We decided to hike Mt. Elbert on kind of a spur of the moment. Labor Day weekend 2004 and none of us really had any plans, so I said I would hike if the weather was good. Sunday was going to be a bit cold and possibly some snow in the morning at high elevation, so I decided to shoot for Monday. Paul called Sunday night and said he was in. I couldnt sleep so I went to work all night and called him at 4:30 to find that he went out partying and had only been home a few hours. Nevertheless we packed up and headed for the highest point in the state, the second highest point in the 48 states for that matter. To the right is a shot of some lower mountians overlooking a high mountain lake near where we parked.
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We had a little trouble finding the correct road to the trailhead, but once we got there I pulled out the GPS and we were right at then spot that I had plotted for the trailhead. To the left is a shot of the aspen groves and evergreens below treeline in this area. You can see that aspens have begun to turn colors. Below is a shot of Paul slogging through an aspen grove.
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We made pretty good time for the first hour, then Paul told me to go on at my own pace so I left him before we got to treeline and passed a few other hikers on the way. The hike is steep and steady with very few breaks, wich made it tough on both of us. After I gained the 12500 ft ridge (knowing that I still had 2000ft to gain), I tried to hike 500 ft of elevation at a time between breaks, and that worked pretty good. I ended up makeing the 4 mile/4000ft elevation gain hike in about 3 hours and 45 min. Above is a shot of a Pica that I encountered on the way up. He was pretty fearless, probably due to the heavy traffic of hikers commonly on this trail. At the top there were about thirty people which was the most by far I had ever encountered on a 14er. I chatted with many of them as they came and went, waiting for Paul to summit. After almost 2 hours he finally got there, he is one determined sonofagun. To the right is a summit shot of both of us looking west with the Aspen area in the background. Below is a shot of Paul as he is just getting to the summit with the Twin Lakes near Leadville, CO in the background. Next to that is a shot of Massive to the North with its three peaks. After a short rest for Paul it was time to head back. After the first mile of the decent I started separating from Paul and I hiked with a group of college kids that were going about the same pace.
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Most of the decent was uneventful though I had a good time talking to the college kids and one girl from Chicago in particular. She was a Cubs fan and I am a big Cardinals fan, so we had plenty to talk about. I made it down in about 2 hours and had time to explore a bit and take some pics before Schu got down. Below is a shot looking up at Elbert (with the snow on top) from where we parked. To the right of that is an old abandoned cabin that was only a few hundred yards from the trailhead.
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