North, South and Middle Bald Mountains & Laramie Mountains High Point 8/27
8.9mi RT, 2300' EVG
Note: Laramie Mountains High Point is now referred to as Killpecker Mountain on the county's tower webpage.
The Bald Mountains are the tallest peaks in the Red Feather Lakes area topping out around 11,000 feet. Due to the difficulty of emergency communication in the upper Poudre Canyon and the western forests of Larimer County, a communications tower will soon be constructed at the Laramie Mountains High Point behind the three Balds. Surveying for a road to the HP has already begun, so now is your chance to experience this small mountain range before the scenery changes.
My dad and I decided to make a loop of the four summits, starting at the Killpecker Trail pullout on FS 300. The Killpecker trail is pretty established and climbs through the open forest past a spring until intersecting FS 300 again. Following the road to the major switchback, we chose this spot to begin bushwhacking towards North Bald Mountain. This area was previously logged like many forests around Deadman Road, but swaths of old growth forest still existed. We tried to navigate through this older forest since the logged area had much younger and thicker trees. It was a cloudy morning and judging by the dew left on the undergrowth, it had probably rained overnight. Speaking of the undergrowth: the Balds are covered in Grouse Whortleberry plants which were holding small red berries(Thanks to Joe, who told me of the plant on our Pennock peaks hike earlier). Also known as Grouseberry, the common plant's berries are edible and remarkably abundant. After some manageable bushwhacking, we climbed up to North Bald.
North Bald has an old wooden triangulation station on the summit near the benchmark. Oddly, we happened to be on the summit on the 20th anniversary of the register's first entry, when Mike Garratt left it on August 27th 1995. Views are impressive although we couldn't see many of the higher mountains due to the low clouds. After enjoying the last moments of good weather, we descended by angling southeast off of North Bald in order to catch the Lone Pine Trail. The trail is shown only a few hundred feet below the ridge, but when we finally intersected the trail it was clear the map shows the trail higher on the slope than it actually was. The Lone Pine Trail is small and faint in some places, and we only walked a few tenths of a mile before cutting towards nearby FS 517. Following the easy road to the base of South Bald Mountain, we left the road and climbed to the saddle. At this point the clouds were starting to blanket the hills behind the Balds, so I quickly hurried to the summit to get some views.
South Bald was my favorite summit of the day, and I look forward to a repeat when I go back to climb UN 10884 just to the south. The views of the Red Feather Lakes and hundreds of lowland peaks were from an angle that I'd never seen before. The wind picked up and started pelting raindrops down on us as we ate lunch. After following our steps back to the road, we followed FS 517 uphill back towards Middle Bald. At the intersection of 517/517A, we found the Killpecker Trail and climbed up into the tundra of Middle Bald. It was a quick sidetrip to hit the summit, but it was cool to be surrounded by sheets of mist as the clouds whipped across the Balds. Back on the trail, we made a final stop just up the trail to hit the Laramie Mountains HP.
There are two closed 11,000' contours just south of the trail, so I checked them both out. There is a broad hill in the trees and an outcropping which is certainly more scenic. Walking back to the trail, I noticed a bunch of wooden stakes with survey stationing written on them(at the time I didn't think too much of it, later realizing this was undoubtedly for the tower access road). The rest of the hike was along the Killpecker Trail, which crosses FS 300 three times. After passing the spring, I began to find some interesting quartz crystals in the trail, including a very clear multiple terminated crystal.
Two Blue Grouse, hundreds of Grouseberries, two deer, zero people.
Note: Laramie Mountains High Point is now referred to as Killpecker Mountain on the county's tower webpage.
The Bald Mountains are the tallest peaks in the Red Feather Lakes area topping out around 11,000 feet. Due to the difficulty of emergency communication in the upper Poudre Canyon and the western forests of Larimer County, a communications tower will soon be constructed at the Laramie Mountains High Point behind the three Balds. Surveying for a road to the HP has already begun, so now is your chance to experience this small mountain range before the scenery changes.
My dad and I decided to make a loop of the four summits, starting at the Killpecker Trail pullout on FS 300. The Killpecker trail is pretty established and climbs through the open forest past a spring until intersecting FS 300 again. Following the road to the major switchback, we chose this spot to begin bushwhacking towards North Bald Mountain. This area was previously logged like many forests around Deadman Road, but swaths of old growth forest still existed. We tried to navigate through this older forest since the logged area had much younger and thicker trees. It was a cloudy morning and judging by the dew left on the undergrowth, it had probably rained overnight. Speaking of the undergrowth: the Balds are covered in Grouse Whortleberry plants which were holding small red berries(Thanks to Joe, who told me of the plant on our Pennock peaks hike earlier). Also known as Grouseberry, the common plant's berries are edible and remarkably abundant. After some manageable bushwhacking, we climbed up to North Bald.
North Bald has an old wooden triangulation station on the summit near the benchmark. Oddly, we happened to be on the summit on the 20th anniversary of the register's first entry, when Mike Garratt left it on August 27th 1995. Views are impressive although we couldn't see many of the higher mountains due to the low clouds. After enjoying the last moments of good weather, we descended by angling southeast off of North Bald in order to catch the Lone Pine Trail. The trail is shown only a few hundred feet below the ridge, but when we finally intersected the trail it was clear the map shows the trail higher on the slope than it actually was. The Lone Pine Trail is small and faint in some places, and we only walked a few tenths of a mile before cutting towards nearby FS 517. Following the easy road to the base of South Bald Mountain, we left the road and climbed to the saddle. At this point the clouds were starting to blanket the hills behind the Balds, so I quickly hurried to the summit to get some views.
South Bald was my favorite summit of the day, and I look forward to a repeat when I go back to climb UN 10884 just to the south. The views of the Red Feather Lakes and hundreds of lowland peaks were from an angle that I'd never seen before. The wind picked up and started pelting raindrops down on us as we ate lunch. After following our steps back to the road, we followed FS 517 uphill back towards Middle Bald. At the intersection of 517/517A, we found the Killpecker Trail and climbed up into the tundra of Middle Bald. It was a quick sidetrip to hit the summit, but it was cool to be surrounded by sheets of mist as the clouds whipped across the Balds. Back on the trail, we made a final stop just up the trail to hit the Laramie Mountains HP.
There are two closed 11,000' contours just south of the trail, so I checked them both out. There is a broad hill in the trees and an outcropping which is certainly more scenic. Walking back to the trail, I noticed a bunch of wooden stakes with survey stationing written on them(at the time I didn't think too much of it, later realizing this was undoubtedly for the tower access road). The rest of the hike was along the Killpecker Trail, which crosses FS 300 three times. After passing the spring, I began to find some interesting quartz crystals in the trail, including a very clear multiple terminated crystal.
Two Blue Grouse, hundreds of Grouseberries, two deer, zero people.
