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I'm becoming quite good at not completing combos of mountains that ought to go together.
I did Blanca but not Ellingwood,
Belford but not Oxford,
Crestone Needle but not Crestone Peak,
and Columbia two years after Harvard.
To redeem myself, I thought, oh, perhaps I'll do Missouri and Oxford!
But, I also thought, oh, perhaps I'll do my long day of running before hiking.
And oh, perhaps I'll sleep only 4 hours.
And oh, perhaps I won't really think too hard about the route.
So I drove to the Missouri Gulch trailhead knowing fully that I would be doing only Missouri Mountain, and knowing fully that I'd have to come back.
But OH MY, what a lovely day it would have been for a long, long hike.
Weather: perfect.
Leaves: trending towards fall in the most beautiful way
Mountains: duh, mountains.
Animals: I didn't kill any on the way up.
I started hiking just before 9am (ALPINE START ALL THE WAAAAY), and was treated to a neon leaf rave as the sun peaked over the hills.
It was somewhat disorienting to be on this trail under these conditions. When I hiked Belford a few years back, it was snowy and required much trudging and grumpy post-holing and trail-losing:
Instead of recalling those fun times, I kept having flashes of La Plata, which I hiked at exactly the same time last year, amidst the leaves and the beautiful. Quite a confusing mishmash of memories!
Mostly though, I was focused on my heel. Which is to say, the pain in my heel. Which is to say, the blister on my heel. Now, I've hiked a lot (A lot. (A LOT!)), and I just don't get blisters. But I guess running for too long in VFFs the day before weakened me?
Sigh. I tried, in various iterations, a bandaid and some moleskin and some tape and some folding-down-my-sock. None of that seemed to work. So I tried the best blister-care known to man: ignoring the shit out of it. Onward.
Missouri is weird. There's a lot of upup in the beginning and then a whole lot of flatflat and then some more upup and then some more of the flatflat. That's my trip report right there, and all of the advice I can offer you.
When I got to the saddle at 13,700' just after noon, I was really perplexed to see several other people. I had been hiking alone for three hours, with the occasional stray hiker pair descending appropriately early from ox/belford or elkhead pass. There was no one else on the Missouri Gulch trail. Oh, right, there's a backside trail. Of course, I thought.
I passed by these mysterious hikers who appeared out of no where, and reached the summit around 12:45 with their fearless leader, who took my requisite handstand photo.
When the rest of the crew scurried up the summit, I discovered that they were full of enthusiasm, snacks, fake accents, and matching hats! I took perhaps a thousand photos of this "Will Hike For Beer" crew, and in return, they fed me chocolate, nuts, tuna, and cookies. +/- a Clif bar, sadly turned down due to peanut content. Miguel ate one of my carrots, so I suppose I contributed a little.
I ended up staying on the summit for awhile chatting with them, and then after they all departed, proceeded to do a little mountaintop meditation. (Cannot recommend the Headspace app enough! Give it a try!) I had a little debate with myself as to whether to descend or to head over to Oxford via the traverse.
Reasons to do it:
- Not coming to this damn gulch three times to do a set of 3 peaks that can be done in one loop.
- Feeling gooooood!
- Great weather that looked like it would hold.
Reasons not to do it:
- Knowing literally nothing about the route.
- Feeling goooood... because I'd only done 5 miles thus far. Lack of sleep and the previous day's excessive activity would be hurting me later, right?
- Wait... didn't I have a blister or something?
Okay. Fine. It wasn't much of a real debate. Stupid Oxford. Stupid mountains that are supposed to be done together. Bleh!
I headed back down the same route and shared a few parting words with the beer crew before returning to my solo hiking endeavor. The pikas and marmots were out in full force for the afternoon, so there was a lot of squeaking on the descent. I passed a dude coming up the gulch at about 2:30; a weird time to ascend, but given the weather, he had infinity time to make the summit. Mostly though, just pikas and marmots and insects. In fact, I have never seen so many large insects on a 14er. Maybe that's because most of my ascents have been in snow? Is it cricket season right now??? Hard to say.
The afternoon was just phenomenal. Several people were sitting down to take it in, like this turquoise-shirted lady who I startled.
And, the leaves? Ah, those guys. It's not peak yet, but definitely come up to Missouri Gulch next weekend, because it is looming. Even at not-yet-peak, I couldn't take my eyes off them.
When I got back to the car and peeled off my boots, I was startled by this blister. When I had last checked on it (10am), it was a small, manageable thing. But now? It nearly consumed the entirety of my foot.
I'm really glad that I didn't hike the combo. Plus, driving down 390 in the dark would've been pretty terrible.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Those aren't mountain goats in your first photo. They are bighorn sheep. I was up in Missouri Gulch the same day to hike Belford and Oxford. Saw the same red crickets on the saddle between the two peaks.
Congrats on the summit! we were across the valley that same day. I agree the fall colors were looking good!
Wow that blister looks painful. I have had a few just like them in my days so I can relate. I ended up going with a lighter weight sock and it solved mine.
Crickets: Funny when I did that trio back in 2007 I made this comment in my TR:
”The one thing that still stands out in my mind about the trek up was all the %$& crickets, I don't know why there were so many of them but they were everywhere!”
We (me and my son) may have passed you mtgirl or even said hi..
I'm kind of like you - it always seems like I do one peak without getting to the other. But most of these 14er areas are so beautiful, I have no qualms about going back a second time. Nice pictures.
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