OK, some details are probably in order. So here's a mini TR. I didn't plan on breaking the record Friday. I invited Aaron Voth to join me in Park county, describing it as a potentially large 10-15 peak day and he was game for that. The caveat was he had to be back in Boulder at 7:30 p.m., so we'd have to leave Park County 5-5:30 ish. With that time constraint I knew there would be no record but still welcomed the company. We'd never hiked together before but I was confident he's be up for this based on his reported accomplishments on LoJ. He was a great partner for the day, much younger than me, 6'5" tall and a cross country runner. He was almost always ahead on the way up each peak, which in effect acted as a pacer for me to get my older legs up the hill. I think I wore him out by later in the day though.
We met at the Fort along 285 and started hiking on 9756 about 6:30 a.m. The order for the Park Co peaks was 9756, 9564, 9850, 9507 (soft ranked and only 3' shy of being a peak), 10090, 10420, 10220, 10550, Dicks Pk, 10580, 10390, Agate Mtn, 9900, 3-Mile Mtn, and Rodgers BM. This area has lots of peaks and good 4WD road access. We were able to drive within a mile or less on each peak, but no drive ups. Avg gain was about 350-500' per peak. 10390 was one that might have had a bit less than 300' of gain, you can drive pretty high on that one. Agate and 10390 took a long time to drive to from the Dicks Pk area but were nice additions. Most of these peaks are on NF land, but no trespassing issues on those that weren't. Thanks to Kevin Baker for the nice TR's on some of these peaks. Also kudos to Teresa Gergen, who did six of these on April 3 on snowshoes starting from Hwy 9. Wow! One month later the snow is gone and we could drive anywhere in the area, making the record possible.
The story continues beyond Park County. We had 14 ranked Park Co peaks done at 5 pm. Aaron had to get back home and I was driving. I was extremely bummed that the record was only three peaks away, there was more than three hours of daylight left, and I had other unclimbed Park County peaks nearby. But Aaron could not get out of his dinner plans. So we beat it out of there and back to Morrison. You're right John, I was tormented by having to stop at 14 all the way home. Considered tacking on a repeat like Michigan Hill but that would have truely been lame! I dropped Aaron off at the Fort about 7 p.m. and considered how I would reach 17 peaks.
Since I've climbed everything in JeffCo the last three would be repeats. I chose three that were close to 285 in the Morrison area and that I knew well enough to not get lost in the dark. Parked at Tiny Town and headed up the old abandoned trail to the saddle of 7965 and Mt. Lindo. I felt surprisingly fresh, a 2-hour rest with food and hydration had helped my recovery from the previous 14. 7965 was first, that one requires some semi-ugly bushwhacking that I didn't want to do in the dark. The sun set on the top of that one, it was pretty. Back to the saddle and then up the more open south slope of Lindo in fading light. Cool view of the city lights. Headlamp on for the trail back to the truck. These two peaks were 2 miles RT and 1600' of gain, the most gain of any peaks on the day.
It was now 9:00 p.m. with one peak left to go. Mt. Falcon would be last. I drove to the western parking lot. I've been up this peak many times, but usually on my bike on the hard approach from the east. I would have to break some rules as the park is closed at sunset. Fortunately nobody discovered me. This was a fairly flat 2 mile RT hike on trails. Maybe only 250' gain total, but I felt I had earned the record on the previous two peaks. Never been up there at night. The city light views were breathtaking. I was done by 10 and finally satisfied with the day. Could have squeezed in another hogback repeat, but I'm not big on repeats. 17 peaks is not likely to last long anyway. I only raised the bar a little. Sorry to have to break your short-lived record Kirk!
Total stats for the day were 19.5 miles of hiking and 8200' of gain. 16 separate starts (including 9507). 320 miles of driving and back to sleep in my own bed. Fun, fun, fun! I love stuff like this. It takes a lot of advance planning, which I enjoy almost as much as executing the plan.
