Stuart Peak (Rattlesnake)-June 3, 2025

Date: June 3, 2025

Participants: Tom Statz, Helena Koelle, Kora Perugini,

On a fine spring day we met at the main Rattlesnake Trailhead for our Bike, Hike-Bike, hike, slog up Stuart Peak. The round trip was 18.4 miles with 4300' of gain and took us just over 11hrs. The first 3 miles or so were a pleasant bike ride up spring gulch. The next 2 miles or so were a bike push until we go tired of pushing and we locked them to a tree on the side of the trail. After a couple more miles of pleasant hiking we hit the wilderness boundary and the snow. Luckily we didn't post-hole but the couple of inches of slush on top made going very slow and slippery. One of us was smart enough to bring micro-spikes (Kora) which helped. One of us was not (me) and brought Yak Tracks which didn't seam to help at all. For the final push to the peak we decided to go strait up which was steep, slippery and challenging but we made it to the top. Views were great. The trip up took seven hrs. Going down we took the less direct and less steep route back down to the trail. A couple miles of hiking and we were back at our bikes for the glorious and easy ride down to the trailhead and victory beers (Thanks Helena).   Tom Statz