We took our exercise to the hills this weekend. We hit part of the CO Trail and backpacked in to find a spot to camp overnight. We hiked for several hours, with our packs all weighing around 40-50lbs. Mine weighed 42lbs, before I added food and Powerade, so I'm guessing around 45lbs. Dave's weighed in at 50lbs and I'm guessing Lucas' and Billy's were in the same neigborhood.
We left the truck around 9:30am and began our hike into the unknown. The trail started out mild, but after a couple hours it got pretty steep.
Shortly after these pics, some dark clouds began rolling in and we could hear thunder. We were getting pretty high on the mountains, becoming more exposed and the terrain was far too steep to make camp anywhere. We debated pushing over the top to see what was on the other side, but decided to retreat to a lower flat area we had passed an hour or so before.
We struck camp around 1:00pm. Fortunately the storm missed us, but I think descending was the right call. After lunch we hiked down to a stream to get some water for later and Dave and I scouted the ridge on the other side of the creek. There was a high rock outcropping a mile or so away where the ridge met the mountain and we decided we'd set out to try and get to the top of it the following morning.
The next morning we crossed the creek and climbed up the ridge and started for the base of the mountain. Here, seen through a break in the trees, we saw a view of our goal in the distance.
As we began our ascent of the mountain, the climb became quite steep and we worried for the safety of Parker The Insane Wonder Dog. There were some deadly drop offs and we feared Parker would get into trouble trying to follow us.
With the peak in our sights, Dave and Lucas graciously volunteered to hold down the assault outpost with Parker, while Bill and I made our summit bid.
The climb became increasing difficult, with a couple sketchy spots, but not too bad. About an hour later we had our victory and a nice view of the surronding wilderness. Elevation change from base camp to the top was about 1040'.
It was a great trip with great friends and when we had hiked the hour and a half or so trip back to the truck, we all vowed to return with a vengence to attack the trail with lighter packs, after setting up camp with the big packs, and perhaps assault a higher peak we saw not too far off.
Good times.
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