Peak 6, Peak 5, Peak 4 and Peak 3

One of my goals for the time that I am living in Breckenridge is to climb all of the numbered peaks in the Tenmile Range (Peaks 1-10). So far I have climbed 7,8 and 9. Today I tackled 6,5,4 and 3. I started my hike near the base of Peak 8 of the ski resort and started hiking up on cross country ski trails. There is no real trail to the top of Peak 6, so I followed old logging roads as high as possible and then bushwhacked through the trees and snow until I reached treeline. It was a simple climb up a ridge to reach the top of Peak 6. Peak 6,5 and 4 are connected by a gentle ridge with not much elevation gain between the three. Part of that hike follows the Colorado Trail as it crosses the Tenmile Range. This area is not heavily traveled at all. I was the very first person to sign the summit register in 2005 on Peak 5,4 and 3. One of the registers went back to 1997 and had only been signed by a few dozen people. Pretty amazing considering how close these peaks are to Breck, Frisco and Copper. I descended a snowfield off of Peak 3 and began hiking out to the highway. I hadn't paid much attention to the map when planning the hike and was shocked to discover that I had nearly 6 miles of hiking to go until I reached the road. It was a long way out with one nasty hill with about 3 miles to go. I ran out of food and water, but reached the road about 10 hours after I had set out in the morning. I caught the bus back to my condo, thoroughly exhausted. The hike was about 14 miles which is probably one of the longer hikes I have ever done in a single day. It was fun though. It is cool hiking peaks that are so close to civilization, yet few bother to attempt them.