Evergreen Mountain

This post is the first one from a climb day. I had to do some searching to find a mountain nearby that wasn't too high since the snow has been falling like crazy around here. Evergreen Mountain is located in the Alderfer/Three Sisters Park near the town of Evergreen. This was only a 45minute drive from home so the summit wasn't too high.

I headed out on the East Evergreen Trail and looped it into the West Evergreen Trail. This was a simple class 1 trail covered in a little snow and a lot of ice. I was hoping to get a snowshoe in, but I left them in the car and went with the micro spikes. The micro spikes get my seal of approval, they were very good on the trail. By the end of the trip my toes were a bit sore since these don't grip to your boot as well as crampons, but for these short hikes they were a great piece of gear to have.

The trail did some giant traverse switchbacks through mostly lodgepole pine areas. There was also some neat geologic features near the trail. There was some interesting layered rock that I had not seen in Colorado yet. I may have to come back in the summer time for a closer study when it isn't so cold. Oh yes, it was a very cold day. The forecast was calling for 32 degrees and winds up to 10mph. I'm finding that I need an extra layer on my legs when the temp is this cold and I will have to start packing my down jacket for breaking at the summit.

While on the summit, for the whole of 30 seconds I remembered to plug the summit geocache into my GPS. The good thing was I was able to find that without any issue. Nobody had been there since August, I always like finding ones like that. The summit view didn't have much to offer since the snow was flying. The cloud line was probably around 9,500ft today so I decided to keep moving to stay warm.

On my way down the trail I ran into a guy running up the trail with micro spikes on his feet. Man, some people amaze me. It was freezing out and he was running in tights with spikes on his feet. The rest of the trip down the mountain was uneventful. I went down a side trail saying it was a "scenic view" but there was only a view of the town below no mountains.

It was another great day in the Front Range. Hopefully next week I can head up Bergen Peak. This is a bit higher and a longer hike, but I've been out enough I would feel good on a winter day with a thermos of coffee to join me.

Date: 1/24/2012

Starting Elevation: 7,480 Ft.

Summit Elevation: 8,533 Ft.

Distance: 6.26 Miles

Time: 2.5Hrs

Picture 1: Evergreen Mountain mid trail

Picture 2: Route Map