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| Hiking | 13.15 Miles |
3,315 AEG |
| | Hiking | 13.15 Miles | 9 Hrs 57 Mns | | 1.56 mph |
| 3,315 ft AEG | 1 Hour 32 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Bob wanted to do a 4 Peaks Circumference hike today, but that seemed like a terrible sufferfest, so we ended up on this less-terrible sufferfest instead. 
The plan was to drive to the start via FR1530, but I left my Medal driving skillz at home and despite my numerous doubtful queries about traversing the slope along the edge of the lake, Bob had done this before and insisted that it was easy. Apparently that word has a different meaning for some people. This part took 45 min, which is as long as walking the road would have taken, but I'd argue the lakeside route was more scenic and interesting. Obviously, lake level plays a factor here in these choices.
Bob's memory was a little better in leading us up a very cool limestone canyon before gaining the ridge that ascends directly up to 3531. This is a near-vertical climb covered with those neat little granite ball bearings and dotted with all the traditional prickly desert obstacles. Luckily there was an occasional piece of bedrock to plant your foot on, but only briefly, as your weight will dislodge it and send it careening toward your hiking partners below. I shed some blood after a tumble on one of those firmly anchored 500-lb boulders that was apparently not firmly anchored. It's 1000 feet in half a mile and took us about an hour.
On the map, 3531 is a short and relatively flat ridgeline traverse from Lime Peak. In reality, it was the most enjoyable boulder hopping on the day, with some knife-ridge spots and a lot of short ups, downs, and arounds. Fun, but not fast -- half an hour to get over to the Lime summit. Requisite benchmarks and break before heading down to the frustum marking the county boundary. Bob misunderpronounces that word, and I prefer his version better.
Next, we skirted a small hill along the ridge, and this turned out to be a bad plan. The extra elevation staying true to the ridge would have avoided some pretty thick, prickly, slippery, side-slope traverse. Going over the top is a 200 foot climb, and worth it.
The steepest part of the climb to Sunset gains 600 feet in 0.3mi. It looked worse from a distance than it did underfoot, but as with the approach to Lime, this was slow going. It took a bit over an hour to climb the 1000 feet from the saddle to the Sunset summit. The views along the way were spectacular and made for nice breathing breaks. There were a good number of historic structures at several points along the ridge, and the summit was once a mountaintop fortress. Worth a visit if that's your thing.
We decided that descending the steep ball-bearings didn't sound fun, and John10s had reported some unpleasant brushy sections on the eastern slopes, so we plotted a route down via a more moderate looking ridge off the west slope and down into Lime Creek, after I assured Bob and Dave that there was an ADA-compliant trail along the creek. 
This turned out to be a great decision, and though there was some prickly-pear pinball coming off peak 3724, the grade was nice, the views were great, and ample cattle and wildlife paths provided comfortable travel the whole route down. Upon reaching the creek, I was pleased to see it was flowing, something I didn't think was possible in here winter 24-25. Looking at the map, we were a bit disheartened to see just how far upstream we had ended up, but figured we would still make it back by dark.
Though I promised that the creek would soon disappear underground, it never did. It lead us through a really nice stretch of narrows that required unplanned wading, and otherwise meandered through a beautiful desert canyon for four miles before reaching the end of the road where we began the ascent. I only slipped on the rocks and submerged once! Later I almost stepped on a skunk that was napping in the grass. Thankfully he decided to waddle away without blasting a warning shot my way. Not long after a curious gray fox watched as we passed from a sheltered spot in the cliffs. Along with some deer, not a bad day for wildlife sightings.
I offered to take the lake route back to the truck and let Bob and Dave walk the road where I would pick them up, but we all opted for lakeside misery and scenery once again.
This was a long, difficult, tiring day, but had a whole bunch of rewards that made it very enjoyable. |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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