Spraining my ankle in spring 2023 really put a damper on our hiking last year. This year I am determined not to let the hiking season slip away - which is why even though it was forecasted to be 99F on Saturday, I was determined to get out into the mountains. I was up at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, in the car a little after 6 and at the Grandeur Peak trailhead (or at least parked along the road) at 6:35. It was 55F and a glorious morning. I was solo since H had other plans for the morning; I hadn't brought Milton because Saturday was an on-leash dog day in Millcreek Canyon.
I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow trail description: we've hiked, and posted about, Grandeur Peak many times over the years. I will say, as I always do, that Millcreek trails are always so much steeper than I think they're going to be - I was regretting leaving my hiking poles in Moab.
On my way up, I passed six hikers and was passed by two (who were decades younger than me). Most of the trail traffic early on was trail runners: fifteen of them went by on their way back down ... and only one was snooty, so that's a pretty good percentage. There were a handful of people on the summit when I got there. And also a lot of flies (yuck) so I stayed long enough to text H that I'd made it, and then started my descent a little after 8 a.m.
It was starting to get warm and also starting to get crowded on the trail. Since the top half of Millcreek Canyon is still gated off due to snow, most recreationers are stuck in the lower reaches of the canyon. That means that Grandeur Peak was even more popular than usual. As I went down, eleven people (mostly trail runners) passed me and I passed just one person. The uphill traffic, however, was crazy: 102 people hiking up as I descended - including the six folks I'd passed on my way up.
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