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Lon and I only have a few more of the Sawatch to complete before moving on to the San Juans and the Sangre de Cristo range, and so we decided to do Missouri Mountain on Saturday and La Plata on Sunday of this weekend. Al's team bailed on him, so he decided to join us for Missouri.
We left Denver at 2:50 a.m., a little later than we normally do, but the night weather was so beautiful, and there was no traffic so we made pretty good time and arrived at the Missouri Gulch trailhead about 5:10 a.m. Al was ready to go since he slept in his car the night before.
We started off on the trail at 5:25 a.m. Since we had done Belford/Oxford about a month prior, we knew the trail up through the trees and arrived at the Y quite quickly. Lonnie was on fire, and I had to tell him to slow down and not do the tortoise and hare thing, but to keep an even pace.
Lonnie on the trail early on . . . looks like he is still half asleep - he slept in the car all the way to the trailhead.
Al and Lonnie on the trail above tree line.
We had a break in climbing elevation after tree line where we traversed through a beautiful meadow in early morning sun.
Looking up at the summit of Belford with the sun just peeking out.
The meadow had quite a few stream crossings from the run-off snow.
Missouri Mountain.
Starting up through the rock. It was amazing the trail work that was done on this trail. Thanks to whomever lifted and moved all of those heavy rocks to place steps for us. The spring slides had destroyed a bit of the work, however.
Lon rock hopping.
It was a bear getting up to the saddle, but so well worth it looking back down the valley.
The sight of Missouri's couloirs kept us going - have to go back and do the main couloir in February/March of next year.
Al stopping to take pictures.
Once we were on the saddle, the ridge hopping began.
Looking down to the valley from the saddle.
There was still some climbing to be done and elevation to be gained, it was fun, fun, fun from there to the top. The trail wound around through solid boulders and up and down until we finally got to the final portion before the summit where there was a down climb down a short pitch. Lonnie went first and it was super easy for him.
The downclimb.
Lon doing the negotiating.
On to the summit, arriving at 9:15 a.m.
Summit shots (Al and me).
We found some shelter on the back side of the summit and ate our lunch. Al and I were still working with our GPS units and compasses to determine the locations of different peaks. I got a good close up picture of the people on the summit block of Belford.
Pretty soon a huge crowd arrived at the summit of Missouri. We decided to take off - they were pretty rambunctious, throwing rocks at each other and talking way too loud.
Shot a few pics on the way back on the ridge.
We stopped at a really cool bouldering rock - Al couldn't believe that I really was going to do some bouldering, but before long, both he and Lonnie were climbing all over the rock.
We took a little time on the way back, and "Al, the Marmot Hunter", couldn't keep his camera from shooting pics of the Marmots.
I believe this has got to be the prettiest 14er I've done to date. Back at the KOA, Lon and I were able to take showers and get ready for La Plata the next day. Al took off home where he was taking his girl to the Melting Pot for dinner. I think he planned to do Audubon the next day with the group he was going to Nepal with in the fall.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Harvard and Columbia next . . . and then only one more Sawatch to go - Holy Cross.
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