Lucky Day on Horseshoe Mountain

High summer has come to the Colorado high country, and we're full-on in training for Lamotte Peak on National Summit day.  This weekend we needed some altitude training so we headed out to Horseshoe Mountain in the Mosquito Range.  It's a high 13er, 13,904, but since it's not a 14er, it meant that we could hike it on a Saturday and not have to fight crowds.  We were right...we approached on a bumpy, rocky dirt road in our recently modified Alltrack (lift springs and new suspension control arms to make it more off-road worthy, thanks Christian!) and had no trouble getting to the trailhead with only about 5 other cars.

The trailhead for a nearby 14er had about 25 cars at it...pretty good deal for 96 feet!

The trail started off steep and rocky, but then we hit an old mining road that would take us to the saddle, with our goal in view:

There's a beautiful tarn right at the base of the mountain, with a smaller one even higher up.

Once at the saddle, we could see over to three other peaks close by, including Sherman (14er), Sheridan (13er) and Peerless (13er).  And then all of the other mountains in Colorado in the background!

So we turned up the ridge for the summit push.  The wind was howling along the ridge, but the views were spectacular!

In the pic below, the peak is the bump where the snow breaks along the upper ridge.

This is Sue and Grizz closing in...

Other than the views from the top, we found a special treat up there.  Little bunches of bright blue forget-me-nots dotting the summit!

After a peaceful and solitary half hour on the summit having lunch (remember, it's Saturday in Colorado...13ers ROCK!), we headed back down.  Here's a view of the whole ridge looking down:

The small peak way down the ridge is Peerless.  It looks like just a nub, but it's a legitimate peak at 13,320.  We picked it off as a bonus on our way down.

Here we are, happy hikers on a beautifully day (clouds building in the background...time to go!). By the way, that's Sue's "peak smile".  Isn't it wonderful?!

We stopped on the way down to let Grizz take a swim in the tarn, then we finished the hike and headed for home, feeling blessed, content and just about ready to tackle Lamotte on National Summit Day!