Mt. Sherman
Had but putting this one off for quite some time. I was initially working to get some folks together and camp near a trailhead and then summit the next day. As it was I forgot about Jacob's soccer game on Friday afternoon (they won and Jacob played great!) so decided to just drive up, summit and return on the same day.
Todd and I decided to leave the house at 0500. We stopped briefly at the Donut Mill and then proceeded to the trailhead. Very easy to find. After coming across 9 (from 24), we turned left on 285 and then immediately on CR 18. After about 20 minutes or so we reached the gate and parked along with several other cars. I was surprised to see the number of forest service campgrounds still open on the road. We also saw a number of homes definitely off the beaten path.
We left the car with the temperature showing 28 degrees just before 8. We saw a few folks ahead of us and made quick time up the trail.
The picture is near the summit looking back down the trail.
At the summit.
We reached the top just around 9:45. This is Ampitheater (just to the west).
Some dogs enjoying the snow on the summit.
Todd snapping some photos.
The guy who took our photo was finishing up a vacation of doing 14ers. I believe this was his eight of the week before heading home.
I believe this is Elbert off to the right (and a dog!).
This huge area is just below the summit, probably around 14,000. If it weren't for the lightning risks in the summer time, I would bet this is tempting for folks wants to acclimate themselves to high altitudes.
A number of mining cabins dot the hillsides.
After summiting Sherman we decided to take in Gemini to the north. A little difficult to find a true trail but we quickly got across the saddle. I believe we both started doubting ourselves a bit once we made the final push up towards the summit because the clouds we starting to roll in.
About the time we started snapping pictures of the mining buildings we encountered some very light snow. No accumulation, but made it interesting. What was really amazing was after we started back towards the main road it started raining, hard! We wondered about the number of casual hikers on the trail who probably had little to no rain gear.
Great hike!
