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Not a 4runner 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?!" 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.
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.
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.
Base Camp
me on a random bridge
Me on a big rock
Timberline Lake, and yes some of the guys took a dip
Approaching the smaller of the two lakes at Windsor Lake
Different view of the same lake
The higher and larger of the two lakes
And from the other side
Some times the trail bites you
What it looked like 2 days later
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?!" 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.
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.
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.
Base Camp
me on a random bridge
Me on a big rock
Timberline Lake, and yes some of the guys took a dip
Approaching the smaller of the two lakes at Windsor Lake
Different view of the same lake
The higher and larger of the two lakes
And from the other side
Some times the trail bites you
What it looked like 2 days later
