A One n' Done in the Panorama Peak Area 6/9/12
I like going to new places, but if I don't like them the first time I'll hate going back. I've never been in the Panorama Peak area, and with the patchwork of forest roads dissecting the area I thought making a nice circuit trip would be a nice way to string together some small summits. That way if I wasn't impressed with the area, I'd never have to return. Awesome!
Panorama Peak: Fearing a busy Saturday and getting blocked out due to the small parking lot along Forest Service Road 122, I woke up at 6 and hit the trail at 7:20. There were two cars already there, but the parking area was bigger than I had expected and because the gate was open there were a few smaller pullouts before the road got rough. I passed two campers making breakfast early on up the road, something that really shouldn't have surprised me but did anyways(not used to walking along FS roads, let alone those that have dispersed camping along them). I hit the major junction with FS 247A(the westernmost spur that leads to Panorama) and followed it through small aspen groves to the intersection with FS 247, then another small 4WD road where a sturdy gate closed the roads to motorists.
From there the grade gets considerably steeper, but soon subsides to another small unmarked road where you turn east and hit the summit. The summit is sorta special in that it's one of only two in Larimer County with a lookout tower on top, but once you realize it's private and locked the summit becomes like every other forested hill. Except you have nice steps to lounge around on. Looking back, I've got some bad luck walking up to my first ever lookout to find it locked while the young High Park Fire has just flamed up to the north. Isn't that what lookouts are for, seeing fires??? Stupid. It took about an hour to make it to the summit, so it's pretty easy.
UN 9075: After sauntering back to the 247A-247 intersection, I'd take 247 a ways before hooking right on 247C to a small meadow, then taking a left on the road heading north along the small tributary to Solitude Creek. After following that for a while, I saw a small road heading steeply up the hillside and without really thinking twice took it think this was 122. Of course since some of these intersections are missing signs, I just had to assume it was what I wanted. In reality, it wasn't. It took me to the top of the hillside to some campsites before petering out. This wasn't a big deal, since I could see the obvious saddle with a communication tower along 122 that I needed, and headed towards that. After seeing the real intersection on the way back, I decided it was a bit of luck taking the wrong turn since it saved some elevation gain.
At the tower, I followed 122 a ways to a very overgrown 222 intersection that I nearly missed. Heading up brought me into sparser terrain along the hillside and up to the plateau that held the summit of 9075, which was easy to find and climb up. There was a cairn and benchmark, but no summit register. On Joe Grim's TR, he said they found a register at the summit saying something along the lines of "highpoint of Sugarloaf" which technically wasn't correct. So not finding it at 9075 led me to believe someone moved it to the true summit of Sugarloaf.
Sugarloaf Mountain: Thus began the first real bushwhacking of the day, it took me a while to match bearings and features to find the best way but in the end I diverged from it on purpose. I had noticed hand cut stumps amongst the full grown trees getting more and more frequent, and I followed the 'school' of them into an area that looked as if it had been clear cut some years ago. Hoping to find the ruins of and old sawmill, I meandered through the stumps until I came to some piles of cut logs hiding in the new growth trees, but no Lookout Mountain-esque sawmills like I was hoping to find. As I entered the old growth forest again I got back on route and bushwhacked to the base of the pointy summit of Sugarloaf.
It looks pretty technical when you first see it in full view, but skirting to the SE side reveals a pretty manageable class 3/3+ route to the very top. There was a little exposure and the wind never helps, but in the end it was no big deal to get to the highpoint. Again no register, which got me thinking; there are peaks out there where the intended summit is not the highest point. The large, button shaped(or perhaps, sugarloaf shaped!!) rock to the southeast of the LOJ summit does have a triangulation BM on it and does look like more of a loaf than anything else. When I hit Pole Hill I'll check out this rock, since I believe it's the intended summit.
The Notch: This one's a bit strange as it's not really a summit as much as a gap between two rocks and some built up road deck(or something of that sort). Heading back to the communication tower and along 122 I made a right on 122A to the small outcrop. Before I got right up to it I'd seen a few Jeeps crawling along the road, and when I hit the outcrop saw a whole convoy of Jeeps were using the rocks as their picnic spot. I skirted right around them and hit the highpoint, snapped a few pics of the ever growing High Park Fire and followed the forest roads back out.
