June 9, 2014
Mount Lincoln was once known as Triaqua (three waters) as it crowns the region that houses the source waters for three major rivers; the Platte, the Arkansas, and the Colorado rivers. When it came down to officially naming the peak a group of miners met to make the decision. The only name that brought agreement was Mount Lincoln, in honor of the newly elected president at the time. Easily seen from Hoosier Pass and rising above the surrounding mountains this summit bears the honor of this name well.Map:
Profile:
| Distance: | 5.2 miles |
| Elevation Gain: | 2,600 vertical feet |
Mount Lincoln is a peak that is rarely climbed alone. However if that is the goal the Quartzville trailhead is the best to use as it provides great access without all the crowds of the standard route with Bross and Democrat. 4 years earlier I had brought Ellie and Keziah to these mountains to do this loop telling them we could do all of them in one day. This hike was our final chance to wrap up that journey. The girls had climbed Democrat and Cameron the first trip (stopped by weather) and Bross the second time (stopped by altitude sickness).
As Ellie and Kezi have learned, I like to start hiking early.
One advantage of the early starts is the sunrises.
They're pretty good sports about it. The only time I see them this happy this time of day is when they are hiking mountains.
This trip we also got the chance to hike above the clouds, they hadn't had that experience before. Honestly I still get excited when I get the chance.
They are getting to be stronger hikers every year, but they still love their breaks.
Sure it's just a power pole, but the image is still a humbling reminder.
When the sun finally broke we were well above the clouds and got to enjoy the warmth of the day.
Since it was early June and we were on a little used route I knew some snow travel was going to be in order. This was a first for the girls too.
Keziah had good boots and the snow conditions were perfect, after giving them a lessong on self arrest techniques they trucked right up the slope.
Ellie was borrowing my mother's boots and they didn't have good tractions so I put my microspikes on her. They took the slope 10 to 20 steps at a time between breaks. A short while later we were on the summit.
The summit was windy though and we got caught in a little snowstorm.
So we dropped a little off the summit on the leeward side for our group summit photo.
Then we did some awesome glissading off the summit.
Two happy hikers having a fun day on the mountain.
The girls found shapes in the snowfields across the valley on Bross. Can you spot the dog headed dragon spitting fire?
On the way down we took a little more direct of a route on what appeared to be somewhat of a trail. It followed the old power line and worked better than the wandering we had done on the way up.
Back near the car we found some more chances to glissade. These girls really do love glissading.
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