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| Hiking | 18.14 Miles |
4,612 AEG |
| | Hiking | 18.14 Miles | 9 Hrs 28 Mns | | 2.38 mph |
| 4,612 ft AEG | 1 Hour 51 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | Common sense and forecasted warm weather scored victories on Friday night, and Boulder Mountain replaced the Cedar double as the choice for Saturday, with a few different route options on the table to hit the high point on Boulder and beyond. We started from Round Valley at 7AM and hiked up FR 1704 for a few miles with lots of shade and pleasant temps, steadily gaining elevation.
At ~3.5 miles, we left the road and started the steeper climb up toward the ridgeline of Boulder Mountain. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of boulders along the way. After some scrambling and brush-dodging, we took a break partway up the ridge before it got a littler steeper. Closer to the top, great views of snowy Four Peaks opened up, and after a push through some manzanita, we reached 6320. We identified a few landmarks, took a break, and I added a summit register.
Bob decided to make it an out-and-back but generously offered to pick up chumley and me so we could hike the full ridgeline of Boulder Mountain. We called an audible and coordinated plans for Bob to pick us up from Bushnell Tanks--of all the potential route combos on the table the night before, this wasn't one of them, but it worked out great. Bob headed back down to the west, and chumley and I headed east across the ridgeline.
There were plenty of areas with thick brush as we worked our way through alternating sections of live and dead manzanita and varying degrees of fire damage, but the ridgeline was the highlight of the hike. Great views of Four Peaks, a little scrambling, a few small patches of snow, cool geology, and some un-torched ponderosas made it worth every scratch. Given the terrain, we kept a solid pace across the ridge and connected with the AZT in two hours, after a quick detour to a scenic overlook where chumley showcased his Picasso-like artistic prowess.
With 9.5+ miles to go on the AZT, chumley texted Bob and let him know we should be out in three hours. We enjoyed views of Roosevelt early on and cruised through the mostly downhill miles, with a few short breaks, a quick chat with two backpackers, and a stop at Boulder Pools. Along the way, we had very pleasant views looking back up at the Boulder ridgeline with the ponderosas and scattered snow patches.
We finished off the route along Sycamore Creek, back to Bushnell Tanks five minutes ahead of schedule, where Boulder BobP and our chariot awaited. Fun group and a great day--thank you to BobP for driving/waiting and for planning, and to chumley for interrupting a nap to re-plan and re-re-plan when Cedar was out  . |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
Light flow of water and several small/medium pools in the bedrock