UN 7380 3/20
7.8mi RT 1300' EVG
I was still on break and Mike suggested we climb UN 7380 since I’d never been in the area around Red Mountain Open Space north of Fort Collins. We drove up the long stretches of dirt roads to the trailhead, which had opened for the season less than three weeks before. We walked up the Bent Rock trail into the canyon for Sand Creek. There are many rock layers and geologic features along the entire hike, but the Bent Rock canyon was the most interesting. At the head of the canyon the surprisingly full creek was flowing through a pipe upstream behind a dam that was built to prevent flooding in the Boxelder Creek watershed. We continued on the Ruby Wash trail which is really just a narrow road. We crossed the creek upstream of the reservoir and continued to the K-Lynn Cameron Trail.
Following the trail took us to two abandoned cabins and eventually to the intersection with an old road that leads up the side of UN 7380. We followed the faint roadbed into a side meadow before losing it in where some drainages and thick trees converged. We began to following a ridge covered in bushes across a small drainage and up to the summit. I was wearing shorts and carefully picking my route and headed into a grove of trees near the broad summit. We picked out the highest rocks though there was no cairn or register. We then headed a few hundred feet north and picked up the old road, which was still well preserved and cut a good path through the bushes. At the bottom of the road we corrected our route with some cairns that made a small turn where we had originally missed the road. Since the last LOJ ascent was about two and a half years ago, the cairns may not last long enough for someone to use them. On the way back we followed the same trails back to the trailhead, having only seen two people on the trails all day.
I was still on break and Mike suggested we climb UN 7380 since I’d never been in the area around Red Mountain Open Space north of Fort Collins. We drove up the long stretches of dirt roads to the trailhead, which had opened for the season less than three weeks before. We walked up the Bent Rock trail into the canyon for Sand Creek. There are many rock layers and geologic features along the entire hike, but the Bent Rock canyon was the most interesting. At the head of the canyon the surprisingly full creek was flowing through a pipe upstream behind a dam that was built to prevent flooding in the Boxelder Creek watershed. We continued on the Ruby Wash trail which is really just a narrow road. We crossed the creek upstream of the reservoir and continued to the K-Lynn Cameron Trail.
Following the trail took us to two abandoned cabins and eventually to the intersection with an old road that leads up the side of UN 7380. We followed the faint roadbed into a side meadow before losing it in where some drainages and thick trees converged. We began to following a ridge covered in bushes across a small drainage and up to the summit. I was wearing shorts and carefully picking my route and headed into a grove of trees near the broad summit. We picked out the highest rocks though there was no cairn or register. We then headed a few hundred feet north and picked up the old road, which was still well preserved and cut a good path through the bushes. At the bottom of the road we corrected our route with some cairns that made a small turn where we had originally missed the road. Since the last LOJ ascent was about two and a half years ago, the cairns may not last long enough for someone to use them. On the way back we followed the same trails back to the trailhead, having only seen two people on the trails all day.
