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| Bald Mountain |
After my climb of Mount Bethel I felt I could handle another
mountain the following day. Again I had
a tough time deciding which peak to climb based on drive time and weather, in
the end I decided to climb Bald Mountain which is one I have wanted to climb
for some time now. Bald Mountain lies to
the southeast of Breckenridge and can is easily viewed from the drive along HWY
9 south from I-70.
Getting to the TH is rather easy; I suggest a 4WD vehicle to
avoid some road walking time. Take I-70
or 285 and make your way to Breckenridge.
On the south side of town, the last lighted intersection is Boreas Pass
Rd, turn to the east and drive about 2 miles till you arrive at Baldy
Road. Follow Baldy Road to the end,
there will be a TH parking lot that is used for the winter. From here straight ahead of you is a dirt
road which is a continuation of Baldy Road (520), there is a place to park a
little over half mile up for those who do not have high clearance 4WD. I have a Chevy Blazer 4WD and I had no issues
driving high up on the road. I passed
the Iowa Mill Mine and went up a few more of the switchbacks. By looking at my GPS track you will be able
to see where I started from. At the
corner of that switchback there is space to park two or three vehicles. Don’t drive past this spot since there really
isn’t any good space to park after this.
This marks the starting of the TH (11,700ft) for my hike up Bald
Mountain.
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| Guarding the Summit |
It was maybe 7:30am, about a 2hr drive from home when I
finally arrived at the TH. I was tired
and wasn’t sure how todays climb was going to go. I was glad to see where I started from was
above tree line, so I would at least have some motivational views from the
mountains from the start. After getting
geared up I started up the road. There
are a few options from this point: 1-
You can hike the road all the way around that hooks onto the ridge directly. 2- Hike the road to the next switchback
heading toward the Carbonite Mine then taking a cross country route to the
radio towers (my route). 3- Or from the
TH hike directly to the radio towers (my descent). Since I was able to drive high up the
mountain I took the 2nd option that I described instead of a direct
assault up the side of the mountain to the radio towers. My legs didn’t waste any time tightening up,
and I could feel the wear and tear from hiking over the past week. It felt like a trudge up the grassy slopes,
but within a half hour I was up to the radio towers shedding my vest.
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| Love the Mountain Goat |
I was only about 800 vertical feet into my climb today and I
was a hurting unit. As I was taking a
breather my back was hurting as well as my droggy mental state. I was just tired and was having issues
finding the mental strength to get moving today. I popped a couple cliff shot blocks and
soldiered up so to speak. The view of
Bald Mountain’s summit looked a long ways off from the radio towers, but I knew
it wasn’t much more than 1,000 vertical feet away. I did what any hiker would do and just put
one foot in front of the other and started up the old jeep trail.
The start of the jeep trail is fairly steep getting up to
the first few visible points. After a
few hundred feet of climbing the road the path turns into a trail.
I was taking my sweet ass time along the steeps of the road,
but now on the trail I felt at home. For
me I think there is always a mental block while hiking up a road. Roads were meant for driving not hiking, and
this is why I chose to drive up as high as I could today. No sense in hiking a rocky road, hike the
trail. Back to the trail…there is a
broken trail leading to the summit. Here
and there are a few cairns, but I think it would be hard to get off route on
this one. I would almost classify this
as a class 1 hike, but a few cross-country sections deem this a class 2 in my
eyes. There are many humps along the
way, but nothing seriously frustrating.
The views are great and you can easily see the progress being made as
you make your way along the ridge. As I
was hiking I kept noticing goat fur clinging to rocks, so I knew there was a
goat presence up here, I just hoping the fur was leading me to the source.
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| Bald Mountain Summit |
As I arrived at the last push to the summit I sat there
gasping for a little oxygen, as I glanced up there he was. A huge beautiful mountain goat was guarding the
summit. He peered at me and I went for
my camera saying, “please don’t move.”
This was the most curious goat I have ran across yet, he started walking
down the trail towards me so I skirted off trail around the west side to create
a little distance. Those are some pretty
sharp horns and I had no desire to become a kabob today. He just kept walking towards me unafraid, so
I kept snapping pictures hoping a few of them would come out. This meeting probably only lasted a few
minutes, but it seemed like about 20. As
he moved down the trail I moved up and to the side of the mountain, finally he
had permitted me to pass and continue on to the summit. I thanked him and thought how lucky I was to
have such a neat encounter today.
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| Me on the Summit of Bald Mountain |
The views were amazing, yesterday gave a light dusting of
snow on the nearby 14ers and 13ers. I
loved it, that little bit of snow give some great definition and makes for
great photographs. As the usual summit I
took a bunch of pics of the surrounding area and had a snack. I noticed the clouds were turning dark and
moving my way so I knew it was time to leave.
I got myself together and was off the summit with only about a 15 minute
break. I knew it would be better to be
off the rocky ridge if the rain came so I started to hustle as quickly as I
could.
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| Mount Guyot |
It didn’t seem long till the snow started blowing in. Lucky for me I made good time and was off the
rocky ridge and was just on dirt trail when the snow really came. It started as graupel (snow that is “recycled”
as it comes down-cooled, heated, cooled.
Looks like pellets rather than snowflakes), then turned into real snow
as the temperature dropped. The wind was
blowing pretty good so I put on my jacket and covered my pack with its rain
cover. As I dropped in elevation the
snow dwindled, by the time I made the radio tower area the snow and wind was
non-existent. I heard a few thunder
booms to the east where it looked like the Mount Evans area was getting some
more serious weather. Well, that was
telling me a direct descent was in order rather than the road I ascended. I knew the area of the TH, so I just went
straight down the tundra to my rig from the ridge. This wouldn’t be a bad ascent route for those
eager beavers out there, but I was happy with my route selection for the day.
A few minutes after noon I was back to my rig. The weather was dry on the road so I didn’t
have to worry about the drive down the mountain. I took a few pictures looking towards
Quandary, but the storm had pretty much taken over all of the high mountains to
the south by this time. The drive down
to the pavement wasn’t too bad, probably only about 10minutes. I was glad to be off the bumpy rocky road and
heading back to civilization. The
unfortunate story of the day was I-70 and the multiple construction zones. It took a while to get back to Denver, but I
think my adventures up I-70 may be coming to an end for a while. Today was another good hike once I got over
my early mental block. The mountain goat
sighting definitely helped raise my spirits and they are my favorite animal to
see in the wild. I only wish I could
actually climb a mountain like one of those guys, they make it look so
easy. Well, I’m taking a few days off
and I feel a brewski is in order!
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| GPS Track |
Date: 8/8/2013
Starting Elevation: 11,700ft
Bald Mountain Summit: 13,684ft
Total Gained Elevation: 2,134ft
Class: 2
Distance: 4.62 miles
Time: 3:17 moving, 00:40 stopped.
Climbing Partner: Solo
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