I am a Colorado boy, transplanted to Florida the last 13 years, so one thing I learned, is it is hard to acclimatize over just a few days.

Our family attended a family camp (Trail West) in Buena Vista, and I had several mountains in mind. I was a bit nervous, because I was told that the town of Alpine, near the base of the trail head, had been evacuated the week before because of high rain and mud.

I was not familiar with the small roads, but left early. The jeep road was in terrible condition and in the dark, was a bit nervous and had several scrapes under the car of rocks. I know that many reports talk about being able to jeep almost to the top, but at the junction of Baldwin Lake and Mt Antero, where there is a river, there were hazard blocks and I parked my jeep here.

As I hiked up, I found that several people just went around the hazard with more able 4-wheel drives than mine.

I started a 6:15am. I met only one person who had been camping with his ATV and was getting ready to leave. I did see some tents on the way up and ATV parked outside the tents.

I loved the first part of the hike through timberline in the trees, though there were some steep parts (to me), that combined with the altitude had me stopping to catch my breath. After leaving tree line, there were several switchbacks and I felt like I got a second wind, and the hike was not as hard.

I remember 3 switchback on (what I think was the south side of the mountain) before the road follows the curve of the mountain to the east. On this side, the view was amazing, there were many motorbike/atv trails going off, but the hiking trail approached Antero, from the east (i think).

These switchbacks were steeper and I could feel the altitude more. At the top of this last set of switchbacks began the boulder field. At first I thought I was going to have to descend, as I could find a trail in all the rocks and it seemed more precarious. With a closer look, I did see the rock trail, but this, at times disappeared.

There was a breeze, but I was sweating hard and took off my outer shirt and put it on a rock (that I could see from the top) to dry out in the sun while I went to the top (the shirt was wet with sweat). The last part required several short stops to catch my breath.

It was really cool for me to get to the top. I found the metal cylinders (2), and didnt know what they were for. But signed in with the pencil that had been scrapped down unevenly with many prior fingernails.

There were 2 built rock-like mini-forts and I sat there, protect from the wind and looked all around. I used my phone to snap a few picture of me with the view in the background. I didnt linger as long as I wanted to at the top, but as I said, it took me longer than I thought, and I thought my wife may be worrying, and so wanted to make contact with her.

I was able to have phone service (verizon) on the east part near the top, but that was the only place on my hike that I had service, including the trailhead and where I parked my car.

As I descended, I ended up taking a different route down, not purposely, but I couldnt discern the trail.

Not hiking for sometime, one of the aspects that made me a bit nervous was that I never saw anyone else the entire ascent hiking, until I was almost at the top. Then to my relief, I saw 5-6 people at the beginning of the boulder field coming up.

It was fun to greet them as I was coming down. They all seemed to be in much better shape than I. In addition to some hikers coming up, I also met and talked with a family of dirt-bikers, and 3 guys with ATV‘s. The ATV-guys said that they were going the opposite direction, but then were heading back, and if I wanted, they could give me a ride from the trail back down. I was tired, and thought I would be tempted to take them up on their offer, but fortunately for me, I didnt see them the rest of my hike.

As I descended, 2 people passed me going down. One very hearty female took some short cuts, instead of going down the switchbacks, took the more direct route through the skree. I followed her for a couple routes, but then found it too steep and decided to keep to the trail.

The road up was, I thought, in bad shape from the rain and flooding and even a dirt-biker had to get off his bike and walk for parts because of the deep ruts and exposed rocks. In several parts the road was a half inch deep in run off rain water, and I had to fjord 3 small streams, by hopping rocks.

I was amazed to find that as I was returning to my car, that a friend of mine from school (grade school, HS, and med school) was there with his truck and dog, eating an apple. His wife and 3 kids were some of the hikers that had been about an hour behind me. I would of loved to talk some more, but I need to contact my wife (phone service not good) and I was having some mild mountain sickness.

Overall, it was a great great experience for me. I know that Antero, is listed as an easy hike, but for me it was quite a challange. I didnt know that I was actually going to make it to the top until, perhaps 45 minutes before summit, because I was quite fatigued, and when I looked up at what loomed ahead, it seemed hard.

The views were great, I loved doing it alone. At times I thought my heart was beating as fast as it could. I did do some preparatory training aerobic and leg weights before, and didnt find my legs sore after the hike. It was more the difficulty I had with the altitude.

Cant wait to go again, and hope to take my wife and children



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