48 hours out there.

 A dumb peakbagging goal: P366.  

A P366 means you visit the summit of a ranked peak of your choice, the P, on every calendar day of the year, including February 29th, non consecutively.  Four years ago I decided to start my own P366 project.

My thoughts: it would still get me outside.  It would still keep me relatively close to home.  It would take a known time, though slower in winter due to condtions and generally quicker in the summer.  And it would be a bigger goal, something to work toward vs just being out there, not that there's a problem with that.  

My peak of choice was Button Rock Mountain.  I'd already gotten the grid on it (a summit in each calendar month), and had about 20 total summits when I started.  It's closeish to home.  The shortest route takes a known time.  And while all routes end the same, there are a number of access points and trails and combinations to get to the top.  

My longest day so far has been around 36 miles, while the shortest gets me 4 and change.  I've hiked it, ran it, mountain biked it, snowshoed it, wallowed it, and skiied it.  I've gone completely off trail a number of times to explore different aspects, faces, and to find some scrambling.  

As it turned out, I needed the last three days of August.  And I also had off work, with no other obligations.  Thus I started the day with errands, packed up, and headed to the mountains.  

Twas' the Friday before the day of Labor, and traffic was a little extra but I got there eventually.  I'd already packed my bag up, and headed out.  The goals: summit Button Rock Mountain August 29th, 30th, and 31st.  Do so with as little repetition of trails as possible.  (Re)Summit as many other peaks as possible along the way.  

Since my next definite source of water was toward the end of day 2, I started with 5 liters.  Ugh.  I was worried that wouldn't be enough.  Fortunately, the weather was largely overcast and cool.  Unfortunately, it also rained a good bit.

Starting up.

I definitely felt the weight of 5 liters of water, but was in no rush to get anywhere.  

I started on a trail that's pretty new, and more oriented towards downhill mountain biking, keeping my eyes and ears open for any riders.  It was just me and a few rain drops.  

I reached the summit of Button Rock Mountain in about an hour and forty minutes, but had my phone stashed due to the on and off rain.  I continued north and then east from there, following trails until near the summit of 7791.  Funny, for years I've looked around the plateau of land out there and spied good places to set up a tent.  Here I finally was.  

I thought about visiting the summit of 7791 then, but decided to get set up, make dinner, and relax a little.  I didn't have to go far too find a good place, and pitched the tent close to the top.

Quick n' easy.

I took a look around and found a tree to put the bear bag in, and made dinner.  Skura's beans and rice again- a favorite and nearly 700 calories by itself.  Add a few tortillas and dessert and I had lots of energy to burn the next day.  

I got everything set up inside my home for the night, put the bear bag up, and snuggled in.  I was almost asleep when my Inreach alerted, a nice message from my daughter.  I was almost asleep again when the rain came...

It rained, and then it rained a little harder, and then a little harder.  It wound down eventually and I was glad I was nice and dry!  I feel asleep soon after, and heard the spatter of rain a few times through out the night.  

Up in the morning.  My tent was soaked inside and out, and not thinking, I stuffed it back in the sack and put it in my pack along with everything else.  Fortunately, I had the foresight to bring a drybag as a stuff sack for my sleeping bag.  

Note my nice dry spot!

Packed up, I headed off.  Breakfast was Nature's Path toaster pastries, mainly because they have 50 more calories than Poptarts, and an Awake chocolate bar.  This gives 610 calories and 100 mg of caffeine, and can be eaten on the go.  And go I did, a short stroll over to 7791.

Button Rock Mountain from 7791.

Unaltered and generated by Actual Intelligence.

I took a steep and slabby trail up towards Button Rock Mountain, extra fun in the wetness.  But soon enough summit 2/August 30th was in the books.  

Summit views.

From there, I headed south to Six Benchmark.  It's third class to the top, but short.  Arguably better views than Button Rock Mountain, as you can see down to the east as well.

Down to Ralph Price Reservoir.

Back to Button Rock Mountain.

Onward to the day, and clouds.

I sat here for a few minutes, mostly because I could get LTE service and tapped into the matrix to order a coffee my favorite roaster was releasing on this morning.  Ahh, modern life.

I took a trail down, then another trail, and yet another to reach the next peak of the day: 7998.  I signed in, took a few minutes, and headed on, down on roads and trails to Coulson Gulch.  Already I could hear the mating calls of the greater western OHV.  Hurray!

Six Benchmark from below.

Down Coulson Gulch.

Another trail.

From Coulson, I took a series of trails out toward my next goals- 8577 and North Sheep Mountain.  With the great LiDar surveys, North Sheep moved, as it was found the high point to the south of the previously indicated location on USFS/GS maps was higher than the random point in the middle.  Well, this is exactly across the St. Vrain from South Sheep Mountain, and since neither point is ranked, arguably where it should've been all along.  

