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| Hiking | 8.50 Miles |
3,585 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.50 Miles | 6 Hrs 13 Mns | | 1.58 mph |
| 3,585 ft AEG | 51 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Got started at 4:00 am. There were a few people ahead of me on the trail, but not many. Thanks to the nearly full moon, I did not need a headlamp. The first 1.5 miles were pretty easy, without a whole lot of elevation gain. The trail is constructed with quite a few big steps for the first mile—I knew I wouldn’t like coming back down those later.
After about 1.5 to 2 miles, the trail gets steeper and steeper, but is in pretty good shape, and was relatively easy given the high elevation. No wind today, and temps didn’t feel all that cold. Just as the moon disappeared behind Grays, the sun was rising, and I was treated to a nice sunrise just before the summit of Grays. I had a snack on Grays, then hiked across the saddle to Torreys.
Ascending Torreys wasn’t too bad—steep, but generally good footing. If you don’t like walking on the edge of steep dropoffs, there a couple of short sections on Torreys you might not like. The trail is pretty wide though, so you can stay to the far side. I took a few pics atop Torreys, then headed back down to the saddle.
From the south side of the saddle, there is a signed trail that leads east and back down to the main trail. Once I was back on the main trail, there were hordes of hikers, all heading uphill. My descent was slowed at times by chatting with afew of the hikers, but overall, I made good time back down to the trailhead. Nice hike, and would probably be especially nice on a weekday.
The road from the interstate to the trailhead is definitely rough, with the worst section around the middle. I’d recommend at least a medium clearance and all wheel drive (or a rental car with insurance), but I did see a Honda Element at the trailhead. All of the other vehicles I saw were SUV’s, trucks, or Subarus. |
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| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
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my plan was to do Torreys as well, but between carrying Noah all the way and the encouragement Micah needed toward the top and the family pace I nixed it for another time. Great Day! We got to see a mountain goat which was Micah’s highlight and she pushed through and was very proud to have made it to the top. My wife liked this hike much better than Princeton and is planning her next summit. I think she has the bug.
. This was our last day of 5 awesome days of Colorado hiking.
We changed our original plan based on weather patterns and the weather was pretty much perfect. Last year we had a couple of whiteouts during the same week. This year the worst thing was a little sprinkle for a half hour.
