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Kevin and I on a ridgeline above the heawaters of Woody Creek. A March heat flash melted out much of the snowpack up to tree line. Aspen Mountain and Aspen Highlands ski runs are visible in the background (sans snow).
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This early June three day outing was my first for the summer season. My friend Kevin Dunkleberg and I hiked from Sawyer Creek in the Upper Fryingpan drainage to Aspen coming down Hunter Creek. Technically still spring, there were still a few snowy parts I wished I had gaiters for. Finding a non-overhanging passage to the cornice-capped ridgeline above Sawyer Lake was a challenge. And climbing up out of Upper Woody Creek I did some quality postholing, up to my hips in spots. The ridgelines afforded great views of the still very snowy high reaches of the Elk, Sawatch, and Williams Ranges. The tundra was in its first bloom, immediatlely advancing behind the melting snow. Brightly colored flowers stood out against the grays and browns of the dead foliage from the year prior.
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Bye-bye Sawyer Creek. Here it goes underground and under the Continental Divide to the Arkansas River for use on the Front Range.
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Free-flowing Sawyer Creek swollen by spring snowmelt above the diversion.
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Gaining the ridgeline.
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Ridgeline gained.
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Spring flowers
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Hunter Creek valley.
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A bear above Hunter Creek. As we rounded a corner on a forest service road we encountered this large bear coming towards us just 50 yards ahead. We climbed the hillside out of its way as the bear stayed its course. A few minutes later a baby bear approached through the woods and then dashed downhill when he smelled us.
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