EISPIRATEN

Sean wrote: ...and who posts about their "friend" going for a stroll in said closure area.

On an old forum dedicated to questionable activities we would talk about "SWIM" (someone who isn't me) doing something... ?

The next time anybody tries to go to the Mermaids, it should be somewhat less brushy...

Anyone want to get out there and see if my summit register on West Mermaid/4065 is still there? Just look for the orange puddle. ?

But very sad to see this happen, even if I suppose it was inevitable. Wishing ...

Sounds like one of those adventures where you aren't really sure if you had fun or not once it's all over! A worthy bit of exploration because it would be pretty cool to find more semi-reasonable routes to Triplets, but that kind of bushwhack/waterfall route usually isn't worth the hassle.

Is this ...

This is my 3rd scalp. Anybody know what's going on here? I guess these are some sort of mountain lion kill, or something? It's the same skull fragment each time.
Saw this today and was reminded of your post so I took a pic:

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A little searching suggests chunks of skull attached ...

Aww, the way you asked the question got me excited that others had signed it, but otherwise I wouldn't have expected any.

Full of dead branches sounds like a good reason to find an alternate route! It wasn't bad when I was there. There is only one significant waterfall further up the drainage that ...

Nice work and nice report!

Biking partway was a good idea, still happy with that new bike? Is the trail just before you drop down to the creek still super eroded?

Yeah, I took the drainage all the way to the saddle north of the peak. Can't speak to what it might be like now, but I took that ...

West Mermaid is definitely a bit tricky to get to. My two trips took 13 and 15.5 hours and benefited from lower water levels than it sounds like you dealt with.

Here are my reports for those that haven't seen them:

west-mermaid-peak-4654-via-west-fork-be ... t7681.html

viewtopic.php?p=58144 ...

Nice bit of exploration, sounds like your new bike is serving you well!

Great work, sounds like a cool outing and a unique achievement!

Haven't been out since in the interest of letting my knee heal up, but from what I see locally there are still lots of leaves on the trees. Even when the leaves are all gone you don't get a lot of big views just because the trails are pretty much always among the trees and there aren't a lot of ...

Dima, did you find more or are you just wondering?

I'm certainly curious about this too after I found one a while back . Like I said in the thread I emailed the Forest Service and they said they'd pass it along to the LE folks, but I have no way of knowing if anything ever came of it. I kind of ...

Great photos, looks like a fun day of exploration!

Barkley is way beyond me attempting at this point, but I do have my eye on a different challenging race next year. Still in the early stages of planning and training so don't want to go into specifics... Right now I'm not doing much of anything to try and let my knee heal, I thought it was ok but ...

I recently learned there is actually a Lyme vaccine, but it was taken off the market due to limited demand. Kind of surprising and I'd probably get it if it was available. I'll keep an eye on the bite location but so far no news is good news.

Just posted day two of the weekend of hiking here ...

Continuing down Campbell Creek

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Ephemeral stream feeding into Campbell Creek


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More Campbell Creek


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Entering The Priest Wilderness after crossing Highway 56 and the trailhead

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Steady climb up The ...

Panorama including The Priest from a viewpoint


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Another panorama including The Priest from a different viewpoint/angle


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Ferns!


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Trail/steam hybrid action

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Shelter at the AT/Mau-Har Trail ...

Three Ridges and The Priest trailhead

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Nice bridge over the Tye River

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Tye River swollen from fresh rain

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Entering Three Ridges Wilderness area within GWNF


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Nice view of The Priest ...

Three Ridges plus The Priest is a popular combo hike for people seeking lots of vert, as usual I got the idea from VHTRC . All the reports I've found put it at about 22.5mi, which lines up with what I recorded on GaiaGPS. As for vert, VHTRC reports 7,500ft, adding up the two routes ( 1 , 2 ) on ...

Great photos, really makes me miss that area! Glad you didn't lose your hat.

The PCT thing is called "NOBO" (northbound) or "SOBO" (southbound). North is the standard as it is on the AT, some some go south for schedule reasons, to have fewer people around, etc. Some people do one section north and ...

Just a cool rock

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Some trail crew wanted to play with a chainsaw I guess to make a little bridge, easier to just walk around it!


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Nice color along the dirt road section near Hankey


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Spooky mushrooms

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Nice bridge across North River near the finish ...

Map at trailhead



Junction sign and blaze



An unusual way for a tree to take out a bridge



Fall color





One of the few big views of the route, but it was a good one




Nice color in a drainage

So I decided it was getting silly to put so much stuff in a single giant thread , so I'll just make more new threads I guess.

[For those tracking fall colors, this hike and these photos were on Oct 26]

The Wild Oak Trail is a loop in the George Washington National Forest and designated as a ...

Looks like you fit a lot of exploration in on this trip! Sorry I wasn't able to meet up and hang out!

Nice pictures! I always meant to checkout that ridge since you can get great views of it from many of the surrounding peaks but never made it out there.

San Antonio Ridge traverse is a lot of fun, just be prepared for a bit of scrambling and a long day!

Cool bear sighting!

Always good to be flexible on plans, especially if your plan requires a little sneaking! Sounds like a good day of exploring.

Yeah, Leadville seemed pretty cool, I would have liked to spend more time checking out the town (and of course more time hiking around there too!). I did enjoy some good pizza at a placed called Mountain High Pies that I would recommend!

Did you feel any altitude effects from driving to the first 14er? That seems like an altitude trap.
The drive from Denver (~5k) to the summit of Evans (14k) is only about an hour and a half, so it's certainly a quick ascent. I started noticing my head feeling a little fuzzy around 13k, but it was ...

Initial scramble from Fancy Pass up the ridge to Fancy Peak

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Before long it gets easy

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Fancy Peak summit panorama

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Back at Fancy Pass, making friends with marmots

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Last glissade of the summer

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Fancy Lake

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Nice ...

Missouri Lakes/Fancy Pass/Fancy Peak Loop, Holy Cross Wilderness

This was my last hiking day of my Colorado trip, the goal was just to find something near Leadville with nice scenery and different terrain than just tagging a summit like we did the day before with Huron Peak. Some research led me ...

CO officially has 53 14ers, plus five more less official ones:
To be ranked, a peak must rise at least 300 feet above the saddle that connects it to the nearest 14er peak (if another exists nearby). This guideline has been in use in Colorado for some time. The following peaks are not ranked because ...