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After a cold and creepy night sleeping alone at the trailhead in my truck (I watched the horror movie "1408" the night before), I set off at 6am in the pitch dark. The early start was worth it once I got above treeline and saw a Mommy and baby mountain goat grazing in the sun. (Image 1 and 2). I feel fortunate that I got to see them - when I came down, they were nowhere to be seen.
I also met a local dog (a big yellow lab named Horton) who reportedly runs away from home and climbs Quandary quite regularly. He seemed to know what he was doing and was really enjoying himself. The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful - there really wasn't much snow at all (Image 3). However, as I was coming down a front was moving in, and the forecast was for snow.
I'm glad I got a chance to hike this later in the season on a sunny fall day when there weren't many other people on the mountain. I had heard that this was one of the busiest 14ers in Colorado, so I had been avoiding it.
It took me about 6 hours to get up and back down at a very leisurely pace. I stopped to take pictures of the goats, had a long snack break on top and chatted with a few people on the way down.
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
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