Me and some buddies climbed our first 14er! We backpacked from the lower 2wd trailhead, and camped that night about a half a mile past the 4wd trailhead. The next morning, we passed by the stream and fished for a while, before continuing on to the lakes. WOW! I have never been somewhere so pretty. Of all of the mountains that I have hiked, this one was by far the most beautiful. We camped that night and summited that next morning. We were running low on food, so we hiked out that same day. Luckily, there were some very nice people who gave us a ride back down to the 2wd trailhead where my car was! Can't remember their names, but they drove a white, 4-door first gen tundra. They had to break the window before we left to get their keys that accidentally got locked inside. Riding down that road with 6? people stuffed into a truck with broken glass everywhere was quite the adventure. Went all the way back to Amarillo after that. Advice for climbing the mountain? Stay on the south side of the ridge towards the top. If you can, just go straight up it. There are cairns everywhere. I have climbed Wheeler peak NM, Mt. Silverheels near Fairplay, and Atlantic peak. This one was the hardest by a good margin, simply because of how long it was. <15 miles along with 5000ft+ of elevation gain. BTW, we accidentally left a sleeping bag at our campsite. Sorry for whoever finds that. I hate finding stuff left behind by others. I guess in the rush we forgot to pack it. Ah well, we did pick up some trash on our way out, so I guess we're even? Next mountain, QUANDARY!!!!
