This entry will be brief: consider it a warm-up for my next post! It has been about six months since my last solo blog and I am back to being a bit rusty with the writing… but please come along as I try my best to regale you with an account of a small start-of-season outing I completed a little over a month ago.

Tyler and I attempted Raleigh Peak in Colorado’s Front Range way back in 2019 (and made a post about it!). My objective for this outing was to scale a neighboring summit about three miles south of Raleigh Peak. Standing at 8,812′, towering some two-thousand feet above the popular Platte River Corridor, “Long Scraggy Peak” was my bid for the day.

My boots hit the dirt at 7 AM. Unlike Raleigh Peak, the approach for Long Scraggy starts from the west. The first and longest leg of the hike entailed following a gated, winding Forest Service road. Known previously as the “Top of the World Road”, the forest service closed vehicle access after the Buffalo Creek Fire of 1996.

There was a chill to the piney early-morning, early May air and birdsong graced my surrounding airwaves as I followed the road east. The sun rose immediately above my peak objective, silhouetting any view of the elevation gain that would later follow.

After about forty minutes, as I neared the two-mile mark, I was greeted with a view of the behemoth Pike’s Peak, standing about 40 miles to the south.

I continued along, finding the road to gain and lose elevation along the way. Just shy of four-and-a-half miles in, I reached the remnants of a clear-cutting (or logging, maybe?) operation, and it was here I’d depart from the road and begin the ascent in earnest.

While the summit was only 4,000′ to my southeast, it was guarded by over a thousand feet of remaining elevation gain. Fantastic views of Raleigh Peak were had at the start of the intense uphill.

The small trail leading the way forward quickly entered thick forest on a steep slope. Shade had been in short supply along the road so the change of scenery was most welcome.

The going was slow and the trail became completely obscured the higher up I reached. In lieu of a trail or consistent cairns, the way forward seemed to be “just go up!”. Views of the entire front range quickly opened up as I reached the long summit ridge.

Long Scraggy Peak itself is made up of several high points, and being unfamiliar with the terrain, my spirits were crushed a few times by a series of false summits. Finally, I reached a rocky outcropping that required shimmying through a narrow slot, followed by a small class 2+ maneuver to overcome.

A few steps beyond this I located the summit marker.

The views were gorgeous. Additional outcroppings of granite along the ridge provided interesting foreground against distant views of taller, snow-covered mountains.

I hydrated; I took pictures; I enjoyed the scenery. Then, with my mind feeling refreshed, and my legs feeling anything but, I began my descent.

I made quick work of getting back down to the road and following it back to my car. As I neared the gate I looked back at the peak, which was no longer silhouetted by sunrise, and bid the adventure farewell.

Readers: stay tuned! I will be following this post up shortly with another! But until then, stay adventurous!