I arrived at the trail head and started my solo hike of Mt. Meeker at 5 am. The trail to Hunter’s Creek is well maintained and easy to follow. Per my GPS, the distance to Hunter’s Creek was 3.6 miles. The start of the hike was dark and uneventful, hence, no pictures of this part of the hike. (Note, some of my pictures are in order of location but not time as I took them on the return trip.) Once you turn right and follow Hunters Creek, the trail becomes segmented due to the number of downed trees.

I stayed closer to the creek until the falls. This is where the trail segments get harder to find and I found myself bush-whacking my way through some dense fallen trees.

When I reached the marshy area of Meeker Meadows, I decided to angle right onto higher grown to avoid the wet mess. There was more bush-whacking involved on angled terrain.

I finally broke out of the trees and encountered a group of three bears. This was the first time I ever encountered bears on a hike/climb. After hollering “Bear! Bear!” a few times, they ran off. Thank God as I was by myself, far from anyone.

Next is where the terrain started to get steeper. I took the direct route up Meeker Meadows.

The route description talks about Dragon’s Egg Rock. I could not tell that rock from any other group of rocks but continued the upward climb.

The climb to the cliff line at 12,200’ was long and tedious. I made a lot of switchbacks and took several breathers. At this point the grass went away, it became steeper, and there was a lot of loose dirt. I managed to avoid some of the dirt, but it’s impossible to avoid all of it.

I finally hit the ridge line. Per my GPS, it was at 13,065 ft. I must say that at this point my legs were fairly fatigued, and it was taking longer than what I had expected. But the weather was good, and it was still way before my 12:00 turn-around time. The next objective was to climb the ridge line.

With the exception of one or two spots, I stayed on the ridge line proper where the rock was more solid.

When the ridge line levels out, you see the crux of the route, a sharp exposed ridge line to the summit block. I went to what I thought was the summit block, just to realize there was another, slightly higher block about 50 feet away.

I continued on the sold but very exposed rock to the final block summit block, lifted myself onto it, and took in the scenery.

Originally, I wanted to cross to Meeker Ridge but time did not allow. So I headed back down the long way from whence I came.

A few notes about the climb:

• This is a long climb. My GPS listed it at 13.9 miles round trip and 5,686 feet of gain.
• Along Hunter’s Creek, there are a lot of fallen trees. There are not as many if you stay closer to the creek.
• The final ridge line to the summit block is exposed and narrow, but solid. The route description on 14ers.com lists the route as difficult class 2, however, Roach and even the contents in the route description on 14ers says to get to the summit block, you will be on class 3 terrain.

I hope you enjoyed this Trip Report and it helps future climbers of this route.

P.S. Thanks to Khieras for writing the route description on 14ers.com

P.P.S. If you decided to download the GPX file, only use it as a rough guide. There were several times when I found myself in thick woods along Hunters Creek, only to find that there may have been an easier route through it.