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TH: Missouri Gulch
Miles: 11
Gain: ~5800 ft
With me on this hike: no one
I had a pretty stressful week and needed some altitude so I decided to head for Missouri Gulch and Oxford and Belford. I arrived late and it was dark. I parked, signed in, and headed up the trail by headlamp. I had never been to Missouri Gulch before but had been checking the routes. My goal was to get above treeline to camp and get an early start up Belford. After reading some previous trip reports I had decided to forgo the snowshoes but I did bring my crampons, thinking I might need them. They turned out to be dead weight as I wouldn’t need them at all. I reached the creek crossing in the dark at midnight and was quite tired after slogging up all of the switchbacks with my 30+ lb pack. I decided I didn’t want to try the crossing in the dark, being tired and heavy so I found a place to camp as far as I could get from the water. I set the GPS to wake me at 5AM but it never went off (or I slept through it somehow) but I woke on my own at 5:30 anyway – only ˝ hour behind schedule. Surprisingly I wasn’t too hungry so I decided to forgo making oatmeal and instead had ˝ of a peanut butter bagel and a GU pack while I packed up my campsite. I hiked up to treeline and stashed some of my camping gear. I began slowly up to Belford when a hiker caught up to me. He was wearing jeans, a Nike sweatshirt, a JanSport backpack and had what looked to be some type of padded motocross gloves on. I asked him if he was by chance a 14erworld member (something I have wanted to start doing so I don’t inadvertently miss members on the trail) to which he replied “no, but I should be!” He passed me and I soon reached the Belford summit. We chatted again, signed in and took some pictures and headed off to Oxford. The saddle over to Oxford was about 98% free of snow which was nice. I put my gators on for 1 small snow field. When I got to Oxford I had the summit to myself so I hung out for awhile and ate some food and of course contemplated the return over Belford. I also read the register and noticed many members names. I think I started back over to Belford around noon. The weather was incredible – not a cloud in the sky! And it was warming up nicely as well. Getting back over Belford was the toughest part of my day – I was quite tired and the trail was quite steep. After reaching Belford I found that I was alone again – and hoped that no one else would show up on the summit on this amazing day. I sat eating and drinking and looking at Pikes Peak and Huron, frankly anything for 150 miles in any direction. I spent well over an hour on the Belford summit as not a cloud was forming in the sky. I was alone the entire time. I headed down off of the summit somewhere around 3:30PM and quickly made my descent. Back at treeline – I retrieved my gear and went down to the creek to filter some water. I cooked some Top Ramen for some salt and energy and this made me feel better. My plan was to attempt Missouri Mt the next day but considering the snow on that route and the fact I was alone I decided to save it for another day. I looked around for a bit for a good camping spot for the night but everything was rocky and nothing was jumping out at me so I decided I felt good enough to just head back to the car. A shower, a beer, and my own bed sounded like a good idea. I arrived back at the car around 7PM and the holiday traffic was starting to filter in. A lot of people were asking me about conditions. All in all it was a great trip and it felt good to knock out 2 great 14ers on such a great weather day. |
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