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Weather for the weekend looked to preempt a pleasant day of hiking, so I managed to get a Thursday off for a visit to the San Juans. One look at the eastern aspects of the higher peaks convinced me that Handies Peak would be a miserable and trying time, so I opted to go for Castle Rock and perhaps Leon Peak to loop up to I-70 from U.S. 50. I arrived at what I took to be the trailhead at 9:30 and began to follow the road south. I discovered something interesting about my starting postion sometime later. The road was losing elevation, so I started to follow game trails east, thinking I would intersect the the correct road. After 15 minutes, I did find a road and continued to follow this south and at times east. When I figured I had traveled about a mile, I began the bushwhacking. The terrain was fairly easy to navigate, with about a foot of snow at this point. Featured on the right is one of the rare moments when Cimarron Ridge was visible.
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I was not worried about finding my way back as my tracks were obvious. About an hour and a half into the hike, I realized something was strange about my position - another road appeared. It became evident that I added four extra miles to this hike by starting at 9,100' on private property. In the Mitchler and Covill guide, there is no mention of two sets of radio towers along Buckhorn Lakes Road, but I spotted the first up the switchbacking road and turned around to park at the first available road heading south. I was wondering why I didn't see any signs for Buckhorn Lakes. This really emphasized the need for a properly functioning altimeter or clairvoyant reading-while-driving comprehension. In any event, I followed the road and soon spotted the Sawtooth formation. When it looked like I was parallel to 'the gap' I began bushwhacking again. I ran into many rock bands with increased postholing exhaustion, and was about to call it quits, when I spotted what appeared to be tracks from a hiker a few days before. I followed these for some time up to the gap and left them as I traversed Cimarron Ridge. On the crest of the ridge, Storm King Peak came into view (photo on left).
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The postholing was time and energy-taxing, sometimes at thigh level. I finally arrived at the last pitch below Storm King, which was probably the most difficult part on the day. The snow was very unstable and two feet deep, so the best alternative was to use a protruding fallen tree for aid. On the right is a view of this section taken at an upward angle, making the route appear more benign than it really was. My route up was on the left-hand side of the shot. At the south end of Storm King, it appeared that I could follow the wind-raked ridge crest, but this soon gave way to cliffing out. The wind had been tolerable all day, though the temperature was well below freezing. I was starting to grow some concern about getting back to my truck before dark. The 1/2 mile from Storm King to the summit took nearly an hour in the mashed potato mess of snow drifts.
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At 2:00 p.m. I finally reached the summit, and was anxious to get back to the truck. Views of the north and west San Juans were amazing. Here is a zoom of Uncompahgre Peak. I found the other hiker's tracks once off the ridge and followed them west of my first intersection with them. I was curious as to how the tracks went under fallen trees at times without any snow disturbed on the trees themselves. Then my curiosity came to an abrupt halt as the tracks entered a hole in some rocks with dirt dug out over the snow. Wind had distorted the tracks enough to give them the appearance of a postholing person. The bear had inadvertently participated in showing me part of the route to Cimarron Ridge. The route down was significantly easier to navigate than my ascent once I arrived at the road again. Bear, deer, rabbit, and coyote tracks were very prevalent on the way to Buckhorn Lakes. The sun had almost completely set when I reached my truck. At 5:20 p.m. I began the 5-1/2 hour drive back home. No extra highpoints or a trip up to I-70 today.
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