Blue Ridge (10,749), UN 10279, & Lonesome Peak (10,609) by Brian Schultz Friday August 23, 2024

Blue Ridge:
Roundtrip mileage: 2.30 miles
Elevation gain: 360'
Start to finish: 1 hour 30 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We drove west on CR 50 from Fraser to FR 139. Blue Ridge can be approached from the south by skirting private property but we drove past this approach and turned north on FR 133 and parked on a logging road (~10,400') west of the summit. This would save over five hundred feet of elevation gain vs. the southern approach. We began at 8:25 AM hiking over minor deadfall and contouring over to Blue Ridge's northwest ridge. This avoided dropping down the slopes and having to regain elevation to the ridge and it worked well until reaching the ridge.

The deadfall on the ridge was annoying to say the least. The summit (photo 1, photo 2) is a defined hill and we reached it at 9:05, staying a few minutes before departing. On our descent, we dropped off the summit immediately and found the bushwhacking to be much easier while contouring below the ridge. This would also be a better ascent to the summit than taking the ridge. We arrived back to Tim's truck at 9:55.

UN 10279:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.70 miles
Elevation gain: 560'
Start to finish: 1 hour 25 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We didn't have to drive far from Blue Ridge to approach UN 10279. We backtracked on FR 133 and drove down FR 139 to another forest road north of the summit and parked at a campsite, which worked out well because the road became rough shortly afterward. We began at 10:25 AM and bushwhacked south to the summit. This was easy and we reached the summit (photo 1, photo 2) at 11:05. After a short stay of five minutes we departed and were back at Tim's truck at 11:50.

Lonesome Peak:
Roundtrip mileage: 3.30 miles
Elevation gain: 675'
Start to finish: 1 hour 40 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We drove back to Fraser and up to Tabernash. Before reaching town, we turned onto CR 84 and then left on Meadow Creek Road (FR 129). We were on this road two years ago to climb a few peaks. This time we drove to the north side of Meadow Creek Reservoir and parked at a road leading to a camp area. It was raining lightly when we began at 2:10 PM. We headed north toward the summit and happened upon a trail that we followed briefly until it led away from the summit. There wasn't much deadfall to contend with and we reached the northern highpoint at 2:40. Three downed trees with piles of rocks each could've been the highpoint but one had a broken glass jar and was the likely highpoint.

The rain quit so we stayed 20 minutes on top. On the descent we found another trail that we followed until it veered away from our bearing to the truck. We arrived back at the truck at 3:50, making for a nice hike and the most fun of the three peaks.