South Boulder Peak (Attempt)

After the short hike up Mt. Moriah the weekend before, the Relevance group and I decided to attempt something a little harder. Maybe we choose *too* hard because I was totally not ready for the hike and for the first time in the mountains, my breakfast wanted to come out halfway up the hike.

The hike itself from Eldorado Springs Mesa Trailhead is 6.75 miles roundtrip and gains 2,904 vertical feet. An astounding 2,000ft is gained in one mile through Shadow Canyon (for math nerds that’s nearly a 21 degree slope), try that on your treadmill!

We met at WCON at 9am and were hiking in Boulder by 9:45am. Will, being the outdoorsman of all of us, didn’t bring any food, water, or any of the other “ten” essentials that one should take on a hike. In fact, he was going to do the hike in his cowboy boots and jeans!

About 10 minutes into the hike one reaches the staircase of the Homestead Trail.

We stayed in the shade most of the day (hence the name, Shadow Canyon), however, occasionally we walked passed portions that were in the sun, and occasionally we had to cross the “crick”.

Soon enough the trail got steeper and I was not having a good day. However, as they say, anyday out hiking beats anyday working so while I was having a good time, I definitely was slowing the group down.

Eventually we made it to the saddle between South Boulder Peak and Bear Peak, and I called it quits for the day. The group however continued on. Due to high winds and snow, most turned around, however Will and Geli did make it to the final summit ridge for a brief look over the other side.

On the way back down we made much better time and my stomach finally started feeling better. We were all super hungry but since it was St. Patricks Day, most people had other plans and wanted to get going.

This hike definitely is one of the steepest day hikes around Boulder and a good trail to prepare on for the mountains in central Colorado.