Distance: 4 miles round trip on road and firebreak
Summit Elevation: 7882' (Keller), 7846' (Slide)
Prominence: 1050' (Keller)
Elevation Gain: 815'
Elevation Gain (in Empire State Buildings): 0.6
Round trip time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Recommended water: 24 oz.
Parking/Fees: Free on Keller Peak Road
Difficulty: Easy
It was a circuitous drive from Constance Peak to Highway 330 and Keller Peak Road. The road was paved and pothole free all the way to the locked gate below the summit. I parked at the turnout outside the gate and started another circuitous hike on the road to the back side of Keller Peak (HPS #75) and eventually the summit. I left my pack in the truck for Keller. It was probably less than a half mile as the crow flies from where I parked, but the landscape had been savagely burned. I was in no hurry and didn't want to leave looking like a chimney sweep so I stuck to the road. There were two towers on top that looked roughly the same height. One was a comm tower and the other an abandoned fire lookout. The high point was where the fire lookout was. I jogged up to get a waypoint, but the lookout itself was fenced and signed as no access. It didn't look sturdy enough for people anyway. From Keller, I got to look down on Constance and across to Slide Peak (HPS #77).
When I got back to the truck, I grabbed my pack and walked a few hundred feet down the road to a firebreak that led to Slide. There was use trail on the firebreak and it looked as if it had been cleared within the last year. A couple of ski lifts ran up to the summit. The firebreak connected with a dirt road that took me the rest of the way to the summit. When I got there, it was clear the ski lifts and runs had been abandoned. A few antennae on the summit were still powered and operating. Behind the boarded up buildings was small pile of boulders that was the high point. After a careful search, I didn't find a benchmark or register. I returned to the truck and prepared for my final hike on Mill Peak.
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