Mosquito Range: Four 14ers

Summit Sunrise

Four 14ers in one morning was a impromptu to decision.  At first I was just planning on crashing in the blazer alongside the road and continue up to vail for the Teva Mtn Games in the morning. But during the drive through the high plains of Hartsel, I knew there was easy 14er hike I could do while leaving plenty of time Mtn games.  So I made my way to the Kite Lake trailhead.

I got to the trailhead around 10PM, and quickly filled up my pack with camera gear and Gatorade for the morning’s hike. I rolled up my sleeping pad and got a quick 5 hrs sleep.  I was the 1^st awake at the trailhead and quickly starting my hike up to Mt Democrat at 3:30am with the temperature at 36F.   The goal of the hike was to be at the summit for the sunrise and take some pictures.  The first hourr in the pitch black went pretty quickly. I tried to only use my headlamp when needed in the rocky sections.   I made to the ridge line by 4:30am, and started to finally see people headlamps stir down below.  Pushing straight up the ridge to the summit, the orange and blue hues started to break the skyline.  I moved as quickly as possible over left over snowpack to the summit. Tagging it well before the 540am sunrise.

I relaxed for the next hr. taking pictures and waited for the full sunrise. The summit was chilly and windy, but I packed an extra space blanket and fleece.  Having a nice breakfast of Gatorade and powerbars, I enjoy a beautiful sunrise.  After the rise, I packed up and was undecided if I should push to the other peaks or head back.  I made the saddle in 20 and met 1 only hiker on the way down.  He said he was pushing for all 4, and got me energized to do it to.

So I passed the saddle quickly, while only stopping to pet 2 dogs who the made it further than there masters below  Pushing fast now, I had a new goal and a timeframe to do it in. I pushed up Mt Cameron’s ridge.  From the saddle I made the summit of Cameron in 20mins.  It was a weird flat summit, only noted by a mound of rocks.  From here I continue along the ridge to Mt Lincoln.

Lincoln has a partial summit block and a nice view the eastern ranges. Stopping only for a picture, I turned around and backtrack to the Mt Bross trail that connected to Cameron.   This end up being a bigger slog than it looked.  Very non-descript and slow rising trail led my way towards Bross.  Here I took the trail along the backside that skirted to the top.

Then pushing fast down the trail to the Kite lake, I followed the ridge sliding on bad scree.   The trail was pretty bad and loose and it took a pounding on my knees.  By now I have shed most of my clothes, due to the sun and the heat. As I reach the trailhead and coming full circle, I was see a bunch of people just starting their 14er journey.  I had completed the loop before 9AM.   The impromptu Decalibron hike was a success.

I packed up my things, changed clothes and made my way to the Teva Mtn games.

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