Moore Park (Page 1) |
|||
|
by Jerry Cates |
|||
|
(For larger images of the maps on this page, just click on them)
Over the 1/2 mile hike from the ranger station to the fork a hiker ascends 300 ft. in elevation. That means that this section of trail has an average incline of 11.4%, or just a little more than the highest incline setting (10%) most treadmills have. The topographic map above shows the Longs Peak Trail from the ranger station as a faint black dashed line. Notice that the trail forks to the north and to the west about 1/2 mile up the trail from the ranger station. This is known as the (click on the link for GPS coordinates) Eugenia Mine fork. The north fork goes to Eugenia Mine, Moore Park, and several other points of interest. The west fork, which abruptly takes a southerly course, is the trail to Goblin's Forest, Chasm Lake, Granite Pass, the Boulderfield, the Keyhole and, finally, the summit.
The map below shows the trail to Eugenia Mine and Moore Park past Eugenia Fork (at the southern extremity of the trail). If you follow the trail on the map, you will notice that the first half-mile of trail from the fork ascends about 100 ft. Eugenia Mine itself is 0.9 miles from the fork, at 9908 elev. The trail crosses Inn Brook below the mine, at the Eugenia Bridge (9860 ft. elev.), so on reaching here, my total ascent was about 160 ft. since the fork, and 460 ft. since the ranger station. The section of trail from the fork to Eugenia Mine has an average incline of 3.2%, and is a cake-walk, even with a heavy pack.
Moore Park was another 1/2 mile past Eugenia Mine. After a short ascent up the slope of Inn Brook, the trail abruptly changed to a 14% decline, dropping some 60 feet in less than 1/10th of a mile. The rate of descent then leveled off, dropping only 50 feet over the remaining 4/10ths mile. The hike to Moore Park (9750 ft. elev.) was 1.9 miles from the trailhead, and involved climbing 460 ft., up, then descending 110 ft. down. Despite the heavy backpack, I wasn't very tired, which suggested that maybe this trip would be more successful than the others. Still, many more challenges stood between me and the Longs Peak summit. My plan was to camp at Moore Park for two nights, then at Goblin's Forest (10,200 ft.) the third night before hiking to the Boulder Field on the fourth day. I'd scheduled the fourth and fifth nights at the Boulder Field, leaving a window open for at least one, and possibly two, treks to the summit.
There were several problems with this, though. First, I didn't have a tent. My plan was to make do with a bivvy sack, which is a fine idea in the wilderness without any other campers around. But in a small campsite like this, rubbing shoulders with this family, normal hygiene would suffer. It's hard to do a good sponge bath without getting naked... Then I noticed something: this campsite had a single steel arrowhead on a post at its entrance. That caused me to think... What if these arrowheads designate single campsites for single parties? What if, according to the rules, I was really supposed to be at the second site? It wasn't clear if the individual campsites at Moore Park were intended for one party at a time. The other campsite wasn't visible from the trail, so, following the path into the forest to this site, I found a spacious, vacant campsite in thick forest about 100 yards off the trail. This was my campsite. Not being one to break any rules, I hustled back to the other site, gave my regrets to the family, and hauled everything over to the other site. Yes, I'd rather take my chances with the bears than get funky...
Next: Moore Park Pg. 2... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
|
||
