West Buffalo Peak (13,326), East Buffalo Peak (13,300) & UN 11757 by Brian Schultz Friday July 17, 2015

Roundtrip mileage: 14.5 miles from Fourmile Creek trailhead (10,000')

Elevation gain: 4,865'

Start to finish: 10 hours 25 minutes

This is a longer route to do the Buffalo Peaks than from the east side but the approach trail is great and it allows adding an elevener to the itinerary. To get to the trailhead, drive east on the main street of Buena Vista to the second street past the railroad tracks (CR 371) and follow it north (left) to CR 375. Turn right on CR 375 and follow it all the way to a large parking area, paying close attention to a road junction where CR 377 goes straight ahead and CR 375 turns right. I missed this and had to turn around. The road is four wheel drive to the Fourmile Creek trailhead from the large parking area.

There is room for 5-6 vehicles at the trailhead and I was setting up for the night in the back of my truck when I heard a vehicle rumbling up the road. The fellow was from Wisconsin and was only checking out 4x4 roads that he thought might be interesting. He soon headed back down but not before we discussed our rival football teams' chances this year.

I began at 6:05 AM on the excellent trail. After signing the registration box, I let the cover slam down and looked up to see a moose on the trail in front of me. So close, and if I hadn't scared him away with the noise I could've gotten a nice picture of him. The trail meanders through some flat areas that looked nice for camping and sure enough, on my return a group had already set up camp when I passed by.

The trail continues to a wide grassy valley where you can stay on the trail to a low saddle on West Buffalo's ridge, or pick a spot to leave the trail and bushwhack to a higher point on the ridge. There is a post on the right side of the trail upon approaching the valley that would be a good place to begin a bushwhack. I, however, continued along the trail for a ways, and then hiked through a marshy area that retained lots of water from the late spring snow and rains before heading up to the ridge. I was glad to be wearing waterproof boots as I squished my way through. Back on solid ground, the bushwhack through the trees to the ridge was steep but easy.

The easygoing, grassy ridge has a false summit before the actual summit. I arrived on top at 10:00 and took a short ten minute break. Even though the weather was holding nicely, I was aware of a rough section on the connecting ridge to East Buffalo and was eager to get moving.

I stayed on top of the ridge before downclimbing a class 3 area. The traverse below this area had lots of talus hopping but once I reached the saddle (elev 12,800'), the ascent to East Buffalo was pretty easy and I arrived on the large, grassy summit at 11:15. Again, I only stayed ten minutes and it took a full hour to get back to West Buffalo, where I unwittingly left my GPS when I stopped to refuel. I'd only hiked a few minutes when I noticed it missing and backtracked to retrieve it.

From West Buffalo, I took a more direct bushwhack to the trail below. The deadfall was manageable and I emerged very close to the described post on the trail at 1:45, which was perfect because I was nearly in a direct line to UN 11757. The weather was threatening to rain but the summit was only 0.4 miles away and I'd be in the safety of the trees. I zigzagged around the deadfall and arrived on top at 2:10. Several areas looked like they could be a highpoint and I covered them all. One with a cairn seemed to be the highest one.

It started raining lightly when I departed at 2:15. I made it back to the trail at 2:35 and hiked out mostly nonstop, other than to say hello to the campers in the big flat area and to hydrate a couple times. I arrived back at the trailhead at 4:25 and was surprised to see a minivan pulling into the parking area as I was taking off my pack. I don't know how the driver managed to drive the road in that vehicle but nobody got out and five minutes later they left. I wasn't far behind them and was glad no other vehicles were coming up the narrow road because there aren't many pull-outs.

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