One day after completing my very first 14'er, and I was waking up once again during the pre-dawn hours to set out to conquer another mountain peak. This one was advertised as being not as long or as rough as Mt. Elbert, but knowing that I could do the biggest and baddest of the easier 14'ers made me feel more confident about this one, but we shall see...
I parked on the road after driving for two and half hours and listening to that 80's retro station. The trailhead started right from the edge of the road, so there was no official parking lot for this one. It was 4:30 am in the morning.
Most of the trail in the woods was switchbacks, and a lot of the portions had stairs carved out of the rock. This made it somewhat easy to manage but that still meant doing a lot of stair climbing, especially after being sore and tired from yesterdays hike.
There was a good amount of people on the trail this morning, and evenly spaced so that I was still hiking solo but could still the light from their headlamps.
By 6:00 am I was above the trees, and just in time. There was a beautiful sunrise and I am glad I got started as early as I did in order to be able to witness it.
Tons of large cairns marked the trail and I always love a good cairn; it makes for a good element in a photo. Most of the trail from the trailhead to just below the summit was rock-cut stairs, with the same amount of rise between steps as a staircase in a home would be, which actually ended up being pretty nice and made the ascent predictable in terms of pace.
I saw a lot of cute little critters that looked like tiny squirrels called Pikas. They were chirping to eachother as they scurried over and under rocks looking for food.
At long last I could see the summit, and the singular flase summit in front of it. Once on the ridge ot the summit the trail transitioned from stairs to scree-filled paths. There were still some snow patches here and there on the sides of the trail. I made the summit by 8:00 am! Such a faster time than Mt. Elbert by nearly two hours.
As I stood there taking in the view and snapping photos of the surrounding area people asked if I could take their picture for them, which was a good icebreaker! I ended up chatting with a bunch of people, and was even offered a free beer. I spent a good 30-45 minutes up there, and even had cell reception. Soon it would be time to start heading back down though.
Me and one other person left at the same time, and they helped set a good pace while going down. At one point they were practically flying over the rocks, and I matched their style. It ended up being surprisingly easy given how well the trail itself was maintained. I was worried about my knees, but the braces did their job. By 1:00 pm I was back down at the car.
This was such an amazing experience with an easy hike up, a great group of fun and social people, and of course a free beer. It really helped to salvage the whole trip and turn it into a really positive experience. I would most definitely be coming back for more next year.
