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Drove from Denver two days prior but couldn't find the trailhead so I decided to scrap it since I was rolling solo. Came back right before Thanksgiving with a trail head location, conditions were pretty good. Such great views of the San Juans from Sunshine & Redcloud. Wetterhorn & Uncompahgre look so massive in person from there.
On the way back from Redcloud, I wasn't able to meet up with the original trail below Sunshine's ridge due to extremely deep fine powder coupled with a steep slope. I took a 7 hour detour down into the Bent Creek drainage area to the main road. It was a pretty miserable experience due a combination of factors: Inescapable ravine (no way to climb out), deep snow, hidden rocks, more cougar tracks than I ever care to see again, downed trees, thick brush, you name it. Lost my favorite American Flag that I've used for all my hikes this summer in that stupid ravine.
I did see something pretty cool though on the way down. My headlamp caught the shine from a small metal plaque at the bottom of a tree. It was about 1" wide, had two nails on either side to mount it to the tree, with three initials on it. Was crazy to think that randomly in the middle of nowhere, here that was. What could it have been? The world may never know.
Great trip though GPX waypoints for when I climbed through the treeline located below.
Climbing out of the Brush:
Deep snow out of treeline:
False Summit and Sunshine in the background:
Fortunately a lot of the route above treeline was scoured by wind:
Summit pic
Looking back down the ridge:
Descent down to Redcloud:
Almost to Redcloud:
Summit pic
Sunset:
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Comments or Questions
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GPX waypoints for when I climbed through the treeline located below.
