Tom Grundy's Huron Missouri Mountain, Mount Oxford, and Mount Belford Page

8-21-16 This was another long day with an unsettled forecast so we got yet another painfully early start. We were hiking up the steep trail out of the valley before 6 am. It was cold but after a bit of following Raquel on the fast steep uphill we heated up and had to take off some layers. I lost the main trail in a blowdown where it crossed the creek and followed a smaller trail up across some talus where it became pretty vague. Rather than back-tracking we continued on with a bit of bushwhacking to where the trail became more distinct and then crossed the creek to rejoin the main trail. From there we followed the trail up to the trail split for Missouri or Elkhead Pass. Here we took a little break in the sun and talked to another hiker. Then more up up and up the trail to Missouri. The final bit was along the ridge to the summit. Not a knife edge, but more exciting than a regular trail with a tiny bit of scrambling. At the summit we got someone else to take some headstand pictures.

Sam and Raquel crossing the stream back to the main trail

Sam and Raquel head up the slope - Belford on the left, Missouri above them

Raquel on the Missouri ridge

headstands on Missouri Mountain. Huron is under Raquel's left foot and the moon is beyond her toe.

panorama from the summit of Missouri - we dropped down to the lake in the middle left

The most direct route would continue east down the ridge to Elkhead Pass, but this did not look casual and I had heard that it was extremely sketchy, so we went cross country down another ridge to the south and east into the basin there. We stopped at a small lake for a bite to eat and to refill water. I almost jumped in, but it would have required a long cold wade to get to deeper water so I passed. Then we continued cross country to the trail up to Elkhead Pass. From there we continued on up to the shoulder of Belford. Since we intended to pass over this summit on the return we skipped it now and dropped down and climbed back up to the summit of Oxford. This was the weekend and there were quite a few people returning to Belford from Oxford. We continued on but no longer had much pep in our step. By now it had clouded up and when we got to the Oxford summit it was in fact snowing a bit - graupel bouncing off of us. We took a few pics and scurried down the ridge back towards Belford.

Sam took this pic of me relaxing by the lake

iron pyrite and other sulfide minerals near Elkhead Pass

looking over at Oxford along the ridge we followed from the shoulder of Belford

Raquel and Sam being sad because of the snow

Raquel and Sam being happy because we were on another summit - as Mallory says "choose happy"

Raquel heads down as the snow picks up

By now we had been going a long ways and were getting pretty tired. We continued on slowly up to where we joined this trail and then on up to the summit of Belford. Here we were greeted by a bit of nice sunshine. We took a few more pics and then headed down. The trail down got pretty steep and we were all quite glad to have our trekking poles. We were relieved to get back to the main trail in the valley as it was looking like some possible electrical activity and we heard some distant thunder a little later. As usual the trail back down seemed to go on a whole lot longer than the hike up even though we were moving quite quickly and even jogging at times.

Sam happy to get some sunshine on Belford

Raquel taking a break on Belford

Sam setting up the camera for some summit pics - Raquel posing
This is a pretty slick little device that lets you make a tripod out of 3 trekking poles. More useful for group trips than solo efforts.

one of the summit pics we took - summit nap time

Sam taking a break when we got back to the main trail

panorama from the summit of Belford. Oxford on the left, Missouri on the middle right.
The stitching process did some interesting things to Raquel's figure.

That night we got some groceries in Buena Vista and then headed up towards Mt Princeton. My battery light came on and then a minute later I felt and heard a whump and steam started pouring out from under my hood. My radiator had exploded. Needless to say that put an end to this round of 14ers.

Summary of August 21st, three 14ers, about 15 miles and 7,200 feet of elevation gain. Some cross country, some good trail, a little lost the trail, some cold, some hot, some sun, some snow, some rain, some thunder, and one exploded radiator.

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