Trip Report - Lincoln, Cameron & Bross - Apr 7, 2005

[Layne Bracy]

Quartzville Creek TH ~11400'
approx 8.4 miles, 3400' gain

The directions in Roach no longer apply to the current roads, but the TH is easy enough to follow. Two big arrows point you in the right direction. I measured 3.8 miles to the TH, where there is a green sign on the right saying "CREST DR." Multiple signs say private property and threaten to tow those who park on the road. I decided to park "off" the road at the TH and hope for the best. A 2WD vehicle could make this drive, but in the afternoon it was very muddy in places and I was glad to have higher clearance/4WD.

My companion for the hike was Jack B from summitpost.org, an avid snowboarder and photographer.

We set off at 7:36am up the trail/4WD road. We walked on hard-packed snow or the melted-out edge of the road. The road winds up towards Lincoln's summit. We saw two bighorn on the way. Only the final 200' or so present what might be called a snow climb, but even that was under 30 degrees, in my opinion, and thus didn't present much avy danger. (What was I going to do - turn around?)

We summitted at 10:35am on a sunny day with little wind. Temps on top were in the mid-40's. We relaxed for awhile. Jack took photos and checked out possible snowboard runs in the area. We then decided to stroll over to Cameron and Bross. Bross in particular had almost no snow on top.

After another rest and photo shoot, we left Bross' summit at 1:25pm. We descended off Bross and walked the long shallow snow gully back to the untowed car, arriving at 2:40pm.

My altimeter confirmed that the TH does not quite allow 3000' of net gain, thus decreasing the likelihood I will ever satisfy the rule for these peaks. These were my first CO 14ers in April, leaving me just one November 14er away from the goal I stole from John Maki of doing one in all 12 months.

[John Kirk]

That east-side approach is one of my favorites for early season 14er bagging. There is a place you can (could) park that descends considerably southeast (about 3/4 mile from the TH) and allows for a 3k gain ascent. I'm still lacking December and February for 14er ascents .