Kevin Baker, Pueblo County Finisher!

[susanjoypaul]

Congrats to Kevin Baker for wrapping up Pueblo county in just 4 trips! Granted, there are only nine peaks, but Booth and Greenhorn make it kind of hard to do that county any more efficiently. Not to mention all the bushwacking... he must have had quite a day out there yesterday, wrapping up the final four, plus a couple of extra credits.

Any words of advice for those of us thinking of attacking this one, Kevin?

[DSunwall]

Is Pueblo county in Colorado or Kansas? congrats anyway Kevin!

[DHatfield]

Congrats Kevin! That must of been a long day to do those remaining peaks. Hopefully you were able to dodge the rain yesterday.

[John Kirk]

Good job Kevin. I saw you got Booth and figured it was going to be soon for the rest.

[Steve Knapp]

Way to go Kevin, another county list completed for you. Congrats! I'll have to work on those eventually, a nine-peak county on the front range is just too enticing to ignore. Were any of these a big PITA?

What's next? Maybe finish up that 27-peak county just north of you? Jeremy and I have been alone on top of that list for too long.

[Kevin Baker]

Thanks for all of the kudos, folks! Yeah, Pueblo is a short list, but it's a huge pain in the butt! It's only 9 peaks, but the most of the peaks are choked with scrub oak, cholla, yucca, and other desert fauna. Access is a problem on some as well, with the crux being Booth on Fort Carson. It's almost a driveup with 4WD, but you have to go through a lot of red tape to get on the base! At least the list is short enough to endure, but only a handful of these were interesting.

Favorite-Greenhorn since it's the highest and is a nice, short hike. Lots of driving though if you do it from the west side. 7150 was also a cool little peak and can be done 100% on NF lands with a nice trail for the first couple miles.

Nastiest-7545 & 7635. These took a lot longer than expected because you can only go so fast when you're fighting through scrub the majoritey of the time! There is a road on the east side of the saddle that will take you within a few feet of the summit of 7635, but getting to that saddle is brutal according to Doug. I totally avoided it, but still paid the price.

Easiest-Turtle Buttes-nice, short hike from 78 and very little bushwacking to contend with.

Toughest access-Booth-I would recommend calling range control to make sure you can get on zone 39 the day you plan on hiking Booth to save you a drive. There is a recorded message telling which zones are open, but it would suck to drive all the way down there and be denied!

I would like to see if John and Steve clear out their remaining 8 Pueblo peaks in one day! I don't think it can be done because the driving on Booth takes so long and you can't check in until 7am, but I could be wrong! Just getting the other 7 in one day would be brutal.

[cftbq]

Congrats, Kevin...I'm only a bit behind you!

[Jeremy Hakes]

Nice! Congrats, Kevin! :) Fine work there.

[MikeRodenak]

Nice job Kevin! Great summary too, I like when the list finishers highlight their favorites/least favorites and access issues!

Keep them counties rolling