McClellan / Argentine - Friday aft/eve

[Jim]

Hey Folks,

I have family arriving at the airport Friday/tomorrow afternoon (2:30p). Their goal is to get experience driving a stick-shift vehicle off-road. We'll drive McClellan / Argentine so we're heading from the airport directly to the trails (a stop for drive-thru in Idaho Springs). If anyone wishes to jump on that'd be welcome. I figure trailhead by 4:30p.

With sunset at 6:30 / dark at 7p we most certainly will finish in the dark. Initial plan is to head in/up the creek to the McClellan lookout - sunlight - a quick peek at the mill but unknown if we'd spend any time there. Jump to Argentine (or McClellan if plans change with Argentine first) would be a last minute yea/nea. Out via the easy/wide old railroad path.

If anyone's interested - holler up!

[Jim]

A curious evening at McClellan / Argentine!

Picked up family at the airport and we trekked straight to the trails. The clouds with a little precip made for a darker time. We went up the creek and crossed over and went straight to McClellan hitting the vista point about 6:50 (Sunset at 6:30). With the clouds it was decently dark. We saw one camper down by the creek. We were surprised to see, nearing the top for McClellan, HEADLIGHTS ahead of us - heading up the last pitch. Those folks waited for us at the top before they headed down.

At Waldorf we saw one other vehicle - parked - nobody around as we headed up to Argentine (well past dark). I wasn't following the electronic MVUM as "how could there be a wrong turn" - well I made two wrong turns. The first was a 100' dead end that had a set of four from the parked vehicle - out camping. Later up Argentine - another wrong turn - one of the dead enders that went up the valley. A minute or two to back track and follow the map. More lights on the jeep might be good. Up to the pass - we looked over into the black abyss - but there was one solid white light down there from a camper. Looking east we were looking down at the lights of Denver - odd that they can be seen from Argentine. Spots of precip - snow up high passed here and there. We worked down and out via the railbed making it home to FoCo at 12:30a.