Rosalie, "Epaulie", Epaulet
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12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report The Comeback: Take II Peak(s): Stewart Pk - 13,983 feet Baldy Alto - 13,698 feet "Column Ridge" - 13,795 feet Organ Mtn A - 13,801 feet Henry Mtn - 13,254 feet Antora Pk - 13,269 feet Rosalie Pk - 13,575 feet "Epaulie" - 13,530 feet Epaulet Mtn - 13,523 feet Fossil Mountain - 12749 Posted By: bergsteigen Post Date: 09/09/2015 Modied: 09/10/2015 Date Climbed: 09/07/2015 The Comeback: Take II Rosalie, "Epaulie", Epaulet Date: August 29 Trailhead: Tour D'Abys pullout on Mt Evans Road Mileage: 4.93 Elevation Gain: 1,593' Partner: solo I really need to stop breaking my leg. 2 years in a row, it's getting old, fast. While this time around was easier, since the pain ended in just a few days and I was walking (or weight bearing) from day 1, it was much harder mentally than last years break. I did whatever I could to keep the spirits up with nature therapy, friend therapy, home brew therapy... but nothing quite compares to being out in the mountains. A few weeks of being cleared to go mountain biking proved to me that it's much more dangerous to my health and well being than hiking. Fun and exciting, but at times terrifying. Or maybe that's because my rst trek out was on the CT from Kenosha Pass to Georgia Pass. Being passed by pro mountain bikers, left me out of my league. At least I got props from one of my friends out there that day for crushing it, despite being a noob biker. So I begged my ortho Doc to be cleared for class 1 & 2 hiking after getting a good X-ray result. I had to promise to be good, listen to my body and use a brace and trekking poles. Yay! So thankfully I had been saving this trio for just such a rainy day. Easy, short and very little elevation gain. A good rst outing after being so restricted. Too bad the day was so smokey, though it does lead to a few interesting photos. Amazingly, as I pulled out onto the small lot to start the hike, another hiker was just getting going. I had expected to see no one on these random and fairly unimpressive 13ers. Afterwards I felt no real soreness or pain, so I knew that this trek was well within my abilities. Will have to try harder next time! Doc said soreness was OK, just no pain. https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 1/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Smokey view of the 3 peaks from my parking spot Bierstadt and Evans from Epaulet https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 2/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 3/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report View back from Rosalie https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 4/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Excited to be back! Antora Date: August 30 Trailhead: FS Brewery Creek Guard Station Mileage: 7.55 Elevation Gain: 3,890' Partner: Zach On my drive down to the southern most Sawatch 13er, I get a text from Zach wanting to know what I was up to the next day, as he was looking for another peak to hike. So after meeting to have dinner and look over a map, Zach agreed to come along on the Antora expedition. From beta, the roads are a maze, and maps don't represent where the actual roads and trails actually are. So it was going to be an interesting day. Too bad we got down to the trailhead that Kevin Baker suggested a bit too late to scope out the 4WD road that almost goes to the summit of Antora. It's totally drivable for a 4WD with decent skills (very narrow and steep in spots) So we camped out by the gate on the road, and made our way on a variety of trail types until we found an old over grown trail. It's very faint in places where cows haven't trod upon in a while. But we made https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 5/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report do, and slowly made our way up to treeline amongst copious amounts of cow pies and cows. Mmmmmm Mooooooo! After the long trek up in the woods, we were happy to follow the road up until it ended. There we found 2 other vehicles, a hunter and a pair of hikers visible up on the ridge to the summit above. The entire trek was quite easy, despite all the elevation gain on my new ankle, until the nal summit push. There the dinner plate talus was quite steep and rather loose and unstable. So slowly but surely I made my way up. Met the 2 hikers as they were coming down and chatted briey about ski mountaineering. Zach had told them of my injury and were impressed. Very short stop on the summit since there were some clouds building. A brief 30 minutes later and we were back at the upper trailhead. Zach had joked that he wouldn't turn down a ride if it was offered, since he had the start of a nice blister. So when Steve (?) and Shane offered us a ride, it took me barely a few moments to say yes. Heck, I would have driven up here and counted it. So with no remorse we took the easy way down and got to chat with a couple of nice folks about skiing and the like. Much more enjoyable! Zach hiking up the road https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 6/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Private property just off the road End of the 4WD road, Antora in background https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 7/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Last bit of ridge up Summit pano north https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 8/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Summit pano south https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 9/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Loose ridge off the summit https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 10/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Antora from the drive out. Storms never happened today https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 11/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Why there was a 30 minute delay over Kenosha Pass. Cleared up afterwards. Uggg! Henry Mtn Date: September 5 Trailhead: Gold Creek Campground Mileage: 9.10 Elevation Gain: 3,832' Partners: Bob and Pat (on the descent) With plans in ux since I had my Mom in tow for the camping portion of the trip, we ended up driving out on Friday early and managed to avoid the worst of the 285 Labor Day Weekend debacle. I gured lonely Henry Mtn would be a good and remote objective. Arrived at the small campground and picked out a choice campsite next to a small stream. Since my Mom's version of camping involves comfort including a portable kitchen sink (no joke), I splurged and replaced my broken down chairs, my stove which was a pain to light and keep lit, and got a camp shelter tent thingy to make the inevitable rain more liveable. I didn't think my Mom would enjoy my version of low-tech camping all that much. https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 12/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Comfort camping with Mom I knew the weather for Saturday would be quite iffy, but I gured there would be a weather window of some form in the morning. At least I would make the trek up to the lake and decide then. When it was raining when I woke up - I hit snooze. Woke up again - repeat. x 10 So sometime a bit after sunrise, I nally started up the trail, saying hello to a fellow camper. Trail was wet from the recent rain, but I was able to see a few peeks of blue sky to keep me excited for the possibilities. At the lake, I decided to keep going. So up the super steep wet grassy slope I went. Slow going, but I knew most of the days elevation gain would be over once I was up there. Fossil Mountain was in and out of the misty clouds as I reached the summit. Didn't stay long, but I did notice a nice trail off the summit of Square Top that looked promising. I wasn't looking forward to descending the way I came up. With the weather, I gured I could at least make it over to Square Top and then decide. Along the way I was passed by a solo hiker. I certainly wasn't expecting to see anyone up there! But since I'm still recovering, I was in no shape to keep pace, so I let him go ahead with only a few words spoken. https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 13/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Pano from lake Steep grass up to saddle with Fossil Mountain https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreportp.php?trip=16504&photos=2 14/39 12/13/2019 14ers.com • Trip Report Pano from ridge.