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On 11/26 I hiked Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford. The original plan was to do Missouri Mountain also, but due to time contraints and uncertain weather, I decided to skip Missouri.
I‘m usually a late starter (somewhere between 7 and 9), but after hiking the last mile of Shavano and Tabegauahce in the dark the previous Saturday, I decided to get an early start on these two. I was in the car by 4:00, and on the trail by 6:15. It was still a bit dark when I started, so I don‘t have many pictures starting off.
This is one of the first pictures I took, and I had the white balance set wrong. Despite the funky color, it adequately shows trail conditions down below treeline.
The trail near tree line.
The trail above tree line. About half the trail was covered in packed snow like this.
A little further up, looking down into the valley I just hiked through.
At the summit, looking over at Missouri Mountain. It looks like it had quite a bit more snow. The "Three Apostles" are on the right in the background. This is the point where I started debating whether I would do Missouri. The weather forecast called for snow, and the clouds look ominous.
Mt. Huron behind the ridge leading up to Missouri. The clouds look scarier in this picture.
The Mt. Belford summit marker.
Looking over at Mt. Oxford.
Over on Mt. Oxford, looking back at Mt. Belford. The trip over took about an hour, but seemed to go faster.
This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. You can see Harvard, Princeton, Shavano, Tabaguache, and Yale.
The Mt. Oxford summit marker.
Looking down into the valley between Harvard and Oxford.
This is back on the summit of Belford, looking out towards what I believe is the Elk Range. The clouds were getting heavy at this point, and it looked like it could start snowing at any moment. Missouri was definitely out.
Another look at the clouds.
This is a look at the trail, down below treeline on the way back.
I also made a big (4 MB) panoramic picture from the top of Belford. It‘s too big to upload here, but I have it over on my site:
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
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