Sheep Mountain (12,492), Bennett Peak (13,203), & Windy Mountain (12,608) by Brian Schultz Friday June 20, 2014

Roundtrip mileage: 8.5 miles from Rock Creek trailhead

Elevation gain: 3,400'

Start to finish: 7 hours 15 minutes

Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Tim and I left Monte Vista for what turned out to be an easy forty five minute drive to the trailhead. The approach road, County Road 28, is just south of the Best Western Motel and can be driven with a two wheel drive car the entire 22 miles to the trailhead. Since the forecast called for sunny, clear skies, we were in no hurry and enjoyed a hot breakfast at the motel before leaving. Tim was excited to test his new double knee replacements on a thirteener after successfully handling lower elevation hikes without issues. We began at 7:55 AM. The trail descends immediately to Rock Creek, shallow and easy to cross, before going up again. The Rock Creek trail is also very popular with the ATV crowd because the trail goes all the way to Bennett's summit. We would see three ATVs later.

As we neared the Bennett/Sheep saddle I asked Tim if he felt up to climbing Sheep Mountain and he replied in the affirmative. So we cut up the slopes to Sheep's northeast ridge and arrived on top at 9:45. We stayed on top until 10:20 enjoying the beautiful morning and views. When we headed down, we saw three ATVs at the saddle below but they were on their way up to Bennett long before we got there. We followed Bennett's winding south ridge to the top, easy class 1, and reached the expansive summit at 11:35. It's so big you could play a football game up there.

Again, no need to hurry with the perfect weather so we stayed on top until 12:25. Tim's knees were doing great- I told him it won't be long before I'll be begging him to slow down for me. On the descent, we decided to make it a loop route and headed toward Windy Mountain. There is a trail at the Windy/Bennett saddle that we spotted from Bennett and we took a chance that it would take us back to the Rock Creek trail. As we neared the saddle I asked Tim if he wanted to climb Windy Peak. Although his knees weren't bothering him, he told me to go ahead and climb it while he waited. At 1:15 I scooted down to the saddle and pushed up to Windy's summit. The summit cairn wasn't built at the highest point nor was the register located at the cairn. My GPS showed a couple higher spots and I found a glass jar register on one of them.

I met up with Tim again at 2:18. It took me one hour and three minutes to get up and down Windy Mountain (550' gain). We headed down the trail and when it appeared to ascend toward the Bennett/Sheep saddle, we departed the trail and began a bushwhack. It was easy and we found game trails at times before intersecting the Rock Creek trail lower down. The last 75' or so of elevation regain from the creek to the parking area was tough on tired knees, and I mean mine, not Tim's. He did amazingly well on today's peaks and he'll surely be looking to do multiple peaks in the future as well as consecutive days of climbing. Bennett, Sheep, and Windy are all easy peaks and we appreciated having such great weather and not having to rush.