Mt. Democrat Trip Report 07/18/2009

Peak(s):	Mt. Democrat - 14,154 feet Mt. Lincoln - 14,293 feet Mt. Bross - 14,178 feet
Date Posted:	07/18/2009
Modified:	07/19/2009
Date Climbed:	07/18/2009
Author:	Limey

Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross - From Kite Lake
Arrived at Kite Lake at 7:30am, the parking lot was full and so was both sides of the road for quite a good ways down! We find a spot and hike up to the bathrooms. Now this has got to be a first... three girls were queued up at the Ladies and about 20 guys standing at the Gents door. WTF! After that little ordeal, we set off up the trail at 8am with the masses and a couple of boy scout troops. Oh and there was a Park Ranger making sure everyone heard him say that Mt Bross was closed!! The hike to the ridge was fairly uneventful tho if I had a dollar for every boyscout that just stopped in the middle of the trail then it would of paid my gas money. At the ridge it was windy as hell, good job I had my brimmed hat on with a cord instead of my usual baseball cap. I have never seen so many people on a trail in my life. Last July G&T on a Monday and Tuesday were bordering on something like Disney World but this hike took the biscuit! The shear lack of etiquette of who lets who up or down was totally blown out the window. Oh well, no biggie, I just enjoyed the extra rest while the large groups barged by. The plus side of soo many people was I got to chat to quite a few cute girls who were just loving Shep's booties! We seen a bunch of dogs throughout the day and only heard of one other dog with booties on! So anyways we summit Democrat, take some pics, eat some snacks then head back down to the ridge and up Cameron. I always look for the OS markers but only found the one on Lincoln. There seemed to be more people coming down Cameron than going up. We sat down next to the snowfield on Cameron for a short while and I got to chat to two crazy peeps who were hiking fourteen 14ers over the summer on uni cycles. They even dropped off over the snowfield just for fun and we watched them cycle back up to head over to Democrat. It was a short hike over to Lincoln and so I guess that's why Cameron doesn't count. Plenty of peeps at the top so took some pics then headed down towards the Bross trail. We could see a stream of ants heading up the trail but we could also see some quads buzzing around and we were hoping they were not rangers. When we got to the sign it was decision time, no sign of the quad bikes and well heck, we had come this far, so up we went. Another quick summit tho we did walk over to the other stone shelter to take some pics overlooking Alma. Heading down from Bross has to be the worst f**king decent I have ever done. The fact that it was still windy as hell didn't help. What a nightmare. I decided to let Shep off leash for this descent and I took his booties off so he wouldn't come back missing one but he stayed by my side for nearly all the way down. At the bottom before the parking lot I leashed him back up as there was a bunch of workers working on the trails but no rangers to be found. So apart from the killer wind, the weather was blue skies and warm temps. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross - From Kite Lake

Arrived at Kite Lake at 7:30am, the parking lot was full and so was both sides of the road for quite a good ways down! We find a spot and hike up to the bathrooms. Now this has got to be a first... three girls were queued up at the Ladies and about 20 guys standing at the Gents door. WTF! After that little ordeal, we set off up the trail at 8am with the masses and a couple of boy scout troops. Oh and there was a Park Ranger making sure everyone heard him say that Mt Bross was closed!! The hike to the ridge was fairly uneventful tho if I had a dollar for every boyscout that just stopped in the middle of the trail then it would of paid my gas money. At the ridge it was windy as hell, good job I had my brimmed hat on with a cord instead of my usual baseball cap. I have never seen so many people on a trail in my life. Last July G&T on a Monday and Tuesday were bordering on something like Disney World but this hike took the biscuit! The shear lack of etiquette of who lets who up or down was totally blown out the window. Oh well, no biggie, I just enjoyed the extra rest while the large groups barged by. The plus side of soo many people was I got to chat to quite a few cute girls who were just loving Shep's booties! We seen a bunch of dogs throughout the day and only heard of one other dog with booties on!
So anyways we summit Democrat, take some pics, eat some snacks then head back down to the ridge and up Cameron. I always look for the OS markers but only found the one on Lincoln. There seemed to be more people coming down Cameron than going up. We sat down next to the snowfield on Cameron for a short while and I got to chat to two crazy peeps who were hiking fourteen 14ers over the summer on uni cycles. They even dropped off over the snowfield just for fun and we watched them cycle back up to head over to Democrat.
It was a short hike over to Lincoln and so I guess that's why Cameron doesn't count. Plenty of peeps at the top so took some pics then headed down towards the Bross trail. We could see a stream of ants heading up the trail but we could also see some quads buzzing around and we were hoping they were not rangers. When we got to the sign it was decision time, no sign of the quad bikes and well heck, we had come this far, so up we went. Another quick summit tho we did walk over to the other stone shelter to take some pics overlooking Alma. Heading down from Bross has to be the worst f**king decent I have ever done. The fact that it was still windy as hell didn't help. What a nightmare. I decided to let Shep off leash for this descent and I took his booties off so he wouldn't come back missing one but he stayed by my side for nearly all the way down. At the bottom before the parking lot I leashed him back up as there was a bunch of workers working on the trails but no rangers to be found.
So apart from the killer wind, the weather was blue skies and warm temps.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

trisunshine	Mt Democrat 7/19/2009 5:46pm thanks for the trip report,will be arriving in breckenridge on august 7, plan on hiking the peaks on sunday,providing we have good weather want to do longs peak on this trip have you done it?
MUni Rider	Unis 7/21/2009 7:28am Go fellow MUni Riders!

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