Is it insane to take Audubon from the Coney Flats side?

[justiner]

The crux of looping Paiute and Audubon will be ascending Paiute from the north - gonna be 4th class for a ways with some 5th class moves.

The North Ridge of Paiute is sooooo good, but I would not take this route lightly. Gnarly terrain.

[jfm3]

I noticed the timed entry site doesn't accept reservations between 8pm and 5am. So if you arrive before 5am, do you not need a reservation?

I am doing a hike from Mitchell Lake, but I need to be in Boulder before 1:30. Consequently, I'd like to start my hike a little before my reservation starts at 5. Anyone know the answer to this?

You do need a reservation for all the parking lots in the Brainard Lake area. If you arrive before 5 AM, you would be able to park in one of the lots, but you will need to write down the information of your reservation (time window, reservation number, name, parking lot). There are rangers that patrol and give out tickets. If you don't have a reservation they won't roll your car into the lake and clap you in irons, but they will inform you of the reservation requirement and probably write down your license plate # to look for future infractions. The reservations go on sale 15 days ahead of time, so there is some advance planning necessary.

[montanahiker]

I've biked in from the winter lot. Definitely the way to go for the standard routes.

[SchralpTheGnar]

Not crazy

[rgsaxman]

I biked from the winter parking lot early July of this year. Started biking up the road at 2:30am and locked it up at the rack at Mitchell Lake parking lot. Standard trail up Audubon was a nice warm up in the dark and the ridge to Paiute was fun. Wanted to tack on Toll but weather was moving in so I dropped from the saddle down a reasonable chute. The walk out from Blue Lake back to the bike was glorious in the morning light and then cruising down the road back to the car was a fun way to end the outing. Hands down will be doing this again to get Toll and the other surrounding peaks next year!

[GUTstring]

I noticed the timed entry site doesn't accept reservations between 8pm and 5am. So if you arrive before 5am, do you not need a reservation?

I am doing a hike from Mitchell Lake, but I need to be in Boulder before 1:30. Consequently, I'd like to start my hike a little before my reservation starts at 5. Anyone know the answer to this?

You do need a reservation for all the parking lots in the Brainard Lake area. If you arrive before 5 AM, you would be able to park in one of the lots, but you will need to write down the information of your reservation (time window, reservation number, name, parking lot). There are rangers that patrol and give out tickets. If you don't have a reservation they won't roll your car into the lake and clap you in irons, but they will inform you of the reservation requirement and probably write down your license plate # to look for future infractions. The reservations go on sale 15 days ahead of time, so there is some advance planning necessary.

Thanks, I was quite sleepy this morning, so I snoozed my alarm and wound up getting to the Mitchell Lot at 4:56. So no big deal. I didn't wind up needing the extra hour or two I thought I needed for doing a Paiute-Audubon traverse, because it's wintry up there! I just tagged Audubon.