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My GF and I started at the Missouri TH Friday afternoon for a backpack into treeline to camp there:
We‘ll be going back here this fall since there were so many Aspen‘s in the area for some leaf peeping:
A little bridge crossing after the water falls:
Nearing treeline where we camped...Belford on the left, Missouri on the right:
We set up camp, had some dinner, and went to bed...
The next morning we got up at 5:15, had breakfast, and started up the mountain:
The hike up to Belford was intense for me...it was pretty steep (nearly 3000 vertical feet from where we camped in .80 miles for a 35deg slope). I had just hiked my first 14er the previous weekend and on the way down, developed "runners knee" and so this was an experimental hike for me. Something was off and I just didn‘t feel very good that morning. It was a struggle to get to the top...but I was happy when I could see it:
View from the top:
After Belford, we started down the saddle to Oxford. The the way up to Oxford there was a small snow field to cross/climb up:
My knee was hurting a bit at this point and to prevent it from hurting worse, I was limping ...But I made it to the top:
I made it back up to Belford, and then back down to camp but because I was going slow, it took nearly as long to go down as it did to go up. Good thing the weather was great all day.
We camped again Saturday night thinking we might try Missouri the next day and ate dinner to a sunset:
I nixed that idea - partially for my knee and partially because we only heard of horror stories of people crossing the snow field and the snow softening up and getting "stuck" in there. Plus the snow hadn‘t melted around the stream and so we could have fallen into the rushing cold water. That would have been bad.
The next day we woke up to yet another beautiful day, packed up camp, and head down. We stopped by Cottonwood Hotsprings for some R&R and knee healing
Glad to see you made it through ok with your knee hurting. I made a trip up there this year, and that hike is deceptively steep (esp. coming back to Belford from Oxford). I LOVE the colors and contrast on the first picture from the top looking back at Missouri/Huron.
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...But I made it to the top:
