Mt. Sherman / Gemini Peak

When a string of late autumn heat lingered throughout the Rockies, Mark and I decided to adventure through the unknown slopes of the 4 Mile Creek basin - aka Mt. Sherman. On a typical year, the approach to this hike would be snowed over and add taxing mileage to the flatland section. 2012 was not, however, a typical year. Between the raging forest fires, hellish drought conditions and high gas prices the snow seemed reluctant to come. My steadfast compatriot and I took advantage of this anomaly and drove up to the summer road closure in search of elevation revelations. 

Starting elevation: ~12,000 ft.  There are some mountaineers who would deem a hike nullified if the party failed to gain 3000ft on the climb, meaning that they prefer to hike an additional 4.5 miles to "summit" the same mountain. They insinuate that hiking from this gate is somehow less awesome of an experience. To this philosophy I reply: "4.5 miles of flat approach to satisfy some machismo cult of measurement is unimpressive and you're overcompensating. This is a family activity - keep it PG." Everybody wins when you're in the mountains!

 The ice sheet you saw in the previous photo was by far the most dangerous obstacle we would face. This next gem was taken prior to crossing the frozen gendarme, so that my grandchildren might know what my final sunrise looked like, just in case I didn't make it across.

Sweet.

 We hiked a bit more, and explored the Leavick Mine from a safe distance. There are old rail cars and buildings and such. Its really cool. For some reason I didn't take any pictures of it though. Maybe because Mark did? I'm not sure.

Once past the first mine, we rounded a corner and our objective came into view for the first time. Our route would take us up the left (southern) ridge of Sherman all the way to the summit.

Mt. Sherman in the distance. The old Hilltop mine is visible at the leftmost base of Sherman's slopes. Another cool mine that for some reason I took zero pictures of. Also worth visiting. 

 Once on the ridge, the hike just kept getting more awesome.

Taken from the shoulder of the ridge.

Looking east into the basin. The car and mines are somewhere off to the right of this view.

Looking up the way we came. The Hilltop mine is left of center. Horseshoe peak and Mt. Sheridan featured center and right.

 The final summit push is a long, gentle slope. Once on top of Mt. Sherman, Mark and I enjoyed some of the best views of South Park and the Wasatch Range south of Mt. Democrat.

The tallest mountains in Colorado.

Mark. Looking excited to be there.

Me. Looking more excited.

Looking east from the summit. Pikes Peak is the big pointy one on the left side of the horizon.

 We enjoyed the views and summit picnic for awhile before directing our attention to the next objective:  Gemini Peak.

Gemini Peak is the two mounds of rock on the left side (that kind of look like.... twins. Weird.) The double summit is deceiving - the actual top of the mountain is the one on the right.

Gemini was a fun little scramble. If I were in better shape, I would recommend connecting this peak with Mt. Dyer, which is the peak on a connecting ridge directly to the west. This ridge looked like a pretty accessible boardwalk in the sky.

Just below the taller of the twins.

Looking back at Mt. Sherman from the summit of Gemini Peak.

Looking north from Gemini. I'm sure these mountains have names but I'm forgetting them at the time of this writing. Fairplay is somewhere over that way. 

A view of the Gore Mountains from loooong ways away. The curved bit just below and left of center is the ridge to Mt. Dyer.

Mt. of the Holy Cross (I think)

To get home, we contoured around Sherman's East face. We quickly went into zombie crawl mode and forgot all about the camera, so no photos of Mark eating brains or anything like that. It is a family activity, after all.