REDCLOUD PEAK 7/29/84

REDCLOUD PEAK 14,034'

Mountain........Redcloud Peak
Elevation.........14,034
Rank...............46th
Range..............San Juan
Trail length......3.5 miles
Elevation gain..3,600'
Difficulty..........*
Comments........Good San Juan view!


TRIP REPORT

7/29/84

Oh boy, part of another 'two-fer'!
Lake City was full of Texas cars - seems that the fishing in the Lone Star State is not good enough! We were not impressed with the town (at the time), nor with the little motel at the foot of the big hill behind the town. I have since made friends with some of the inmates (residents) and revised my opinion after being introduced to the local sports and nightlife.

We got up early. The road to the trailhead was okay but scary in places - it's built into the side of a cliff with a big drop on one side and a wall on the other. In the early morning darkness we couldn't really see just how scary it was.

It had brightened by the time we started up. We had perfect weather, a gorgeous view of Handies Peak, and a nice variety of surrounding colors - deep green trees, some red rocks, yellow cliffs and mine tailings, blue sky, white snow and clouds, and a profusion of wildflowers in the valley. The trail was narrow with a lot of wet grass soaking our untreated boots.

We hiked up the valley with Sunshine and Redcloud Peaks on the right. Once past Redcloud we headed straight up to the top of the right-hand ridge, and followed the ridge to the right to the summit of Redcloud with no problems. The weather remained perfect, so we tarried for a long lunch and some sunning before heading across the ridge to Sunshine.