Lake City 14er Trip - Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks

On July 7, 2014, I packed up my hiking gear and headed to Lake City CO for a week of 14er hiking.  The trailheads to five 14ers are within about 20 miles from Lake City, and I intended to climb four of them while I was there.

July 8 - My first attempt would be a the double of Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks.  The night before my hike, I didn't sleep very well and woke up a little tired, as seems to be the norm before I do any big hike like this.    I awoke at 4:00 AM and was on the trail by 5:45 that morning.

This trail, like those of many other 14ers, starts by following a path into a valley.  And every time I hike into a valley like this, one of my first thoughts upon seeing the very tall looking sidewall peaks is that I will eventually need to be higher than any of those.  It always seems so daunting when you are just into the first mile or two of your hike.

Eventually, though, you do end up on top of that wall, and you eventually get to see your summit approach.  This is looking up at Redcloud.

And as the name implies, Redcloud has a lot of red dirt on its summit, and it isn't a very large summit.

The views of Wetterhorn (on the left of the picture) and Uncompahgre (right of center) were pretty amazing, though.  The weather on all my hikes on the way up was crystal clear, perfect temp, and hardly any wind.

The summit of Redcloud is about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, and took a little over 3 hours.  Sunshine Peak, my next stop, is about 1.5 miles across a saddle from Redcloud and took about an hour to get across.

This picture looks back across the saddle from Sunshine back to Redcloud.

And me on the summit of it.

One of the toughest parts of this hike is that once you summit Redcloud, then cross the saddle to Sunshine, you have to go back over Redcloud to finish your hike.  Lest one be tempted to drop down from the saddle, they are greeted with this warning:

So back up Redcloud I went.  Once there, the weather started to turn, and some light hail was moving into the area.  Suddenly my tired legs got a little shot of adrenaline as I raced back toward my car, hoping to avoid the upcoming storm.  And just to help keep you moving, one of the mountains on the valley wall contains this "thumbs up" message:

As I got further down the trail, it began to rain lightly, and about a mile from the trailhead, it was raining pretty hard, but my waterproof jacket was doing its job very well so I didn't get soaked too badly.  In all, it was about a 12 mile hike that took 7 1/2 hours total.  I saw a total of 4 people the entire day and had both summits to myself.  While the technical difficulty of the hike was very low, the length of it really wiped me out, and I spent the rest of the afternoon recovering and waiting for my appetite to return.  But it was a successful hike, and Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks became my 10th and 11th 14er summits.

Next attempt....Wetterhorn Peak.