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The wake up call came at 6 AM and we were packed and out of the room by 6:50 AM. Not bad considering that I had my two daughters in tow.My oldest one is usually up at the crack of noon. We were the first ones in the breakfast room and the first to leave. We were on the road at 7:15 AM. A note to Gerry Roach, there is now a traffic circle where 82 meets Castle Creek Road.
We arrived at the TH and jeep trail at about 7:30AM. There was one car in the parking lot already. We started up the jeep trail and met Jen who we picked up. (That was her car in the lot.) We drove just past Pearl Pass Road and parked on the other side of the last stream crossing. I stopped there because the trail ahead up the hill looked very rocky. It was about 8:30 AM. when we started hiking. As we hiked up the hill my kids saw that the jeep trail improved. They moaned that we could have driven farther. We broke out of treeline and the road got worse. Then we saw two large boulders right smack in the middle of the road. I know we couldn't have moved them or driven around them so I was glad that we parked where we did.
My youngest daughter Rachel, stumbled and fell on loose rock. She smacked her knee and we stopped to let her recover. Jen pulled way ahead of us. The two gentlemen hiking behind us, caught up. We hiked with them most of the way up into the basin. Sometimes they lead and kick stepped in the snow going up and other times we lead. We met Jen. She was coming down. She didn't summit. She turned around because she didn't like the looks of the rocky trail. She was refering to what Roach calls the Northeast Ridge. But after seeing how steep the "moderate snow climb" was, all five of us decided to do the Northeast Ridge.
We were approximately half way up the Northeast Ridge when the two older gentlemen decided to turn around. They didn't like the looks of the clouds. The cumulus clouds were looking healthy with dark gray bottoms but there wasn't any vertical developement. Rachel was tired. This was her first attempt at a 14er. She threw in the towel and went back down with the gentlemen to wait for us at the edge of the basin at the bottom of the Northeast Ridge trail. Joelle and I pushed on. It was tough going because of the loose rock. I warned Joelle to test every footstep and every hand hold. We reached the summit of Castle at 1:30 PM after waiting out a short but windy,snow pellet squall. I was very happy that Joelle stuck it out and summited. Castle is her second 14er. The sun came out and we continued across the saddle to Conundrum. Joelle took one look at the steep trail up the face of Conundrum and decided to wait for me at the snow chute on the saddle. I pushed on and summited Conundrum at 2:10 PM just after another brief snow pellet squall. Joelle later said that she could hear my shout as I summited, echoing off the surrounding mountains. I came back down to her and that's when the fun started. We glissaded down the snow chute into the basin. It was fantastic!!!!!!! We hiked over three small rocky hills and met Rachel who had built herself a small rock windbreak at the base of the Northeast Ridge trail. We told her to put on her snowpants and prepare to have some fun. We glissaded 3 more times. The last time was down a short patch of snow into the empty parking lot at the end of the jeep trail. It was too much fun!!!!
We peeled off layers and hiked back to the car, reaching it at 4:30 PM just as the rain and snow pellets started to fall. It was a brief shower and the rest of the way down was sunshine and clouds. I love 4-wheeling and this was a very scenic jeep trial with beautiful mountains, wildflowers, deer, waterfalls and stream crossings, an exciting hike and two 14er summits to boot! What a great day!!!!
Namaste
Sue |
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