02/17/14 Unnamed 6700 #21

Unnamed 6700 from the trailhead

On the 17th of February I headed to Boulder and met up with Mario, Joe, and Joe's son, Stowe.  I convinced them to do a hike just north of Boulder leaving from the Foothills Trailhead in Boulder Valley Ranch.  I had done a hike or two in this area, but it had been years.  Neither of them had hiked from this spot.


It started out nice as there were lots of prairie dogs near the beginning that kept Stowe's focus off the nasty wind.  We carried on around the first hogback ridge low on trails.  Stowe became more and more agitated with the wind and Joe decided to turn back to the car.  I can't say I blame them--the wind was awful and I wondered if Mario and I would make it to the top of the small peak or also turn around because of the wind.

The slope we went up and down

Eventually the trail led into a small drainage and across a creek.  Here we left the trail and started climbing up the slope.  It was dry and the climbing was rather easy.  We made it to the ridge and where we thought the high point might be and saw the true high point further to the north.  We followed the pleasant ridge over to the true high point and right on up to the top.  Fortunately for us the wind had decreased greatly and the morning was much more pleasant.

We enjoyed the views especially south to the peaks around Boulder and east out onto the vast plains.  Then we headed back, taking a slightly different route back down following a nice rock outcrop that led us most of the way back to the small creek.  Then it was a quick walk back to the trailhead.

Elevation gain:  1150'     Total gain:  28,785'