12/31/13 Unnamed 6485 #12

View of Unnamed 6485 on 02/06/14

On New Year's Eve Carrie and I wanted to get out for the afternoon so we went up the Poudre Canyon to climb a small peak near the Hewlett Gulch Trailhead.  I had wanted to climb this peak along with Unnamed 7231, but we didn't have enough time for the two of them and Unnamed 6485 seemed like the perfect hike for the afternoon.
We never even started on the trail from the trailhead as the beginning of the ridge starts right from where we parked.  It was a mellow, open slope without too much snow, if I remember correctly.  It really took very little effort and we were quickly above the canyon and enjoying great views and a pleasant ridge walk.

Poudre Canyon pine

Before long we were standing on the summit and taking in the views of the Cache La Poudre Canyon and the surrounding peaks.  I enjoyed looking toward Unnamed 7309, which I had climbed only 21 days earlier.  I also looked at the other peaks between us and Greyrock and started hashing plans for how and when I would climb them.
Instead of retracing our steps back to the car we decided to make a loop out of the hike and took the ridge down to the saddle with Unnamed 7231.  From there we took the drainage back to the Hewlett Gulch Trail.  That gave us nearly one mile to hike along the Hewlett Gulch Trail.  It was a nice trail and we could see much of the damage from the fall floods.  Before long, we were back to the car and heading back down the canyon.
I forgot to bring my camera that day so I will include photos from the 02/06/14 climb of Unnamed 7231.


Elevation gain:  785'     Total gain:  15,210'