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I camped at the South La Plata trailhead the night before. To get there, you need to drive 12 miles down county road 390 and then another 2 miles down a 4wd trail to get to the TH. I was the only person at the TH that night. I set out at around 5:45am the next morning. The first part of the hike is nice, as you gain elevation following a gulch through the woods.
Nice view early on in the hike
Once you climb up enough, the trail turns away from the gulch and you enter a basin. After a mile or so across the basin the trail climbs a bit, and you come to an old mine entrance (which is kind of cool). At this point you need to hike up some loose crushed rock section, which is no fun. After that, it's fairly easy until you get to a boulder wall that you need to ascend.
The steep climb up the boulder wall
I lost the trail going up and just kept climbing the rocks. I made a rookie mistake, and a large rock shifted when I put weight on it. I banged my knee pretty good and needed to do a little first aid on it to patch it up. It could have been a lot worse if the rock had crushed my foot. After climbing the boulder wall, you then have a bit of a hike along the ridge to get to the summit.
On the summit!
As I was admiring the 360deg view, I saw a storm, which based on the wind direction, I knew was coming my way. I got down from the peak and as far back along the trail as fast as I could. I lucked out, and the storm missed me.
Rain passing to the northRain clouds moving over the summit after I had descended
Getting back down to the mine entrance on that loose, steep section was harder than going up. This is definitely a section we could look at organizing a trail crew to improve. Overall, this was the easiest hike of my trip I felt, despite banging up my knee and running from the storms. I did not see another person during the whole hike.
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