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Hiking in CO: from 125' to 14,429' above sea level.

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jason
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Not a motorcycle trip, but I thought I'd share it anyway.
I tagged along with my BIL and a group of his friends, who take an annual trip up to CO to summit a 14er (mountain above 14k feet) or two.

This year's trip landed us near Leadville CO, and the plan was to summit Mt Elbert and Mt Massive. These are the #1 (Elbert) and #2 (Massive) highest mountains in CO and #2 and #3 in the lower 48 states (behind Whitney in CA).

We left DFW early Wednesday morning (I left katy Tuesday night) and drove there. The drive out of Texas is pretty bland. Ok it's VERY bland, but when you can start seeing mountains, it makes the wait worth it. We set up base camp between to two mountains, with the plan of doing two shorter hikes Thursday to acclimate, and then summit Massive on Friday and Elbert on Saturday.

We did the two short hikes up up to some lakes in the area. Only got rained and hailed on for about 45 minutes. Simply amazing. The first was lake Timberline lake, and the Second was Windsor Lake. Both hikes were awesome as expected, but the second was truly breath taking. There's actually two lakes up there, right about the tree line. Crystal clear and ice cold, since they're snow melt lakes, with a mountain ridge around part of it. I could seriously set up camp up there and just hang out for days on end.

Friday we got up super early and headed out to summit Mt Massive. We really underestimated it and the altitude. It was about a 7 mile hike from the trail head to the summit, and it took us several hours. I'm fairly fit and can work hard all day and push it pretty hard, but I did not expect just how much the altitude would affect me. The higher we got, the harder it got. Two of our group of 6, turned back about 13k feet due to altitude sickness. At some point a lady trail runner ran past up on her way up, and later on her way down. I stuck up a brief conversation with her, letting her know she was making me feel like crap. In the conversation she asked where I was from, Houston I told her, and she echoed what we already knew, that the altitude difference was our main challenge. She asked when we got to the area, and I said, "two days ago." She looked at me as if I was completely insane and said, "Why would you do that to yourself?!" :rofl: I just told her because I'm dumb and have limited vacation time :doh: At some point I got to where I would push for 5 minutes or so and have to stop to slow my breathing and heart rate. It was truly tough, I won't underestimate a mountain again.
The summit was breathtaking as you might expect. Totally worth the hard work. We (my BIL, another member of our group and I) decided to take a shorter trail down. That was a MISTAKE. It was soooooo much harder than the way up. Massive is a class 2, for most of it, and this way down was a hard 2 for sure. The way up was a steady accent. We climbed from about 10,000' to 14,429' over the 7 miles. This way down, we went from the summit to about the 10,000' level in just over 2 miles :eek2:.
Total miles for the day was about 11 miles and we were on the trail for over 10 hours.

Funny story, the mistake trail down, landed us a different trail head from where we parked. A really nice couple offered to give us a ride to the other trail head, but the lady wanted to "smoke a bowl" before we got underway. :eek2: :rofl:

My feet paid the price for this hike, as I ended up with several blisters, one of which was super gnarly. I had moleskin all over my feet :lol2:.
The group was pretty worn, and in pain, and we decided not to push it and we saved Elbert for another day. It was a really tough decision, but I didn't want to macho my way up and get in serious trouble on the mountain. We ended up going and playing disk golf in town. :D

It was an awesome trip, and totally hooked on CO, and I'm trying to convince my wife to move up there. I'll be back up for another 14er next summer, probably Elbert.

Enough talk, here's a few pics…

Van group selfie on the way up. I stole my wife's swagger wagon for the trip.
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Base Camp

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me on a random bridge

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Me on a big rock

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Timberline Lake, and yes some of the guys took a dip

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Approaching the smaller of the two lakes at Windsor Lake

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Different view of the same lake

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The higher and larger of the two lakes

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And from the other side

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Some times the trail bites you

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What it looked like 2 days later

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Here's a bunch from the hike up Mt Massive:
Stopping for a breather and to consult the map (that's my BIL Nate in the black jacket)

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Taking a break at the tree line

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Almost there. There was a really long stretch that I didn't take any pictures, mostly due to complete exhaustion. I may be smiling in this pic, but I was beat.

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a pic at the top, and yes, he made a phone call up there :rofl:

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Side note: the weather up there is amazing this time of year, but be sure and layer up. I went from cold, to sweeting and burning up and cold again about 100 times on the way up. Depending on the sun, shade, wind and elevation.

and a summit selfie (don't judge)

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a marmot watching us closely

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on the way down, before it got miserable. Here again, there was a long stretch I didn't take any pics, from exhaustion and being ticked off :lol2:

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And a few from the GoPro

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We backpacked the Weminuche each summer. One year I decided to drive way up high to a trailhead instead of starting low...less climbing, right? Bad idea. Wife and one of the boys got altitude sick within hours. I had no idea how rough that could be.

