Moonlight Hike (June, 2014)

Duration and Difficulty: This hike was 7 miles and took 5hrs to complete. I'd rank it as a typical 14er-type hike. Meaning, it isn't for the weak but can be done by anyone who is motivated. The first and last .5 miles are the worst. The gain is over 1,000ft/mile. Map My Hike LinkTrailhead: Sheep Gulch Trailhead, near Buena Vista, CO. Seven miles down Clear Creek Road.Notes: For our nine year wedding anniversary, Hart and I decided to hike. Shocker, I know. However, we spiced it up in honor of our anniversary. Instead of the norm, we decided to hike by moonlight. So, we set off Friday after work, grabbed dinner in Buena Vista, and headed towards Sheep Gulch. We arrived at the trail head around 8pm and quickly hopped into the back of the Sequoia for a few hours of sleep. At 2a.m. we woke up and headed up to the summit of Quail Mountain which stands at nearly 13,500ft above sea-level. We made it up the short but very steep trail in about 3 hours. The best part was the moon! It was so bright that we hiked the whole time without a headlamp. As we summitted the sky was just starting to glow with sunlight. We hunkered down next to an old mining ruin and watch the sky as it changed fro

m night to day. During the 20 minute sunrise, we were visited by mountain goat and ptarmigan. The goats just cruised on by the ptarmigan were much more involved in our party. They flew all around and at one point landed about 4 feet from us. We would have liked to have stayed longer but it was quite windy and I'm quite a wimp, so we started back down so I could warm up. It was a quick and easy hike back to the car and once the sun was on us, we stopped and made fresh coffee and enjoyed a few moments in the aspens before trekking the last two miles. Which I should mention, were full of discussion of future anniversary trips.

Hart's Picassa Web Album can be viewed at: https://picasaweb.google.com/jeremyhart1/13461QuailMountainMoonlightHike61414