Thornton Lakes and Trappers Peak — Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018

Yesterday two friends and I hiked up here. We started around 10 30, and made pretty good time to the junction for the last scramble route to Trapper Peak. 

The main trail is in all right shape, but it appears to have been originally a fisherman's trail once it left the old road bed. That means it is steep and has all the requisite straight-up-the-hill parts, exposed roots, and slumping tread, but nothing unnavigable. Even my bad knees took it pretty well coming downhill. 

The scramble path to the summit is pretty rough. Brushy and in places you're scrambling up rock faces -- there were a couple of maneuvers that definitely require climbing using handholds. But the views are stellar, starting just past the junction to Thornton Lake, and continuing all the way. The last section whupped me -- I had to stop a couple of times, but finally did get to the top, which of course was totally worth it. 

Surprisingly, going down took almost the same amount of time as going up, since descending the scramble path was slow going, and even once we were just hiking, we were preserving our knees. Only once we were back on the old road bed could we really step out, managing about a 3.5 - 4mph pace to return to the cars. 

One non-trail related note: the privy at the trailhead was a nice amenity, but by the time we got back to the car (5 15p), it was so stinky we could smell it across the parking lot. I'm not sure what was going on to make that happen, but...yikes.