14,197
The alarm on my watch was shocking at 4:30 Friday morning. Dawn comes early in the summer in Colorado, but it was still fully dark when we crawled from our tents. Christy and I were out of camp within 20 minutes and on our way to the trailhead. After a bumpy drive down Clear Creek Canyon Road, we arrived right at sunrise. After a few last minute preparations, we were on our way up Mt. Belford at 5:50.
We crossed the bridge over Clear Creek, and began to climb some steep switchbacks toward the head of the valley. It may have been adrenaline, or just the shock of the early hour, but I practically charged to the top of the first hill. I forced myself to slow down by pausing to enjoy the wildflowers and aspen trees.
Christy and I soon reached the only flat section of the climb. It was a 20' stretch across a wobbly "bridge" over Missouri Gulch. The loose boards were unnerving as they sagged underneath us. Once across, we were almost happy to be headed uphill again.
After another climb, we passed the remains of a mining cabin from the previous century. We used it as an excuse for a brief break before climbing on. After the cabin, we emerged above the trees into the early morning sunshine. From here, we had our first view of Mt. Belford. After the morning's steep climb, we were still at the bottom of the mountain. It was discouraging, but we were all the more determined. We continued to climb up through meadows, and soon found ourselves following along behind a giant hare. The rabbit was immense, but it was also quick. Somehow it stayed ahead of us tortoises as we struggled up the trail.
It was still early in the morning when we reached a signed junction. We followed the trail through more meadows before reaching the base of the mountain and a huge rock slide. We worked our way up, suprising several marmots and pikas along the way. We also passed several bizzare plants, which appeared to be carniverous. The interiors were full of bees, which appeared to be trapped for good.
The wildlife and wildflowers provided nice diversions, but the climb was getting serious. The trail began a never ending series of switchbacks up the main ridge. Eventually though, the sun cleared the ridge and helped take the chill out of the air. The sky was cloudless and promised an outstanding day.
The rest of the climb became an exercise in trying to make it to the next turn or rock. Christy battled altitude sickness off and on, but it was never bad enough to turn her back. After a couple of hours of switchbacks, we reached the false summit. From there, the top was only a couple hundred yards away.
We reached the 14,197' summit at 10:15, which was almost 2 full hours ahead of our turn-around time. It had been a challenging climb, but not as bad as we had feared. We signed the register and took an absurd number of photographs. We even enjoyed an early lunch. We spent over an hour on the summit, while several other climbers came and went. Most were headed to Mt. Oxford, another 14er, which was only a couple of miles away.
After lunch, we decided to take a longer but more gradual route down. We followed a nice path across the summit ridge and down to Elkhead Pass. From there we had a close-up view of Emerald Lake and Emerald Peak. From the pass, I vowed to return and camp at Emerald Lake some day. We descended from Elkhead Pass on the Missouri Gulch Trail. It was rather unique, following a stream along a valley bottom at almost 13,000'. Soon we dropped from alpine tundra to willows. By early afternoon, we were back below treeline. We returned to the car around 3pm, but not before I soaked my feet in Clear Creek.
After the hike, we had enough energy to visit the ghost towns of Vicksburg and Winfield. Vicksburg had an interesting museum full of historic artifacts. Winfield featured a number of interesting buildings, but none of them were open to the public.
After getting some culture, we were off to Leadville for a beer and a well deserved steak dinner at the the Stringtown Steakhouse. The decor was somewhere between "pool hall" and "waffle house", but the food was actually quite good, or at least it exceeded our expectations. Later we met back up with Myron and Dorcas. They had done a nice hike to Brown's Pass. They had wanted to try Belford, but weren't ready for the altitude on only their 3rd day.
WHAT A MAROON!
On Friday evening, every moron in central Colorado showed up at the Lakeview Campground. Thursday night had been peaceful, but the idiots showed up for the weekend. One clown with an axe spent most of the night chopping firewood, apparently targeting live trees. He had so many people at his site it looked like some kind of 3rd world country. Another yuppie fool spent most of the night constructing a house - a 2 story, multi-room tent. You could've conducted a 3 ring circus in a smaller facility. To accompany this, there were 3 or 4 groups up all night drinking, and a handful of dogs barking at it all. I was ready for some backpacking. Luckily, Christy and I were exhausted from our climb, so we were able to sleep occasionally.
We decided to take Saturday off and be tourists. We started with a visit to the ghost town at St. Elmo. The town was full of interesting historic buildings, but it was also crowded with people. That pretty much killed the whole ghost town concept. We still enjoyed it, but the antique shop / convenience store was too much. Entire shopping centers in Charlotte do less business than this ghost town.
We then returned to Buena Vista for lunch, showers, and a visit to the train museum. The showers were much anticipated, but a little disappointing. There were only 2 showers, and we had to wait in line. They were $.25 per minute, which included occasional hot water. FYI, there are no change machines at the Buena Vista public showers.
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