MOUNT SHERMAN 8/4/85
MOUNT SHERMAN 14,036'
Mountain........Mount Sherman
Elevation.........14,036
Rank...............45th
Range..............Mosquito
Trail length......3.5 miles
Elevation gain..2,800'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........A painful night/day
TRIP REPORT
8/4/85
Due to a modest budget, conflicting priorities, and a shortage of available vacation time, Richard and I were only able to set aside one week for our next foray into the Colorado mountains. Further complicating matters were a few physical problems - Richard was coming off minor surgery on his shoulder to remove a small malignant melanoma. He had just had his 18 stitches removed (the doctor did a lot of searching around the mole for possible spreading) and was pretty sore. I had lifted my luggage from an awkward position at Dulles Airport and sprained my back so badly that it was nearly impossible to bend over and lace my shoes.
We arrived in Denver at night, suffering opposite versions of jet lag (me coming from Maryland, him returning from a Hawaii trip). We drove to Fairplay, arrived around midnight, and couldn't find a vacant room - there was a ballooner's convention in town for the weekend! So we resorted to our old sleep-in-the-car routine. The temperature was in the 30s and we woke up every half hour or so to run the heater for a few minutes. We were in a rental car with virtually no back seat, so we were both sitting up in front and squirming from our infirmities (I couldn't find a comfortable position for my sprained back, he still had a sore shoulder).
We gave up on sleep at 6 a.m. when the restaurant in whose parking lot we had car-camped opened for business. We had a small breakfast and then drove up to Sherman. We hiked from the parking lot at the trailhead up to a picturesque old mine, then left the trail and took a snowy shortcut to the saddle left of the summit, then followed the ridge to the top. We posed for pictures next to an American flag someone had erected at the peak, then crossed over the summit and dropped back down toward our car from the right-hand ridge. This was a little steeper than the ascent, but also a little quicker.
My back was all right while I was hiking, but I had a pretty tough time trying to get back in the car and an even worse time trying to get my boots off. The 'chattery' road back to town did not help matters. The ballooners had moved on and we were able to find a room in Fairplay. Richard checked his scar to make sure it wasn't bleeding; I tried to stretch a little. We went to dinner and had a somewhat more restful second night.
Mountain........Mount Sherman
Elevation.........14,036
Rank...............45th
Range..............Mosquito
Trail length......3.5 miles
Elevation gain..2,800'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........A painful night/day
TRIP REPORT
8/4/85
Due to a modest budget, conflicting priorities, and a shortage of available vacation time, Richard and I were only able to set aside one week for our next foray into the Colorado mountains. Further complicating matters were a few physical problems - Richard was coming off minor surgery on his shoulder to remove a small malignant melanoma. He had just had his 18 stitches removed (the doctor did a lot of searching around the mole for possible spreading) and was pretty sore. I had lifted my luggage from an awkward position at Dulles Airport and sprained my back so badly that it was nearly impossible to bend over and lace my shoes.
We arrived in Denver at night, suffering opposite versions of jet lag (me coming from Maryland, him returning from a Hawaii trip). We drove to Fairplay, arrived around midnight, and couldn't find a vacant room - there was a ballooner's convention in town for the weekend! So we resorted to our old sleep-in-the-car routine. The temperature was in the 30s and we woke up every half hour or so to run the heater for a few minutes. We were in a rental car with virtually no back seat, so we were both sitting up in front and squirming from our infirmities (I couldn't find a comfortable position for my sprained back, he still had a sore shoulder).
We gave up on sleep at 6 a.m. when the restaurant in whose parking lot we had car-camped opened for business. We had a small breakfast and then drove up to Sherman. We hiked from the parking lot at the trailhead up to a picturesque old mine, then left the trail and took a snowy shortcut to the saddle left of the summit, then followed the ridge to the top. We posed for pictures next to an American flag someone had erected at the peak, then crossed over the summit and dropped back down toward our car from the right-hand ridge. This was a little steeper than the ascent, but also a little quicker.
My back was all right while I was hiking, but I had a pretty tough time trying to get back in the car and an even worse time trying to get my boots off. The 'chattery' road back to town did not help matters. The ballooners had moved on and we were able to find a room in Fairplay. Richard checked his scar to make sure it wasn't bleeding; I tried to stretch a little. We went to dinner and had a somewhat more restful second night.
posted by JansStores at 11:41 AM
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