Peak 10 (13,633) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 10, 2008
The weather forecast for Breckenridge called for sunny and clear skies the entire day, which was reassuring since I'd be driving in from Nebraska and starting as soon as I reached the trailhead. Traffic in Breckenridge seems to get worse every time I pass through but I managed to make the upper trailhead at 12:20 PM. The lower trailhead at 10,940 feet had a locked gate so I just continued in my car on the slow but passable Spruce Creek road up to the large parking area at 11,000 ft. I started hiking at 12:40 from another locked gate on a side road marked the Wheeler trail, shown on Trails Illustrated map #109.
I was moving slowly but caught up to a large group of young people from Breckenridge hiking to Lower Crystal Lake. Once I reached the lake, another group of older hikers told me there was too much snow to continue to the upper lake but I kept going because I wasn't going to that lake anyway. I followed a trail that switchbacked up the slopes below Peak 10 and was able to easily kick steps in the sun-softened snow. I expected worse knowing Colorado had been hit with heavy winter and spring snow but the south facing slopes were in good shape. Upon reaching 13,200 feet I was nearly out of gas, the inevitable consequence of coming straight in from the flatlands, but I perservered up the sharp rocks to the summit and stepped on top at 3:40, arriving exactly three hours after starting.
The weather was beautiful as were the surrounding views during my thirty minute stay on the summit. Views of Breckenridge below were pretty cool and the road on the north side of the peak indicated a four wheeler could drive up pretty far up, assuming there weren't locked gates below. I descended the east ridge and near the saddle, a coyote kept turning around to make sure I didn't get too close before scampering away. It was an easy bushwhack down the slopes to the lower lake and from there it was an easy hike back to the trailhead. I arrived at my car at 5:50.
Trailhead to summit- 3 hours
Summit to trailhead- 1 hour 40 minutes
Start to finish- 5 hours 10 minutes