Excelsior Pass attempt

Today's group hike towards Excelsior Pass

This picture was taken by a new hiker, Steve, who joined us on the Relaxed Group's attempt to make it to Excelsior Pass. First, we tried to gain access to Church Mountain, where we expected to make it to the meadows, but the road was in bad shape where it crosses the creek.

This is where we turned around

A couple of guys were in the process of assessing the viability of making it across this spot on the Church Mountain access road. After studying it ourselves, with three cars needing to make it across, we decided instead to turn around and hike up the Excelsior Pass trailhead, just a few miles down the road.

Trail shot

This hike is 4.5 miles long to the pass, with more than 3,000 feet of elevation gain. Although we didn't know if we could make it the entire way, it was a nice way to spend the day. We had no snow for the first part as we ascended towards the pass.

Recently cut log

The Forest Service has been out trying to clear the trail, and I saw this log with sap coming out of the recently cut bark. These trees fell, probably in a recent windstorm, and now the trail is in very good condition.

Snow made its appearance on the trail

We ran into snow at about 4,200 feet elevation and realized it would be much slower going from this point to the pass. Just before 1:00pm, we decided to stop for lunch and, afterwareds, to turn around and head back down. Because of the short days, we didn't want to be caught out in darkness.

Pretty mushroom in the snow

Dianne caught this lovely picture of an unidentified mushroom in the snow. Our new friend, Steve, knows mushrooms and probably identified this one, but I have already forgotten its name.

Some of our group heading back down

I asked those hikers ahead of me to stop for a minute so I could get their picture. Steve, our newest member, is third from the left. This group was led very capably by Donna, the woman at the front. Although I have hiked with the Relaxed Group before, most of the people were new to me.

Hikers surrounded by green and gold

It was only 3:00pm when we returned to the trailhead. (It was much faster going down.) We probably only hiked around just under or just over seven miles, but we did ascend and descend around 2,900 feet on the way to the pass. It just keeps going up. It didn't rain but was overcast the entire day, but until you reach the high meadows just below the pass, there isn't much of a view. No matter, everyone was happy to have had such a good day in the High Country, probably our final one for the season.
:-)