Mount Democrat, Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln, Mount Bross 8/21
7.25mi RT, 3700' EVG
A two day camping trip with my father started by driving through Colorado Springs to the little town of Lake George and up the Tarryall road to an area of forest roads that served as good places to dispersed camp. After setting up camp we headed across Tarryall Creek to the shadow of South Tarryall Peak where we began searching for topaz, a hard translucent mineral that serves as a popular gemstone. Over the course of a few hours of scanning the surface, I'd found 4 clear topaz specimens and a large crystal of what may be quartz or topaz. Two smaller specimens had crystal faces on it, one of which formed a nearly perfect dodecahedron. With any more time and familiarity of the area, one could easily recover an in-place pocket carrying large colored topaz worth a fairly good amount of money, completely for free other than gas money and a little hard work.
After spending the night at a ridgeline campsite, we drove to the Kite Lake TH and began the climb up to Mount Democrat. After crossing the stream the trails pass under the Kentucky Belle mine and other prospect pits and tunnels that are spread across the Mosquito 14ers. At the saddle with Mount Cameron, we began the next climb to the north face of Mount Democrat to the cold summit. A few minutes later we were ready to descend back to the saddle and head up to Cameron. The wind never died down, and so the final traverse to the broad summit was very windswept and had me finding the closest thing to a windbreak on the bleak plateau.
From Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln is very close by and so time went quickly between summits, which was an interesting ridgewalk in itself. The views from Lincoln are very nice, and Lincoln is definitely the best summit of the four while being the Park County highpoint. Again we dropped off the summit but now headed along the old mine road connecting the area to Mount Bross, which sits alone from the other 14ers to the west. Bross gets a lot of complaints between being a moonscape, having contested legality and not being very impressive. I found Bross to be interesting, the geology of the large mountain is pretty varying(the Sweet Home Mine passed along the way to Kite Lake has produced the world's largest and finest Rhodochrosite, Colorado's state mineral), the mountain has a lot of history and the steep descent really gives you a sense of how huge Bross actually is, prominence aside. At the summit we met two guys who'd been on the other summits with us, they offered us beers left over from the earlier celebrations.
The descent off Bross wasn't as bad as it's made out to be, in fact I'd even go as far as saying it's one of many overrated miseries of the 14ers(like Scott Gomer creek/swamp on Bierstadt). These were the first 14ers I'd done since 2012; I will reconfirm that the 14ers craze is a little absurd, though they are rewarding in the end...even the easy ones.
Best overheard quote of the day: [While descending Democrat] "This is way better than Rocky Mountain National Park, there aren't enough 14ers there!"
A two day camping trip with my father started by driving through Colorado Springs to the little town of Lake George and up the Tarryall road to an area of forest roads that served as good places to dispersed camp. After setting up camp we headed across Tarryall Creek to the shadow of South Tarryall Peak where we began searching for topaz, a hard translucent mineral that serves as a popular gemstone. Over the course of a few hours of scanning the surface, I'd found 4 clear topaz specimens and a large crystal of what may be quartz or topaz. Two smaller specimens had crystal faces on it, one of which formed a nearly perfect dodecahedron. With any more time and familiarity of the area, one could easily recover an in-place pocket carrying large colored topaz worth a fairly good amount of money, completely for free other than gas money and a little hard work.
After spending the night at a ridgeline campsite, we drove to the Kite Lake TH and began the climb up to Mount Democrat. After crossing the stream the trails pass under the Kentucky Belle mine and other prospect pits and tunnels that are spread across the Mosquito 14ers. At the saddle with Mount Cameron, we began the next climb to the north face of Mount Democrat to the cold summit. A few minutes later we were ready to descend back to the saddle and head up to Cameron. The wind never died down, and so the final traverse to the broad summit was very windswept and had me finding the closest thing to a windbreak on the bleak plateau.
From Mount Cameron, Mount Lincoln is very close by and so time went quickly between summits, which was an interesting ridgewalk in itself. The views from Lincoln are very nice, and Lincoln is definitely the best summit of the four while being the Park County highpoint. Again we dropped off the summit but now headed along the old mine road connecting the area to Mount Bross, which sits alone from the other 14ers to the west. Bross gets a lot of complaints between being a moonscape, having contested legality and not being very impressive. I found Bross to be interesting, the geology of the large mountain is pretty varying(the Sweet Home Mine passed along the way to Kite Lake has produced the world's largest and finest Rhodochrosite, Colorado's state mineral), the mountain has a lot of history and the steep descent really gives you a sense of how huge Bross actually is, prominence aside. At the summit we met two guys who'd been on the other summits with us, they offered us beers left over from the earlier celebrations.
The descent off Bross wasn't as bad as it's made out to be, in fact I'd even go as far as saying it's one of many overrated miseries of the 14ers(like Scott Gomer creek/swamp on Bierstadt). These were the first 14ers I'd done since 2012; I will reconfirm that the 14ers craze is a little absurd, though they are rewarding in the end...even the easy ones.
Best overheard quote of the day: [While descending Democrat] "This is way better than Rocky Mountain National Park, there aren't enough 14ers there!"