Great pix and congrats on topping a 14er. Thanks for taking us along.
 
:clap:

Thanks for sharing.... almost like being there... almost

Congrats on surviving it!!
 
Love your pictures. I bet the swim was coooollllddd.
 
Good for you Jason. If you get a change bag Holy Cross while you're there.

I saw that one in the 14ers book we have, looks awesome, and is definitely on my list.

Love your pictures. I bet the swim was coooollllddd.

Yeah, they said it was brisk. I decided not to join.
When we got to the high of the other two lakes, that one was REALLY cold. I put my hand in it and it had to be less than 40 degrees. One of the guys is big time into triathlons and ultra marathons and stuff like that, decided he was going to swim across it. It stripped down to his birthday suit and jumped in. Most of use were on another side of the lake trying to hike/climb all the way around. We watched him jump in and take off strong. He got about half way and slowed way down, and ended up kind of back stroke or side stroke swimming with one arm. At one point I looked at the other guys and said, "he doesn't look good, what are we going to do?" (he was right about the middle at this point. Another hiker said, "Go down and fill out a report." He was a MUCH stronger swimmer than anyone there and there's no way we could have gotten to him to save him. Thankfully he made it all the way, and once he got dressed and moving around warmed up and felt fine. He did say at some point he was truly afraid of not making it. :doh:
 
Great report, beautiful scenery.
 
I don't do as much hiking as I used to - on the high side of 60, I'm slowing down some. I did a lot of hiking in the Holy Cross wilderness in the 90s, and every square inch of it is beautiful. One really nice, and fairly easy, walk is a Jeep trail from Gold Park Road up to an old ghost town called Holy Cross City. Or you can legally drive it, but you need a serious offroad vehicle to make it over the boulders.

Jason, you got some really nice pictures; thanks for posting them. Next year, I may try a few more hikes at 12+ altitude, while my lungs and calf muscles will still permit.
 
Sounds like a blast. And dang that gopro is taking some nice shots. You may well convince me to upgrade my old one.
 
Reminds me of an my 2 attempts to climb Mount Harvard (the 3rd highest peak in CO). My flatlanderness kicked my hind-quarters on both attempts. Maybe I'll try again next summer.
 
I regret not trying for Elbert while we were up there, but it was probably the right call. I'm craving the mountains now and can't wait to go back :trust:



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Jason,

I thought Tim was going with your group and serving as a hiking Sherpa?

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RB

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Love that picture. That's why I quit going as a sponsor on church youth backpacking trips. The guides load the adult men like pack mules.
 
Love that picture. That's why I quit going as a sponsor on church youth backpacking trips. The guides load the adult men like pack mules.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
I've carried a lot of extra stuff even on small trips
I've got a pic somewhere of one of my college interns from a few years ago. Took the youth group to ride gokarts, and one of the girls asked him to hold her purse, then another, and another and another. Before long the poor guy had 6 or 8 bags hanging off him. :lol2:
 
I hiked up Elbert 3 years ago. I ws not planning to go all the way and did not start up until around 9:30am and did not summit until 2pm. Just kept going, could not turn around. Got lucky there were no storms. Amazing experience and the trip down made my legs sore for 2 weeks. Before this I had only done about a 2,000 ft elevation gain, this was about 5,000 ft. I have also driven my motorcycle up to mount Evans, 14,130ft but much more rewarding to hike up Evans. Great pictures!!
 
Our guides would put meals for an entire crew (8-10 people) in a white plastic bag, and spread the meals among the crew. After staggering up a particularly steep piece of the Colorado Trail above Twin Lakes, we stopped for lunch, which it turned out I was carrying. When I tore open the bag, it was canned tuna fish and fruit cocktail for 10! That, and I was carrying pots & pans for the crew. Argh!

That's why I'm loving moto camping. The bike does the work; I just have to set it up.
 
Hats off to you. I hiked up Guadalupe Peak and could barely breathe. I don't think I could hike up a 14K mountain.
 
I really enjoyed your post since hiking is my main vacation activity. Altitude is a huge factor in my hiking. I'm finally learning that getting acclimated makes a big difference in my ability to hike up mountains.
You have done something that is probably beyond my ability because I have found 10,000 feet is about as high is I go.
 
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