West 14er anyone?

[tmcguffy]

My wife Vicki and dog Iris plan to climb Red Cloud near Lake City, CO. Red Cloud (http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/ppc.ph...=Redcloud+Peak) is a class 2 14er and is 14,034. If we make it to the top and still have some umph left we can also do Sunshine. We plan to arrive on June 27th and stay thru July 2. We plan to camp in Wupperman Campground on the Lake San Cristobal which is first come first serve. (http://www.hinsdalecountycolorado.us/wupperman.html) If Wupperman is full there are some Nat Forest campgrounds nearby. Climbing day will be the first day after the 27th with a good forecast.

Lake City which is about 5 miles north is a interesting little town with plenty of restaurants and provisions. The alpine loop is both north and south of Lake City which is 70 to 100 miles long depending on where you go. This road passes over Engineers pass at 12,800' and is not for the faint of heart. You also need a high clearance 4wd for some parts. (http://www.lakecityswitchbacks.com/a...try-byway.html) The wild flowers should be reaching peak.

To reach Lake City from the south one must take Hwy 149 north from South Fork, CO over Slumgullion Pass at 11,300 ft so be mindful of your mountain driving skills.

Anyone interested?

Tom

[Hittenstiehl]

Not a candidate but that's a beautiful picture if the valley. Good luck.

[polarlyse]

We are not hikers but did do the Alpine Look 3 yrs ago. A spectacular drive with even more spectacular views from the top. If your TV is up to it DO IT.

[KKerry]

I might be interested, heading to California from Texas to man bike and hike.

[Steamy1]

Sounds great!
If it were another weekend we would seriously consider. Would love to add a couple more fourteeners to the list.

[Ray Eklund]

Nancy and I have been up THREE 14teeners.

-Drove up Pikes Peak.
-Drove up Rocky Mountain National Park (Long's Peak) and hiked to the top from the parking lot.
-Drove up Mount Antereo looking for aquamarine crystals. Heard some gem hunters with heavy crow bars and hammers down below... but did find a working Citizen watch without band melting out of a snow drift on top!

Pikes Peak, which I refer to as Peak's Pike as Pike only climbed up part way and said he had enough of that.

Mount Antereo... is a drive to remember. The switchbacks are 40 to 50 foot drops and a bit tricky. Well worth the experience in a 4x4 the size of a Jeep or 4Runner. In a 2006 Tundra... watch for traffic coming UP as passing one another with no guard rails and above tree line will cause your passenger... great distress.

There are some nice Passes to cross when working up some Colorado High Country Adventures... but as we all know... takers are far and few. The drop into Leadville, Colorado from the east is an eye opener, but if you keep your eyes closed as the passenger... it is just a bit bumpy.

Good luck finding some in shape to do this. If there were gem crystals to pick up on top... that is the incentive to get to where they are. The views are wonderful looking down at me and great looking up, at you. See you in August.

[tmcguffy]

Ray,
Like you, my first 14er was Pikes Peak in a car in 1956 when I was 12 years old. Long's Peak is quite a heavy lift - congrats on doing that. Last year we did Mt Elbert and the year before Handies. I guess we keep doing it to prove we're not as old as we look.

The date is now set for June 24 due to another party's time limitation. We plan to do both Red Cloud and Sunshine. Of course, this all depends on some more snow melting and the lack of thunder storm activity on the 24th.

Tom

[KKerry]

The 24th might work. Not sure when we can leave Texas. If we leave by the 20th count us in.
Kerry

[tmcguffy]

Great. We plan to leave Santa Fe on the 23rd and will be checking the snow reports in the mean time. Right now, we have one other party coming from S.F.

Tom

[tmcguffy]

We managed to summit Red Cloud on Friday June 24th. We began at 6:50am and got back to the TH 8 hours later. It was hard! We thought Sunshine was a possibility but the weather was closing in. We camped at Wupperman County campground located on the S.E. side of Lake San Cristobal which was ideal. We also did the Alpine loop which was our 4th time - the road only gets worse especially the south approach to Engineer's pass. The Lake City, CO is a beautiful place and we highly recommend going there.

Tom