More trails-sorry for the vaguery here- and I was atop 8577.  Lots of lady bugs, but less than last time.  

Views from the summit.

Then I followed yet another trail (at times, as it's winding and not direct) and off trail to the southern end of the peninsula of land which terminates into the abyss of the creek, almost 1200 feet below.  North Sheep is third class; I left my pack at the base and scrambled up.  Annnddd it started raining, big ole fat rain.  And small hail.  Hail no!

The St. Vrain, way down there.  The random white things are hail.

I got down quick.  Not the best place to be in rain.  I got back to my pack, got the rain jacket out, put it on... and the rain stopped.  Back off, but I kept it out.  

I headed back from whence I came, again cutting the trail here and there to take the most direct route.  All was going fine, but as I started to descend a bit as I approached road 118, it started to rain again.  I put the rain jacket back on, and it sped up.  I got back to the main trail, and even more rain.  I decided to sidehill and skip a short'n'steep descent and climb, and yet more water.  

I know trees aren't the best idea, but what else are you going to do?  I spied a boughy fir, and got as close to the trunk as possible.  Rain jacket and softshell pants or not, I was soaked.  Every longer outing seems to have a low point and this was mine.  I was thinking about heading back to the car to warm up and dry off, and maybe even heading home.  I must've been holed up there for 15-20 minutes.  But it let up.  

I was facing west and the sky looked lighter in that direction.  There was only one choice: continue on.  Back to the road for a short stint, and then yet another trail.  I made it to the spring, realized I forgot my small collapseable cup to fill up with, and filled up anyway though it took longer to wait for the flow vs being able to dip into the basin.  Ah well.

Back up a little, and where I wanted to break off to head to my final summit of the day, 8824, and the sun came out.  I took another 15 minutes to stand there and warm up.  Took off my wet stuff and hung it on a tree to dry a bit.  It wasn't long before I was feeling alot better, warmer and happier.

Up again.  I made the summit and then thought about where to set up.  There was an appropriately flat spot right there, though I initally planned to head southeast and set up where things flatten out, another area I've looked at for years.  Laziness and sunshine won.  I decided to set up right there.  It was in the sun, and I got the tent up asap and all my stuff spread out on the branches of a fallen tree in hopes of drying things off.  

It was then that I discovered if you stuff your wet tent into a non seam taped stuff sack, all the water on it will squeeze out of it into your pack through out the day.  And get everything under/around it completely soaked.  Live and learn.  Even more glad I put my sleeping bag in it's own dry bag in my backpack which is essentially a big dry bag itself.

Sunshine and natures drying rack.

I warmed up even more with dinner.  The sun set enough that I was no longer in direct light, so I got everything set up and got in.  I kept one of the doors to the tent completely open through out the night in hopes things might dry off a little.  

And discovered (yet another) folly in my ways.  From here, I could still clearly hear the OHV mating calls.  Someone blasting music down there.  A dog barking.  If I'd went down to where I thought I'd end up, I would've had this peak and a fair amount of space between me and the road.  It probably would've been nice and quiet.  Next time!

I don't know what happened, but I used to always sleep fairly poorly on the first night of a trip, and worse than usual outside.  But after the last one to Cameron Pass, there's been a paradigm shift and I'm now sleeping like a baby.  Which is an interesting expression, because babies don't sleep that well in my experience.  

I woke up to my alarm the next morning.  I could've slept more, but was meeting up with Dan at a certain time and place for the last few miles before heading home.  

Summit sunshine.  I visited again since I was right there.

Not a load bearing tree, but a bearing tree.

I packed up and headed out.  Fancy poptarts, chocolate, and freshly filtered water for breakfast.  After a short stretch through some trees...

I got back to a trail that used to not exist.  Then another trail, and another.  I planned to take the more fun but longer way back to Coulson Gulch, and thought about cutting it short, but decided that was a dumb thought.  

And it was.

I was around a small loop and down before I started hearing motors again.  And it was Labor Day weekend, so maybe a little more than usual even.  

Vroom!  Or stand still.

I met Dan at Coulson Gulch, or rather, he met me as I almost went by him!  We headed up the mountain, taking a trail I've taken many times before, but not on this trip so far.  We made the short off trail to the summit, sat, and talked for a bit.  

August 31st.

Dan and I headed back down to the main parking area.  My car was still there.  Phew!

Another paradigm shift in thinking: an overnight or two doesn't have to be at some destination location.  Heck, I can (and have since) jumped in the car, driven up here, hiked an hour and set up.  Spend the night and head out the next morning.  It's nice to sleep outside!  And fun to have a mini adventure right in my own backyard so to speak.  

I'm purposely not including a map- some of these trails still exist in my mental GPX device only, and I want them to stay that way.  In total, I tracked 35.33 miles and 8127 feet of gain in 17:53 of moving time, with day 2 the longest and most elevationous by far.