Hiking Around Buffalo Mountain

In a continued effort to train for our upcoming Switzerland hiking adventure, Lisa and I decided to hike in a 12 mile loop around Summit County's Buffalo Mountain. We started at the very top of Wildernest (the Buffalo Cabin trailhead) joined up with the Gore Creek Trail, hiked up and over Eccles Pass (directly west of Buffalo Mountain), dropped down onto the Meadow Creek Trail, cut through the woods and joined the Lily pad Lake trail, returning to our car about 7.5 hours later. The hike was long, but the day was fantastic - not too hot, not too cool... we started with an anxious hiker warning us that he'd seen an angry bear on the trail, blocking his path (he decided to turn around)...we continued with extreme caution on bear alert but thankfully saw none. We did, however, spot a moose (largely because we were paying so much attention to our surroundings) and a long-tailed weasel along trail - more wildlife than we usually see!