There are mainly two things which would bring a person to this route: the first being a reputed ski descent of Huron’s East face, the second being that it is part of the larger Nolan’s 14 route across the Sawatch 14ers. There aren’t really too many other reasons to be up here, as the Clohesy Fork of Clear creek requires a high clearance vehicle to access, meaning that this particular valley is quite quiet with respect to its noisier neighbors.
The East basin of Huron rises from Clohesy Lake. There are apparently overgrown switchbacks heading up into the basin. I didn’t find them when I climbed this in 2019 after descending from Missouri. I hiked straight up the fall line through the trees in some of the most wild, undisturbed terrain I’ve ever come across in CO. The wide talus-strewn basin one ends up is is rather spectacular, not many other places in Colorado with quite so much rock and so little vegetation. The basin is a long way of talus hopping. The ascent of the final scree slope up to Huron’s north ridge is steep and loose as expected: deal with it I guess, as one must sometimes.
Once you gain the north ridge the normal route trail is a short skip away (make sure you skip, to show the other hikers altitude is nothing to you, and make sure you play off the difficulty of your undertaking as “just a fun friggin time, eh?” , in-so-doing expressing your nonchalance towards risk through strength and competence and experience and attitude. Danger is nothing to you, right?). A few hundred feet of steep hiking will bring you to Huron’s wonderful summit. Its reputation is not ill-deserved: it does offer a wonderful position. It is a wonderful place to be appreciative.
I descended the normal route and hiked out the road to Winfield, then back to the Missouri Gulch TH. I think this tour of Missouri and Huron, or up and over Huron from east to west, either from Missouri Gulch or Rockdale or the normal Huron TH, should be done more frequently: it is not too committing, as one always has the ability to descend towards the popular Clear Creek road, and offers a full day in fantastic terrain.
