14er Report #9: Missouri Mountain (Late Summer, Northwest Ridge)

Horizons to Pikes Peak. From high on Missouri Mountain, Colorado, 2014

“Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness. All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter.” –John Muir, in a letter to his wife Louie in July 1888

Today, on the trail, I was asked if I was hiking alone. I have had others ask me something similar about my 14er adventures when the topic comes up. Implied, I think, is the idea that one would be safer if hiking with a companion. This is probably quite true, but…

First, I am almost never truly alone when I am hiking a 14er. This quirky quest has become almost too popular these days. I am typically on an established route or trail and there are usually folks ahead of me and behind me. Often (like Longs Peak), there are so many people on the route, that you sort of “fall in” with a group or an individual and you become de facto hiking partners for at least part of the ascent/descent.

Second, I always tell me wife where I am going, what trailhead and route I’ll use, and when I should be expected back home. I also try to send her a text from the summit (when cell reception happens to be available) so she knows things are going as planned.

Third, I spend a lot of time studying the route before I go–Gerry Roach’s “Bible” and 14ers.com most of all. I pay close attention to the weather forecast and look for a good window of opportunity that will avoid storms. I leave very early from the trailhead so as to be off the summit by 7 to 10 a.m.–another good way to avoid pop-up, early-outa-bed, thunderbumpers. On the more difficult scrambles (Little Bear, North Maroon, Capitol, Pyramid, Wilson, Crestone Needle, Sunlight, etc.), I will go with a climbing partner.

Finally, I just like to hike alone sometimes. I can go at my own pace (fairly fast up, then fairly slow on the way down, with photo op stops). It’s a good time to embrace and caress personal thoughts. Call it another form of contemplative meditation with the natural world as its stage. In fact, it is interesting to note how many cultures used to have (or still do) some sort of solo experience as part of the process of becoming a man or a woman.

Some examples:

–The “walkabout” of the Australian aborigenes.

–The vision quest as part of a rite of passage common among many Native America tribes.

–The solo experience at National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and Outward Bound courses.

I remember doing a 5-day solo backpack in the Grand Canyon many years ago (B.C.P. G.P.S. and I.P. – Before Cell Phones, GPS, and iPods) for which I chose a route that explored some secondary trails that aren’t on the standard Park Service entrance station map. I took my time, walked with my heart, eyes, and ears open, didn’t do anything crazy when moving through the steeper cliff bands, and I had a really refreshing time of it. Call it rejuvenating. Spiritual renewal.

Today on Missouri Mountain, in fact, this theme of alone-ness abounded. I was alone…I found a young guy camped on the summit–also alone…on the way down, I met a very fit young woman hiking up alone…then another young man going up alone…then yet another young woman hiking alone. Could there be a general human need here?

In our frenzied (civilized!?), plugged-in-for-24-hours-a-day culture, maybe more alone time would do us all some good. Indeed, could it be that some sort of alone-centered rite of passage ceremony for us in this modern world might serve to help heal some of our personal and societal pathologies?

Missouri Mountain (14,067′) Trip Report

Route:

The 7 1/2 miles of dirt road from US 24 to the trailhead were very washboardy and, with the recent rains, pocked with potholes. About halfway in, you’ll cross some very minor drainage leaking across the road but it has eroded a nice little, abrupt, near-invisible, ditch a few inches deep. Go slow here or you’ll break Grandma’s china tea set in the trunk. All this said, you can still easily get a low-slung 1969 Chevy Impala to the trailhead parking lot. (Just beware of beavers felling trees onto your car in the lot.)

I followed the standard Northwest Ridge Route from the Missouri Gulch Trailhead. The first mile or so up past the cabin ruins is quite steep but then, above treeline, the walking becomes easier as the basin opens up and flattens a bit. From the trailhead up to the base of Missouri Mountain, you’ll climb over what look like three distinct terminal or end moraines (steeper hillsides), left by a receding glacier which no longer exists.

