UN 8868, UN 8660, Little Wolford Mountain (8,807), & Wolford Mountain (9,182) by Brian Schultz Monday July 24, 2023

UN 8868:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.92 miles from east side of peak
Elevation gain: 525'
Start to finish: 1 hour 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

This would be Tim's attempt to see how he would fare climbing some peaks after open heart surgery in May. We specifically chose low elevation peaks hoping they would go well. The morning weather was beautiful as we drove north on US 40 from Kremmling and then east on Antelope Pass road. Forest Road 26 and Forest Road 2 (Troublesome Creek road) continue on to Gunsight Pass but we turned south on another road before Gunsight Pass and parked east of the summit. We began at 8:10 AM. It was a moderately steep grunt up the sagebrush slopes but easy and we were treated to nice views from the summit (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3, photo 4). The first peak went very well.

UN 8660:
Roundtrip mileage:1.35 miles from east side of the peak
Elevation gain: 445'
Start to finish: 1 hour
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We drove south from UN 8868 on the same road around to the east side of UN 8660. We began at 9:55 AM on an excellent trail (photo 1, photo 2) that went over a false summit before reaching the top. You gotta love it when expansive views are seen from low elevation peaks and this was no exception.

Little Wolford Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.80 miles
Elevation gain: 260'
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We tried to approach Little Wolford from the south but the road was closed. We drove north up another road southeast of the peak and were pleasantly surprised to be able to park higher up. We began at 12:00 PM and followed a trail west (next to a fence) until just below the summit, where a short jaunt north put us on top (photo 1, photo 2). Very short and easy.

Wolford Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 2.00 miles from access road to Verizon towers on summit
Elevation gain: 700'
Start to finish: 1 hour 45 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

From CR 224 we drove west and parked at a gated road leading to the Verizon towers on the summit. We began at 1:15 PM. The road soon becomes extremely steep with no relief until nearing the top. Once we reached the Verizon building we continued a short distance to the actual summit. The views were outstanding! We took a break in the shade of the trees just below the building before descending. We didn't get very far before it started raining and, fortunately, reached the truck just before it started pouring.

The bad thing about rain on these dirt roads is the roads become a slippery, muddy mess. Four wheel drive isn't much help as we found out. Tim's truck was slipping and we were fearful of slipping off the road and getting into trouble. Some ATV's behind us had the same problem. They decided to drive off road onto the sagebrush slopes and we followed suit. This worked until we got back onto CR 224. Even then, we had to go slow but the road was better. It was a huge relief to get back to the paved highway and into Kremmling. We skipped two additional peaks but it was an easy decision considering how nerve-wracking the driving would've been.