Quartz Ridge — Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019

My good friend kidz won't hike and I planned a rather pedestrian hike but with the sun peeking out we decided to take a chance and go for this one.  I had lost the trail on a prior recon hike past Nordrum Lookout and once again followed the flagging before figuring out the correct way to go.  Truth be told the trail is obscured and I think this has been done to discourage usage.  However, kudos are in order for whoever built this awesome trail.  I'll leave it to the hearty adventurer to figure out the location.

The trail is built on a fairly easy grade with steps, switchbacks, well placed rocks on creek crossings and even a fancy sign at the split for Quartz Ridge/Vista.  The side trip to the vista is short and well worth it.  Back on the ridge trail it quickly disappeared under the snow.  We simply headed straight up the ridge and flagging soon appeared and continued following the ridge, you just have to pick your path.  Gaiters, spikes, and poles became essential from here.  We went up and over the first false summit, dropped a short way to a saddle, then up to the top of the next false summit (looks from the road like there's one more false summit and then the top).  At this point we had a great view of Garfield as well as up both the Middle Fork and Taylor River valleys.  Snow was about a foot.  Total mileage was 6.4 miles and gain was 2700 ft.  High point was 3400 ft.  A great day to be thankful for our great mountains.