My second year coming to Colorado to hike mountain peaks above 14,000 feet, and this time I opted to camp at or near the trailheads of all of the hikes that I planned on doing, so that I wouldn't have to wake up at 1:00 am to drive 3 hours to the starting point. Instead I could wake up at 4:00 am to drive 10 minutes.
For my first 14'er of the year I chose La Plata Peak, named after the numerous silver mines in the area. It wasn't a very long out-and-back trail, but it was a more technically difficult trail than the two I had done last year. For those who may not know, the different trails that go up to the peaks of mountains are given classifications, with 1 being the eastiest, and 5 the hardest. The two peaks I did last year in Colorado were 1's, while La Plata was more of a 2.
I wild camped about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, down a country road off of the county highway. I was alone in this area, and the next closest human was probably further down the country road at another wild camping site. But for me, where I was, it was dead silent. This would be my first time doing something like this, and I was definitely nervous.
After a restless night of sleeping (I was on a slight incline but was too tired to re-setup the tent) I woke around 3:30 am in order to pack up camp, and drive to the trail head. It was quiet last night, only the sound of the rushing water from the nearby river provided any sort of ambient background noise. I had dinner while looking out of the mountain I was now going to attempt to summit.
I prepared some oatmeal at the trailhead in the trunk of the SUV that I had rented for this trip. There were about 10 other cars in the parking lot, but I didn't see many people on the trail, at least not until the summit.
Yet another long trek through a thick forest to start the day. It took about 2 hours to get through the trees, and when the terrain finally opened up I was greeted with a wall of rock in front of me that was criss-crosed by a ton of switchbacks. I knew I wasn't going to make it up high enough to watch the sunrise, so I didn't push myself too hard as I went up.
As I got higher the pink light from the sunrise lit up the mountain tops and it looked like they were covered in snow, but it was early September so this was only an illusion. I may have missed the sunrise but I was able to watch it pour over the mountain peaks nearby.
The view from the top of the switchbacks was very nice, I could start to make out different peaks around me instead of being blinded by thick forests. Now I began hiking up a saddle ridge towards the col at the base of the summit. I saw lots of new plants that looked strange to me, but I'm sure were plentiful at these alpine altitudes.
Earlier I said that there couldn't be any snow at the peaks, but there definitely was some on the ridge I was hiking, albeit hidden in permanent shadow. Far below, and in the distance, I spotted a lovely little mountain lake. I don't know why, but I just love how they contrast for rocky world around them.
I made it to the summit by noon, which meant about 6 hours on trail so far. Here were all of the people whos cars were in the parking lot, meaning it was a crowded summit. I lingered for a little bit, eating some food, and taking pictures, but much like Mt. Elbert I was feeling any sort of socialness from the other people up here so I packed up my things are started my journey down, planning on it taking close to 4 hours to complete.
Unfortunately on the way down I ran out of water, and had to hike without a refill for nearly 2 hours before I came to a river back in the forest. I refilled my water bottles, but couldn't drink it because I thought I had left the filter in the car. Turns out, I was wrong, and I had the filter the entire time. Believe me I chugged a ton of water when I got back to the car.
I snacked, changed into fresh clothes, and on my way out of the area I found a much larger river where I could stop and fill up again. I booked a last-minute campground spot on the way, and got a good nights sleep.
