Tom Grundy's Huron Peak Page

8-19-16 After finishing Mt Massive and eating a late lunch we went to Leadville for water and gas. Then we drove to the Huron trailhead - or at least a little past Winfield to where the road got steep. We leveled up the vehicles and went to sleep early.

August 20. We were up at 5:30 and hiking by 6. It was brisk but we warmed up quickly walking up the road. There were really only a very few 4wd places, so it was a bit frustrating we couldn't drive it. We passed an aid station for an ultra run but the runners weren't there yet. We were also passed by a fair number of vehicles heading to the trailhead. There was a nice nearly full moon setting to the west. We got to the trailhead around 6:45 and the trail started switchbacking up the mountain. Once we got above treeline there was a large bowl to cross before we headed up to the final ridge up Huron. Up there it was very windy and cold and we put most of our layers on. We made it up by 8:50 - so under 3 hours. Fortunately on the 14,003 foot summit there was a lot less wind. This made the usual food, photos, and phone use a lot easier. I was trying to scout out our objective for tomorrow (Missouri, Oxford, and Belford). It looked big - I am glad we didn't try to include Huron in that long day.

Sam and Raquel head up the slope

The Apostles (N, Ice Mtn, and W) to the south were impressive

checking the pics we took with the timer and trekking pole tripod

this is one of the pics we took - from Sam's camera

Raquel starts back down the ridge. I think La Plata is above her

panorama from the summit of Huron Peak looking S through W to N

On the way down we passed someone walking a mountain bike up - The trail didn't seem like it would be much fun going up or down to me. We made good time going down although it got a lot hotter once we were below treeline and out of the wind. The walk back on the road seemed to take forever. Back at the vehicles we had plenty of time to cook a leisurely lunch, bake some veggies and then cookie-bread with the solar oven, and then move to the next trailhead. This was a bit of a pain because of the ultra run, but we weren't in any big hurry.

baking veggies with the solar oven

one of these people is from North Dakota and one is from Puerto Rico

Summary of August 20th, one 14er, about 10.5 miles, 3,800 feet of elevation gain. One hike up the road, One mountain bike spotted high on the peak, some solar baking, One trail race in the way for leaving.

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