A shortcut back from Lake Serene gets two peaks.
- July 1, 2015
- Team: Julie
- Peaks:
- Peak 8124, 'Serene Peak'
- Hard Benchmark, 8126'
- RT: Class 2, 6.1 miles, 1833' gain, 4:30 hours car-to-car
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
It was a gorgeous afternoon, so I convinced Julie to go for a hike after work. I told her that we would see several lakes. That sounded good. It took just under an hour to get to the trailhead, and we were off. |
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The wildflowers were out. |
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But just short of the drop down into Lake Serene, I explained that we could do a loop instead. She was skeptical. More uphill? Note the faint elk trail behind her. |
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The elk trail made the ridge go pretty quickly. See, there's Lake Serene down there! |
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Summit of Peak 8124, aka Serene Peak. |
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We did not get a first ascent. But three of them were still full. |
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Looking across to Hard Benchmark. Hard Peak is a few miles away in the opposite direction, so I'm not sure how the ol' USGS came up with the name. |
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| From high on Hard Benchmark, this is looking back at our previous peak. Our route had come up the right-hand ridge. |  |
| From the top of Hard Benchmark, more lakes: Grassy Twins. To close our loop, we angled down and right to catch the Coffee Cup trail, then went to the Grassy Twins for a short wade before walking the trail back to the truck. |  |
But I've gotten ahead of myself. From high on the ridge off Hard Benchmark, we could see Disappointment Lake. |
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And as with pretty much this entire outing, more flowies. |
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| Map |  |
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