Triple Peak

August 15th, 2010 9:02pm - Posted By: Tyson

So I decided to attempt, what I call, the Triple Peak hike today.  Basically the goal is to do the three main mountains in Boulder Mountain Parks in one day.  The three peaks are Green Mountain, Bear Peak and South Boulder Peak.

Usually you do one mountain during a hike.  Brittany and I used these mountains to train for a year for our Everest Base Camp trek.  I never did all three at once however, so I thought I would try.

The overall trip took 4.5 hours and was approx. 7.5 miles.  I started at the Green Mountain trail head off of Flagstaff Road, in Boulder, Colorado.  Green Mountain was the first peak which took about 1 hour.  I stayed at the top for about 5 min, turned around and went back down to the junction.  The top is about 15 min from the junction that takes you back to the trail head or off to Bear Peak.  The first part of the junction goes down into the canyon down to Bear Trail Creek.  It meets back up with another junction that either takes you out and to the Bear Peak trail head or up to the summit.

The second mountain was Bear Peak.  It took 1.5 hours from the Green Mountain summit which made the total time to the summit of Bear Peak 2.5 hours which was a new record for me!  I spent about 5 min again at the top, took some pics and turned around.  The junction to South Boulder peak is pretty much at the Bear Peak summit so not much back tracking luckily.  From the summit of Bear Peak it took a whopping 20 mins to get to the summit of South Boulder Peak.

So obviously South Boulder Peak was the third mountain in the Triple Peak hike.  This was the first time for me to the summit of South Boulder Peak.  It isn't too far from Bear Peak, with a shallow saddle in between.  The final stretch to the top is actually pretty mild compared to the rock scramble up Bear Peak, so I was surprised.  South Boulder Peak is slightly higher than Bear Peak, but was easier to summit.  Green Mountain is the runt of the three.  

I spent the most time on top of South Boulder Peak because it was my first time.  Had a snack, drank some Gatorade and then headed down.  The junction to the way down wasn't too far.  I passed it half way between Bear Peak summit and South Boulder Peak summit.  The junction takes you to the Shadow Canyon trail which Brittany and I attempted last year, but didn't make it to the top.  It is very steep so the way down was a bit rough.

About 30 mins down I realized that Brittany and I were SO close to the top last year! Oh well.  You get fantastic views of the backside of Devil's Thumb on this trail.  Devil's Thumb is a very unique rock structure that looks like a thumb from Boulder.  Up close it looks nothing like a thumb, but still wild.  

Shadow Canyon was much steeper than I remembered and my knees were killing me by the time I got to the Mesa Trail.  The Mesa Trail is a wide server road so I find it kind of boring, but karma comes around and the Mesa Trail caused me to the turn off.  Ok, it was my mistake... I was lost.  I ended up on a trail that was again pretty steep and took me out of my way back to the trail head.  For a while I considered turning around, but kept looking back the incline and thought, eh, it will pop out somewhere eventually.

Well luckily it took me to the same trail head, just took more time.  Brittany was waiting for me a little ways up the trail head which was a nice surprise.  All I wanted to do was sit down, in the car, with AC, and get a hamburger at McDonalds.  I NEVER crave McDonalds, ick!  But damn I wanted a hamburger ;)

It was a great hike and I recommend it to anyone who wants a challenge.  It is great training for 14'ers as well.  I am supposed to attempt Longs Peak again in a couple weeks with Benji and Stefan, so this was a good warm up ;)

Posted in: Hiking, Triple Peak

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