Democrat Mountain
Democrat Mountain was the second and last trail of the day, after Bard Creek. The start of Democrat Mountain is steep and very bumpy. It was slow going most of the way up the trail. We stopped at the overlook for a short break. It was nice to get out of the Jeeps after the bumpy trail.
Just as we were getting ready to leave the overlook, the other group we saw at the trailhead pulled into the same spot. We continued up the mountain. For the most part, the trail ends at a flat area high on the mountain. We stopped there for lunch. The trail going higher up Democrat Mountain is closed to all vehicles and the other side of the flat area turns into a hiking trail.
After lunch, we started going down the old part of the trail to the Silver Gulch spur. We found out soon it is not maintained at all. After passing the old mine with the tight turn the trail got very tight. We thought it was time to give up on this trail but there was no place to turn around until we got further down to the next switchback. We turned around at the switchback with a bit of effort and soon we arrived back at the overlook that we passed just before we had lunch. After the overlook, we made our way back down to the same parking area where we aired down at early that morning to air back up.
It was a great day to be up in the mountains. We all had a great time.
Reports from Other Days: 2
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