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| Missouri Flatlanders on DeCaLi........No Bro |
My 18-year old son Sam are a couple flatlanders from Missouri. We come to Colorado every summer and climb a few 14ers. This year we decided to climb the Quads. We began our assault on the Quads a little before 6:00 am. We drove in from Silverthorne and negotiated the Kite Lake Road carefully in our Hyundai Santa Fe. It's a brutal road, but you can make it if you drive carefully. We arrived at Kite Lake about 5:30 am, got our backpacks ready, and hit the trail.
As we were climbing, we talked about Mt. Bross, but in the end, we both agreed that we would not attempt Bross per the note here regarding the Colorado Mountain Club and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative negotiating about opening the peak for everyone.
The parking lot was already getting full, there were several tents from the night before, and we could see lights on the mountain from people who had started during the dark. And.....it was cold. Back in Missouri the weather had been 100 degrees plus for about a week. The temperature to start our climb....a balmy 41 degrees.
We negotiated the creeks successfully and followed the well-marked trail.
There is nothing like this anywhere when you are climbing a mountain. It is just so beautiful.
We saw quite a few pikas that were scurrying about.
We hit the saddle of Mt. Democrat and Mt. Cameron and were presented with a wonderful view. There sure isn't anything like this in Missouri or Kansas
We arrived on the summit on Mt. Democrat a little before 8:00 am. Stayed up there about 15 minutes, then headed for Mt. Cameron. We got there about 10:00 am.
The difference on the tops of the peaks are incredible. I felt organizing a football game on top of Mt. Cameron - it's just that flat, big and wide. Beautiful views though. I always wonder to myself that the skies seem bluer in Colorado.
Trekked over to Mt. Lincoln and stayed there for about 15 minutes. The clouds started getting a little dark so we began our decent along the Bross trail. We looked at the sign to Mt. Bross and just said to ourselves........"Next time" and continued going back. Talk about a scree-covered nightmare. That is some serious loose rock! It seemed like forever (actually a little under 2 hours) to negotiate that downward trek.
We made it back to Kite Lake around 12:30 pm and lamented that our vacation was going to end the next day and we were going to make that long drive back to Kansas City.
My son will start college very shortly. He is going to play Division II lacrosse in North Carolina. It was a very enjoyable trip with him and he said 'Dad, if I'm not doing something with lacrosse next summer, let's do a couple more next year.' My response was 'You got it, Sam'.
Colorado is such a wonderful place to visit. I don't know about the rest of you, and I'm not too terribly religious, but when I see those views from the peaks, and those mountains, it sure reinforces my belief that there is a God. Such a wonderful creation.
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), all that is trumped by three more important things that strike a personal chord with me in your post: the love of God, mountains, and climbing with your son. Maybe all that Border War stuff can be overcome after all, eh?