Dates Hiked: Wednesday, July 25, 2012. Got to the trailhead about 8:20am, was back down by 11:40.
Total Distance: 6.66mi round trip
Difficulty: Medium - My RT time 3.5 hours. Just about 2 to summit and 1.5 down.
Conditions: varied quite a bit...had some rain clouds, sunshine, drizzles and freezing/whipping winds at the summit. Avg temp was between 60-70 I imagine. I had my hat and mittens on at one point. Although we have gotten a little bit of rain the ground was quite dry and the rocks for the last part of the hike were dry.
Trip Report: I've been wanting to hike Quandary (14,265') for awhile and finally got the motivation yesterday evening to get up this morning and Just Do It. I hiked solo with the two dogs and we all did amazing. We took East Ridge trail up which is pretty much a straight shot to the summit along the ridge line. The hike starts out down in the valley with soft dirt trails. Once you get out of the valley and above the tree line it turns into a rock climb. I rarely had trouble finding my footing but there were a couple of loose spots I came across where I had to use boulders to the side of me to stabilize myself. One of my highlights: I found a pink glove on the side of the trail that I picked up and threw in my outer pouch of my backpack. Finally came across a family that was taking a break with 3 little girls and a little boy. I asked if they had dropped the glove, they said yes and were in complete and utter shock that I pulled it out of my backpack.
The trail was packed....The dogs and I never took a break just kept pushing through and I probably passed about I don't know... 60 people? It was really busy, people from all over.. Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri. Everyone was nice. It was a little crazy at the summit, but since I was solo it was nice to be able to ask some people to take some shots of me and the pups. We prob hung out at the summit for 10 minutes and decided to head back down, it was really cold and crowded. Hike down was no problem, passed a couple of mountain goats! Yippeee!! That was kind of cool. All in all a great hike for my day off. And another 14er to check off the list. Pics to come shortly. . .
Total Distance: 6.66mi round trip
Difficulty: Medium - My RT time 3.5 hours. Just about 2 to summit and 1.5 down.
Conditions: varied quite a bit...had some rain clouds, sunshine, drizzles and freezing/whipping winds at the summit. Avg temp was between 60-70 I imagine. I had my hat and mittens on at one point. Although we have gotten a little bit of rain the ground was quite dry and the rocks for the last part of the hike were dry.
Trip Report: I've been wanting to hike Quandary (14,265') for awhile and finally got the motivation yesterday evening to get up this morning and Just Do It. I hiked solo with the two dogs and we all did amazing. We took East Ridge trail up which is pretty much a straight shot to the summit along the ridge line. The hike starts out down in the valley with soft dirt trails. Once you get out of the valley and above the tree line it turns into a rock climb. I rarely had trouble finding my footing but there were a couple of loose spots I came across where I had to use boulders to the side of me to stabilize myself. One of my highlights: I found a pink glove on the side of the trail that I picked up and threw in my outer pouch of my backpack. Finally came across a family that was taking a break with 3 little girls and a little boy. I asked if they had dropped the glove, they said yes and were in complete and utter shock that I pulled it out of my backpack.
The trail was packed....The dogs and I never took a break just kept pushing through and I probably passed about I don't know... 60 people? It was really busy, people from all over.. Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri. Everyone was nice. It was a little crazy at the summit, but since I was solo it was nice to be able to ask some people to take some shots of me and the pups. We prob hung out at the summit for 10 minutes and decided to head back down, it was really cold and crowded. Hike down was no problem, passed a couple of mountain goats! Yippeee!! That was kind of cool. All in all a great hike for my day off. And another 14er to check off the list. Pics to come shortly. . .
