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I left the house in Erie at a few minutes before 1:00 a.m. on Saturday, with the plans of reaching the TH by 3:30 and hiking into Missouri Gulch near treeline around 5:00, setting camp, then making the run up Belford/Oxford, then off the back side to Harvard. I was running on about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, and by the time I made treeline right at 5:00 I was so exhausted that by 5:30 when I finally got camp up, all I could think about was sleeping an hour or two.
I set the alarm for 6:30, but managed to awake at 8:00...damn. I hustled through breakfast, and set out on the trail at 8:30 with a last minute change of plans. I decided to switch my "Day 2" itinerary with "Day 1", and headed up Missouri instead. The original plan of ascent for "Day 2" was to summit Missouri, drop off the back and up the eastern side of Huron, descend, and hike the road back to the Missouri Gulch TH to my car to sleep for a few hours while the storms passed, before hiking back into camp up the gulch. I summited Missouri at 10:45 a.m and stayed on top chatting until 11:00.
The skies looked clear, so I made a quick descent off the NW ridge to Clohesy Lake and headed up a small chute to the bowl just North of Huron's peak.
I made it out of the treeline about 50 feet, when the skies turned black and I heard the first booms of thunder. I decided to scratch my attempt at Huron and rather than hike the road, I would go straight up and over Missouri AGAIN. I made the NW ridge/N ridge junction by about 2:00 p.m. and watched as the storm blew just to North of me. Since I was 20 minutes from the Summit, I figured "What the hell", and grabbed the summit a 2nd time, before screaming down the mountain back to camp soaking wet, and utterly exhausted. I passed out in my tent until around 5:30, when I got up to make dinner and prepare water for my real "Day 2" which at this point I was having serious doubts about.
Day 2 - "Heaven on Earth"
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I was so exhausted that by 5:30 when I finally got camp up, all I could think about was sleeping an hour or two.
I made the NW ridge/N ridge junction by about 2:00 p.m. and watched as the storm blew just to North of me. Since I was 20 minutes from the Summit, I figured "What the hell", and grabbed the summit a 2nd time, before screaming down the mountain back to camp soaking wet, and utterly exhausted. I passed out in my tent until around 5:30, when I got up to make dinner and prepare water for my real "Day 2" which at this point I was having serious doubts about.
