"Peak X", "Peak Y", "Peak Z", & "Zephyr"   by Brian Schultz Thursday July 26, 2018

Roundtrip mileage: 11.4 miles from Long Gulch trailhead (elev 10,100')
Elevation gain: 3,860'
Start to finish: 9 hours 45 minutes

I drove north on US 285 from Fairplay and turned east on CR 56 to the Long Gulch trailhead. This is a two wheel drive road but it's washboard most of the way to the trailhead. When I pulled into the parking area, a fellow named Matt approached me and asked if he could use my car to charge his phone. He was camping on the other side of the creek and heard me pull in, hoping I'd oblige since his solar powered charger wasn't getting much sun lately. He was on the Colorado trail to Durango for a month and appreciated the short fifteen minute charge time before I departed at 7:15 AM.

I crossed the creek and headed northeast on a spur trail to the Colorado Trail/Hooper trail junction. I turned onto the signed Hooper trail but couldn't find the faint trail where I was supposed to exit it so I just set a bearing for Peak X. I ended up going up and over a steep ridge to the south of Peak Y but when I got to the open slopes below Peak Y, the route to Peak X was obvious and there really wasn't much for willows to contend with. I made an easy beeline to the peak.

The rocky outcrops on Peak X had me wondering which point was the highest. The first one I went up wasn't but the next one was the highest and held the summit register. I arrived at 10:15.

Ten minutes later I headed over to Peak Y. This is an easy, mostly tundra stroll and I arrived 55 minutes later at 11:15. After another ten minute break I was off to Peak Z. This took 50 minutes, my arrival time on the summit was 12:15. Actually, the top is a tall boulder that I just reached up and tagged instead of trying to sit on it. During my 30 minute lunch break it started sprinkling so I put on rain gear before heading over to Zephyr.

I was tired but trudged up to Zephyr at 1:45 and climbed up all three candidate highpoints to make sure I reached the highest one. One of them had a class 3 move to get on top.

I stayed 30 minutes on top of Zephyr and took the advice of friend Tim Briese to descend on a southwest bearing to the Colorado trail below instead of retracing my ascent route. This worked out well and I stayed in the trees as much as possible because the willows were head high.

When I finally intersected the Colorado trail it was a haul to get back to the trailhead. The long switchbacks of the Colorado trail were a test of patience and energy but I finally got back at 5:00. Other than Matt in the morning and a couple resting in their tent along the Colorado trail, I didn't see anyone else today.

These four peaks make for a nice loop route and I enjoyed them very much. Next up tomorrow would be my rematch with Savage Peak.