|
I'd been lazy of late with progressing with the Jeffco list of named summits. Ryan Schilling suggested Long Scraggy Peak, which had been high on both our short lists. Ryan, Erin, and I began the hike just after watching the first rays of dawn, which was spectacular. Once we finally decided on a place to park (in this case, the west side of the county road at the Colorado Trail), we made good progress. We hiked down the Spring Creek Road to near its northeastern-most extremity and began the "bushwhack" east to the lower reaches of Long Scraggy's North Ridge. The timber for the majority of the hike was quite thin - a bittersweet aspect of many hikes in this area reflecting impacts of forest fires and preventive maintenance thereof. Navigation is eased, though one can't help but feel something is missing. We arrived at the forest boundary shortly after leaving the road, and began the gentle ascent toward the ridge. Snow depth was quite tolerable, and we had no problems arriving at the beginning of the ridge route.
|
 |
 |
The .75 miles remaining were expected to be a little rugged, with some scrambling on snow-covered granite. We skirted the first obstacle on the ridge on its west side, and soon found a cairned trail on the west flank below the pillar-like formations impeding progress on the ridge proper. There were a couple slippery sections en route to the summit block, but nothing requiring more than trekking poles for balance. A short mini-gully led to the ridge again, which was perhaps the most difficult portion. Difficult because the generally grippy granite was lubricated with snow - still class 2. We soon made the turn toward the east to tackle the summit block (photo on left). Scrambling appears to be in order when approaching, but circumnavigating clockwise avoids any possibility of using handholds. A neat passage through a 6' deep crevice is part of the tour.
|
|
Views from the top were certainly worth the effort. Pikes and Thunder Butte dominated to the south, Green Mountain and Windy Peak to the west, and future outing candidates Raleigh Peak, Cathedral Spires, and Banner Peak called attention to the north. The wind didn't encourage us to stay long on the summit, but we did carry out plans to take on one of Scraggy's subpoints. For this one, we actually did exceed class 2, more along the lines of what we set out to do in the first place. One can always find extracurricular scrambles in the South Platte area, a characterstic that keeps us coming back.
|
 |
