Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/9508951911
I made a handful of Colorado friends through a “30 days upside down” handstand challenge on Instagram in January 2022. I got to meet a few of them in Colorado last September (Bierstadt-Sawtooth Evans with Drew; Shavano and Tabeguache with Ryan; and at a Nine Inch Nails concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre with Kelly, Adam, and Nate). I had been planning a hike up Longs Peak with Kelly and Christine for a while, but shortly before this trip to Colorado we switched plans and selected Huron Peak, with a loop route that would pick up a few “13ers” as well, and we invited a bunch of people to join the fun. We ended up with a group of ten, and it was a blast!
I met Meg and Connor, Christine, Shannon, Phil, and Julia at the 2WD trailhead at 4:30am. We donned our headlamps and hiked up the road for about a mile to the upper trailhead, where Kelly, Brandon, and Hannah had camped overnight. By then, there was enough light to see each other and do a round of introductions. Huron Peak would be my 10th Colorado 14er summit. It would be Brandon’s first. The others were pretty experienced, most with >40 fourteeners under their belts and several being Colorado 14er finishers. But the allure of spending a day with new and old friends, and picking up some unique 13ers, encouraged some of them to come out and repeat Huron Peak. I’m glad you all made it out!
We headed onto the standard route hiking trail as the morning light touched the surrounding mountains. It was a really beautiful morning.
As we approached tree line the view opened up and I caught my first glimpse of the picturesque Three Apostles. I was stoked to see Colorado mountains with snow on them, and all of the greenery and wildflowers. My previous trips to climb 14ers were in late August, September, and October, and everything was so brown and the snow was mostly absent.
The trail flattened out for a bit just beyond tree line and we hiked into a field of colorful wildflowers and springs of flowing water. From here we could see Huron Peak. The surrounding mountains were scenic but the fourteener itself was a bit drab, from this perspective. I’m glad we did the loop to the 13er summits, which provided better views of Huron Peak.
After passing through the meadow area the trail began climbing again, although it was never too steep. The rocks on this section were wet and slick, though, so some caution was warrented.
The well-defined trail started switch-backing up the northwest slope of Huron Peak. The photo above is looking back at Kelly and Brandon, and at the 13er Brown’s Peak, which we would summit on our descent.
The weather was calm and sunny and we all felt pretty good! We hung out on the summit for almost an hour, eating snacks (thanks Kelly for the Doritos and Phil for baking chocolate chip cookies for everyone!), and admiring the views. Is that Lake Ann??
Kelly and Brandon opted to head back down the standard route. The rest of us took on the slightly more ambitious Lulu Gulch route back to the trailhead. It added a couple miles, a few hundred feet of gain, and four 13ers (one ranked). Look at the photo below. See that zig-zagging ridge line? That was our route down.
After hitting the summits of Browns Peak and Unnamed Peak 13,462′ we made our way over to Middle Mountain. The ridge continued to a 12er named Cross Mountain (far right in the photo below) but we were ready to head back down after a break on the summit of Middle Mountain. The trail down Lulu Gulch was another set of switch backs, over some loose sand and gravel at times. I think we were all starting to feel the heat of the sun by that point and it got warmer as we descended to lower elevations.
We were happy to get into whatever shade we could find once we hit tree line. It was toasty!
The photo above is looking back at Middle Mountain and the trail we had come down. I didn’t take any pictures after this one. I hiked the rest of the way, a switch-backing ORV road through the forest, with Christine and Julia. We reached the rest of the crew back at the vehicles and parted ways with the rest of them there. Christine, Julia, and I decided to head into Buena Vista for lunch. We hit up a Mediterranean food truck and that really hit the spot. Then they headed back to Denver and I went back to my hotel to rest up. The rest of my 2023 Colorado trip is recapped here: Centennial State Adventures – 2023
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