It's a much more popular area than I had expected, and used in many more ways than I'm used to seeing. Along with the campers and Jeeps were ATVs, Jeep Tours and dog walkers. In fact, of the 10 or so groups I'd seen only one was comprised of hikers. There are always better places to be, but for nabbing 4 summits with relative ease, I'll put in a good word for the area.
Panorama Peak: Fearing a busy Saturday and getting blocked out due to the small parking lot along Forest Service Road 122, I woke up at 6 and hit the trail at 7:20. There were two cars already there, but the parking area was bigger than I had expected and because the gate was open there were a few smaller pullouts before the road got rough. I passed two campers making breakfast early on up the road, something that really shouldn't have surprised me but did anyways(not used to walking along FS roads, let alone those that have dispersed camping along them). I hit the major junction with FS 247A(the westernmost spur that leads to Panorama) and followed it through small aspen groves to the intersection with FS 247, then another small 4WD road where a sturdy gate closed the roads to motorists.
From there the grade gets considerably steeper, but soon subsides to another small unmarked road where you turn east and hit the summit. The summit is sorta special in that it's one of only two in Larimer County with a lookout tower on top, but once you realize it's private and locked the summit becomes like every other forested hill. Except you have nice steps to lounge around on. Looking back, I've got some bad luck walking up to my first ever lookout to find it locked while the young High Park Fire has just flamed up to the north. Isn't that what lookouts are for, seeing fires??? Stupid. It took about an hour to make it to the summit, so it's pretty easy.
UN 9075: After sauntering back to the 247A-247 intersection, I'd take 247 a ways before hooking right on 247C to a small meadow, then taking a left on the road heading north along the small tributary to Solitude Creek. After following that for a while, I saw a small road heading steeply up the hillside and without really thinking twice took it think this was 122. Of course since some of these intersections are missing signs, I just had to assume it was what I wanted. In reality, it wasn't. It took me to the top of the hillside to some campsites before petering out. This wasn't a big deal, since I could see the obvious saddle with a communication tower along 122 that I needed, and headed towards that. After seeing the real intersection on the way back, I decided it was a bit of luck taking the wrong turn since it saved some elevation gain.
At the tower, I followed 122 a ways to a very overgrown 222 intersection that I nearly missed. Heading up brought me into sparser terrain along the hillside and up to the plateau that held the summit of 9075, which was easy to find and climb up. There was a cairn and benchmark, but no summit register. On Joe Grim's TR, he said they found a register at the summit saying something along the lines of "highpoint of Sugarloaf" which technically wasn't correct. So not finding it at 9075 led me to believe someone moved it to the true summit of Sugarloaf.
Sugarloaf Mountain: Thus began the first real bushwhacking of the day, it took me a while to match bearings and features to find the best way but in the end I diverged from it on purpose. I had noticed hand cut stumps amongst the full grown trees getting more and more frequent, and I followed the 'school' of them into an area that looked as if it had been clear cut some years ago. Hoping to find the ruins of and old sawmill, I meandered through the stumps until I came to some piles of cut logs hiding in the new growth trees, but no Lookout Mountain-esque sawmills like I was hoping to find. As I entered the old growth forest again I got back on route and bushwhacked to the base of the pointy summit of Sugarloaf.
It looks pretty technical when you first see it in full view, but skirting to the SE side reveals a pretty manageable class 3/3+ route to the very top. There was a little exposure and the wind never helps, but in the end it was no big deal to get to the highpoint. Again no register, which got me thinking; there are peaks out there where the intended summit is not the highest point. The large, button shaped(or perhaps, sugarloaf shaped!!) rock to the southeast of the LOJ summit does have a triangulation BM on it and does look like more of a loaf than anything else. When I hit Pole Hill I'll check out this rock, since I believe it's the intended summit.
The Notch: This one's a bit strange as it's not really a summit as much as a gap between two rocks and some built up road deck(or something of that sort). Heading back to the communication tower and along 122 I made a right on 122A to the small outcrop. Before I got right up to it I'd seen a few Jeeps crawling along the road, and when I hit the outcrop saw a whole convoy of Jeeps were using the rocks as their picnic spot. I skirted right around them and hit the highpoint, snapped a few pics of the ever growing High Park Fire and followed the forest roads back out.
It's a much more popular area than I had expected, and used in many more ways than I'm used to seeing. Along with the campers and Jeeps were ATVs, Jeep Tours and dog walkers. In fact, of the 10 or so groups I'd seen only one was comprised of hikers. There are always better places to be, but for nabbing 4 summits with relative ease, I'll put in a good word for the area.
