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Planned to climb Pikes...but the fire prevented that...picked this combo as an alternative...being a complete rookie...I thought it would not be as hard since it was less miles and not as much elevation gain...I was wrong.
Left the trailhead at 5:30....made to the top of Evans in 3 hours...that was the easy part.
As a side note...we left Evans at the same time another couple did...I was in three shirts with my hood up...long pants and gloves...the girl in front of us was wearing little tiny shorts and hiking boots...a shirt and no gloves...and she and her boyfriend left us in the dust...I almost felt bad about my masculinity watching her and her booty shorts disappear in the distance :-)
The sawtooth was more challenging than I thought it would be. I was scared a couple times...
Once past it we made our way to Evans...but didn't follow the cairns and climbed to what we thought was the top only to learn it wasn't...and had to descend a bit and continue. The cairns are not always easy to follow. Climbing Pikes was much easier to follow...I was expecting something similar...but that was not the case.
Once we got to Evans...a storm was coming at us pretty quickly...but still in the distance...as it approached...the rocks...more specifically the cairns started buzzing and vibrating like crazy..the static in the air was heavy...we basically ran off the summit of Evans to get away.
Then we got lost trying to find our way down...and ended up having to climb down the side of the pass in very loose rock...basically we slid down it trying not to start an avalanche.
Once down it started pouring on us...we couldn't find the path through the brush...it was very muddy...we got lost...wandered around getting drowned for over an hour until we found our way out...we were soaked...boots full of water...
Took us 11 hours car to car...including getting lost a couple times...it was a hard day...but a lot of fun.
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Way to persevere! I'm glad you made it back safely!
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