Today’s hike was on the Old Horsethief Trail to Horsethief Trail, heading up Cascade Mountain to a peak at Heaven’s Bridge. After 8 days of rigorous hiking and biking, this was the most strenuous effort yet - but also one of the most enjoyable. The trailhead started directly across from the hotel (Hot Springs Inn in Ouray) at 7700’. That was convenient, but gave no chance for a warmup. The trail starts with an immediate steep 20 degree climb on looses rock scree. It was another unusually warm and sunny day, and I wasn’t sure I could tackle this hike today, but just kept saying “put one foot in front of the other…”
After gaining 2600’ in under 3 miles, the view opened to beautiful pastoral scenes up to the peak at 12251’. The trail was non-technical and felt very safe, which made the high altitude gain easier to handle. On the way down I took an extra side trail to gain some extra altitude to achieve a 5000’ altitude gain milestone.
Today’s stats:
12.4 miles, 6h 25m, 5180’ gain