A Couple Long Days - Harvard and Columbia

Harvard:

For the first time last night, I spent the night in my car at the trailhead by myself.

Not a bad setup for sleeping in the car

Obviously I want to make sure everyone knows that safely is my top priority here, so I had pepper spray handy throughout the night…just in case.  Of course, nothing happened and I was fine.  The weather forecast was calling for 30% chance of rain, which basically means it will rain.  Since you do not want to be stuck in lightning, I was glad to make it on the trail relatively early.  The trail starts out faily flat through the trees and crosses a river a couple times on bridges.

Once above treeline, I got a good glimpse of Harvard in the distance.

The hike from here crosses through some willows and streams.  After crossing this basin, the trail comes to some larger boulders.

At this point I could also see Columbia well.  My original plan was to try and hike the traverse between Harvard and Columbia, shown in the picture below.

However, as I made my way to the summit of Harvard, the clouds were starting to look a little problematic.  The traverse from Harvard to Columbia is pretty long and you need at least a couple hours to get to Columbia's summit, and then also some time to make your way back down the trail to treeline before any weather becomes an issue.  I was still just tracking the weather at this point though.  Once on the summit, there were a couple other people who had opted out of the Columbia traverse, worried about weather.  I decided to follow suit and also descend without attempting Columbia.

Some terrain getting closer to the summit

Just relaxing on the summit for a few minutes

It is hard to say if this maybe ended up being a conservative approach.  The weather seemed to hold out for a couple hours, so I might have been able to make it to the summit, but who knows.  I figure these are only 14ers and I have all summer, so no point in really pushing it if I am concerned (especially with others on the mountain turning back as well).  On my drive down from the trailhead, I came across an aspen tree that had fallen across the road.

Naturally, the first thought was to try and move it myself.  I made decent progress until the trunk of the tree became stuck against another tree along the road. With no cell service on the road, I was at a standstill.  But luckily some bikers came along and helped me move it out of the way.  May be time to get some chains or ropes to stow in my car in case I ever need to move something like this in the future.

Hike Summary
Date:	Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Mountain:	Mt. Harvard
Hike Start Time:	5:17 AM
Summit Time:	11:09 AM
Hike End Time:	2:35 PM
Miles:	14.40
Elevation Gain:	4,498

Columbia:

I dreaded this day.  Not Columbia per se, but the day that I feel simply like a peak bagger…checking the box…just getting the peak done….not having fun.  In fact, I feared this day more than the days when I just couldn't quite summit.  I was hoping there were not be such a day, but sadly there was.  In fairness, I probably started the day in need of an attitude adjustment.  I was kinda annoyed that I did not push it for the traverse the day before, especially since the weather seemed to hold out for a couple hours.  And then I started out on the trail, knowing that I did not remember seeing the turnoff from the main trail for Columbia.  For whatever reason, there was a bit of back-and-forth along the trail for me trying to find the turnoff.  I was expecting this turnoff to be 1/4 mile from a certain clearing at 11,050', however, after not finding it for a mile, I turned back.  Then after still not finding it, I turned back up and went about 1.5 miles to get to the turnoff. 

So this added to my frustration.  After a short hike through the trees, I came to a gully.

The trail just as it comes out of the trees

The gully....which I hated...

The route mentioned that the rock was loose, which was definitely true.  I was also not expecting a trail out of the gully until a little higher, but it seems there was one that started around 12,200'.  I was sadly in the gully until 12,700', wasting a lot of time with the 2-steps-forward-slide-1-step-back dance I seemed to be doing.  When I finally saw the trail to the right, I made my way over.  I saw a couple guys that I met the day before on Harvard and they seemed to have the same troubles through the gully.  I finally made it up to the ridge, where I knew there were a couple false summits until I made it over to the true summit.

The hike was easy from there.  I stayed on the summit for a few minutes and had some lunch.  A couple of marmots were pretty bold and coming up close to me (must be used to hikers since they didn't seem very skiddish).

I know I look a little weird in this photo, but was trying to get the marmot and me both in it before he ran away...and maybe I was a little nervous with how close it was getting (not that they are dangerous....)

The hike down was still pretty slow going through that trial/gully given all the loose rock.  But despite by bad attitude, I still do love being on the top of a mountain!  Glad this one is checked off the list, but I do think if I ever do it again I would opt for a very early morning start to ensure I can do the traverse from Harvard.

Hike Summary
Date:	Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Mountain:	Mt. Columbia
Hike Start Time:	6:16 AM
Summit Time:	12:16 PM
Hike End Time:	3:54 PM
Miles:	13.69
Elevation Gain:	4,077