Quandary Peak 5 August 2012

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Bob and Sue hiked Quandary Peak again, gorgeous sunny day. Saw several groups of mountain goats, several pikas and marmots, ham radio folks set up on the peak, much fun. Quandary Peak is just south of Breckenridge in the Tenmile range.

Left Fort Collins about 5:20am turning onto I-25, got to the trailhead about 7:50 and didn't get to park right at the trailhead but only 15 or so cars down the road, not bad. Nowhere near as crowded as Mt Bierstadt! Hike on the "standard" east route is 3.75 miles each way with 3400 elevation gain so steeper than Bierstadt or Grays. Time 3:35 up, 2:30 down.

 
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  Nice signs at the trailhead. Moon on the left, Quandary on the right. Yup we're going up there. Looking south-east towards Hoosier Pass.

 
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  Looking south (down) to the Blue Lakes, gorgeous waterfall in between them. Far off mountain goats in the center of the photo, just left of a pile of boulders. Later we saw them much closer up! Center of photo, far off mountain goat. We'll see him closer too, later.

 
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  Past the saddle (probably about 13,000') looking back east at the trail. Still have a ways up to go. Getting closer to the top, looking east at a rare time when there's nobody in sight on the trail. Nowhere near as crowded as Bierstadt tho! Nearly at the top, stopped for early lunch.

 
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  Summit! 14,265' Quandary Peak geological marker, placed 1951 Looking north-west. Looking south, Democrat/Bross/Lincoln are visbible.

 
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  Ham radio operator w0nx Keith Gawlik (on right) doing the ham 14er day. Nice setup! Another geological marker, pointing to the first one. Mountain goats!

 
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  And man the goats are close to the trail, completely fearless. Another set of three mountain goats further down the trail. The baby goat is just amazingly cute.

 
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  Awwwwww.... Totally fearless of people. Further down in the trees, goat hair caught on the trees and bushes.

 
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  Pika!

Videos of the mountain goats. Notice how rapidly they breathe!

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