In Search Of The Perfect Mountain

Add Heading Here

8/3

Andy (my brother) asked me to set my watch alarm for 5 A.M. I did. Problem was that I had never set my watch to mountain standard time. We got up at 3 a.m. local time and headed into Independence Pass. We stopped at the top of the pass and got out to look at one of the most spectacular night skies we had seen in a very long time. Every star was visible and we were treated to multiple shooters. Just incredible.

We drove down to Double Lake and had a nap while we waited for the sun to come up. Then we headed over to the TH for South Mt Elbert trail. A pancreas jarring 2 mile ride in 4WD up a dirt road and we were hiking.

The weather threatened all the way up but held for us. It was a helluva a walk. We were in and out of clouds all the way up. Just when we were certain that we only had another 1000 ft to go we hit the top. There were 3 women and 1 guy up top….not nearly as crowded as I had expected given the number of people we had seen on the way up. I guess a lot of folks hike the mountain but very few made it to the top.

We fired off a few photos. Chatted with everyone up there. Oh yeah, while we were there a little 13 year old girl summitted without the rest of her group. Seems she got tired of waiting for them and just went for it. She was our favorite. Anyway, we headed down while the weather was still with us.

About half way down the thunder started rolling and the lightning started flashing and crackling and the rain began to fall.

We headed into Leadville to Wild Bill’s for another burger. While we were waiting on our order our 13 year old hero came in with her entire group. We were happy to see her again. Her dad came over and congratulated us and we complimented him on his daughter’s drive. He said, “She was just unstoppable. She put her head down and just went on ahead.”

We want to be like her when we grow up.