Pete, Ryan and I had planned a more ambitious day involving a little technical climbing and a lot of driving. Fresh snow and a realization that alpine starts weren’t best combined with losing an hour of sleep due to daylight savings had us reconsider our outing and eventually heading toward Long Scraggy Peak.
From the road closure we followed the dirt road with a little fresh snow until we reached a fence line running towards the north ridge of Long Scraggy Peak. We followed the fence for a while before branching off and adding a little elevation gain and loss to our approach.
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Soon we re-joined the fence and located a cairned pathway leading up through the rock outcroppings. We debated the merits of cairns and other trail markers and agreed that we never built any ourselves and while we enjoyed hiking in areas without them, we often found them a comforting sign when hiking solo.
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Just a few minutes from the summit we stopped in an area with a nice view and discussed the relatively weak state of peak names in Colorado. The San Juans were granted an exemption and our current peak, Long Scraggy, came in for some praise.
Continuing to the summit we squeezed through one final obstacle, a narrow slot where Ryan protested at not having signed up for a day of canyoneering.
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The summit itself afforded great views, warm rocks and some wind. We briefly considered a summit nap as a way to re-claim the hour of sleep lost by last night’s conversion to daylight savings. In the end, we decided to retrace our steps and continue on to the unnamed summit 7774, identified only by it’s elevation.
7,774 was a peak I’d climbed back in December with Dwight, and since then the summit register had only recorded one other visit. I didn’t mind repeating this peak, since the last 50 feet or so were a nice scramble and this time we took a much smoother approach without too much elevation gain and loss. From the summit we also had a view of the craggy Long Scraggy Peak we’d just climbed.
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A summit nap was again brought to the table for discussion, but vetoed as we started the down climb to begin the hike back to our car.
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Our formerly mountain-dominated conversation veered off into discussion of the Simpsons and YouTube videos as we worked our way back to the car and strangely seemed to be going mostly uphill.
