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Trip Report - Saturday, August 14, 2004
"Sundog" - 13,432
Sunshine Peak - 14,001
Redcloud Peak - 14,034
It's not often I climb a fourteener in the summer, but it does happen occasionally when I have a nearby thirteener that I need to climb. Once such example is the unnamed 13,432-foot peak northwest of Sunshine Peak, which Roach calls "Sundog." He includes this peak as part of the Northwest Ridge route to Sunshine Peak. This looked like a good opportunity to visit the fourteeners a second time also. Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks were my first peaks in the San Juans back in July of 1998. At the time I was blown away by the scenery - little did I know about the other more spectacular parts of what is now my favorite Colorado mountain range.
After sleeping in my car a short distance away from the Silver Creek Trailhead, I started hiking at 7 AM. As Roach describes in his fourteener book, I left the trail about 1.5 miles in at a cairned but otherwise unmarked junction in an open area. There were a few patches of snow leftover here above the creek's south side, which are probably the small remains of avalanches that routinely run in this area. In this spot 6 years ago, there was a huge mound of snow which I crossed that had been deposited here from the slopes above the north side of the trail. After crossing Silver Creek, there is a good trail which continues into the basin surrounded by Sundog, Sunshine, and Redcloud Peaks. Many people descend this trail when taking a direct route down from the Redcloud-Sunshine saddle. I only followed the trail briefly before finding a crossing of the South Fork of Silver Creek, then made a short steep ascent up dirt to gain the beginning of Sundog's north ridge. Shortly after beginning to follow the ridge I found a nice campsite, from where a well-defined trail continued up the ridge. I followed this trail or other game trails most of the way to timberline with a few rocky areas to bypass. Once at treeline, the ridge was still easy to follow to the base of the steep summit area. A faint trail pointed me to bypass the direct ridge to the right for a short scamper up to the top. It was 9:27 when I arrived at the summit.
To descend, I continued over a second bump near the summit, then descended talus and scree that was a little loose. Roach rates this part of the descent as Class 2+. The rest of the ridge went easily to the saddle. A short climb uphill lead to the large flat area below Sunshine's northwest talus slopes. A series of trails appeared on the left (north) half of the slope. I followed one of these as it switchbacked up the slope until it gained Sunshine's northeast ridge, which is also the final part of Sunshine's standard route. I continued up the trail to the summit, arriving there at 10:37.
There were about 6 people at the summit. Most seemed to be curious about my route up - not for the "extra credit" peak I had just climbed, but for an option for them to descend without having to reclimb Redcloud Peak as the sign at the saddle says to do. I stayed for about 20 minutes before departing for Redcloud Peak. I passed many people on their way to Sunshine as I followed the trail down to the saddle and then along the long ridge to Redcloud Peak. I arrived there at 11:45 but stayed for only 5 minutes. I descended using the standard route by following the trail down Redcloud's northeast ridge to a saddle, then onto the Silver Creek Trail which leads down the beautiful valley to the trailhead. I arrived at 1:32 - beating my time six years ago for the two fourteeners (with a reclimb of Redcloud) by almost 30 minutes. |
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