Once you leave the Elkhead Pass Trail and start up Missouri Mountain proper, the grade steepens and you soon hit the rocks. Up to the ridge, call it Class 2 walking through a couple of very short sections. The ridge itself (also Class 2 in one or two spots) is wonderful and airy with great views, especially to the north and west. It is also a bit longer than you might think (where is that summit, anyway…?). Expect to hit some wind as you gain the ridge and lose the protection of the lee hillside.

This ridge climb would probably be a good warm-up for those looking for just a slight bit of exposure but aren’t quite ready for the Class 3 14er routes (assuming no snow).

Timeline:

A 11:45p.m. departure from Boulder.

On the trail at the Missouri Gulch Trailhead by 2:30a.m. and passed the cabin ruin at about 3:35a.m.–good camping sites here. Passed the Belford/Elkhead Trail split about 20 minutes later, then arrived at the Elkhead/Missouri Mountain trail split at 5:00a.m. (this includes about 20 minutes of moonlight photo work at the creek en route).

The climb up to the summit ridge took about 50 minutes. By then, dawn was breaking beautifully onto the near-cloudless, moon and starlit sky, so the climb along the ridge to the summit took me nearly an hour due to a plethora of photo op stops. I was at the base of the final summit blocks to capture the sun as it broke free of the horizon just to the right (south) of Belford-Oxford and left (north) of a very distant Pikes Peak.

I spent almost an hour on the summit doing my usual photography dance, then started down at about 7:45a.m. and, by 11:20a.m., I was back at the trailhead.

Weather Conditions:

Temps in the low to mid-30s at the start–the smell of a crisp fall in the air. Winds calm, despite a forecast for “breezy” conditions. Sky clear–a temporary break in the waves of monsoon madness.

At sunrise, on the summit, the clouds were confined to a few valleys and mountain tops (see images). Luckily, the winds stayed mostly calm to a max of maybe 10mph. More wind with the below freezing temps would have been uncomfortable. Once back below the ridge, on the leeside again and in the morning sun, I stripped to shorts for the rest of the hike.

By 10:30a.m., the first cumulus clouds appeared over Missouri Mountain but, by then, I was below treeline.

Trail Conditions:

Fall colors are here! Missouri Gulch, Colorado, 2014

The only hazards on this almost-fall morning (the leaves are starting to turn!), despite some rain and snow flurries the day before, were the icy-wet rocks on the stream crossings, and the frost-slick rocks on the summit ridge. Sometimes this thin glaze of ice can’t be seen, so take care with your steps.

The trail was easy to follow sans headlamp in the light of the waning Moon (about 92% illumination), even through most of the initial forested section.

Photography Issues:

–The MeFOTO Day Trip Tripod seems to work for hiking/backpacking–it is small, sturdy, and reasonably light. Also, I swapped out the ball head so it now has the same sized clamp as my big tripod ball head, which means I no longer have to switch out the base plate whenever I switch tripods. More on this in a separate blog post.

–I carry my two additional lenses, in lens bags, in the two outside pockets of my pack. This seems to work OK for now, although have to shed the pack to switch lenses.

–I need to work on getting to the summit a bit earlier–at the first light of dawn, rather than at sunrise, as this pre-dawn twilight marks the beginning of the best light.

Unusual Events / Comments:

–The felled beaver tree is still in the parking lot.

–Made the summit only to find a young man who had camped up there for the night. What a perch!

–I saw a total of eight people on the entire Missouri Gulch/Mountain trail and half of them were headed for Mt. Belford. Obviously, the summer crowds have gone as the usual 14er season draws to a close. I did also see, at a distance, at least three additional pairs of hikers high on the steep ridge going up Belford.

—Colorado 14er Senior Challenge summit count: 14 of the basic list of 58 (p. xxiii in Gerry Roach’s 14er “Bible”, Colorado Fourteeners, 3rd Ed.); 15 of the long list of 73 (pp. 347-348, with South Wilson added, also in Roach’s “Bible”.

Selected Images: