I was on trail at 7:00 and was soon joined by Gaucho.  After climbing the ridge to 12,000 feet we spent a large portion of the day going around the Henderson molybdenum mine.  I toured this mine when I was a student at Colorado School of Mines.  It is huge.  When we toured it we got into a low shuttle truck and drove several miles underground.  They have pulled so much ore from this mine that the top of Red Mountain has sunk into a crater 1,000 feet deep. The mine has huge ventilators which are what makes all the racket that can be heard for miles away.  Most hikers find it annoying, but the mining engineer in me finds it all fascinating.  I miss geology and mining.

Gaucho and I had already decided to take the Silverthorne Alternate at this point. The alternate bypasses Grays and Torreys peaks which I have hiked before and is shorter. It descends the west side of the ridge on a gravel road full of switchbacks. We reached the valley floor and followed Bobtail creek to it’s headwaters. We then ascended the cirque and went down the other side where we followed a different ridge for 5 miles. Ultimately we did 20 difficult miles.  I’m coming to realize there are very few easy miles in Colorado.

At one point I noticed Gaucho wasn’t behind me anymore.  I eventually saw him far away and below me.  He wasn’t moving.  I found out later he had stopped for dinner.

At the end of the day I descended to the forest and got water from the first creek I found.  I was looking for a flat campsite when I almost walked into a huge bull moose standing on the trail.  He just looked at me and I got nervous.  I said “Hi moose!” and started moving to some trees.  It then decided to run into the forest.  It was a nice moose.  I camped about a tenth of a mile further down the trail.  While setting up camp I could hear it making these sad little sounds.  I assume it is calling for a mate.  I hope he finds one.

As I was setting up camp Gaucho came by.  I didn’t think he was going to get this far and the spot I picked didn’t have any room for his tent so he continued on. Damn – I should have found a better spot so we could camp together.