So i headed out with my husband, my friends mom, her boyfriend and the pups to hike another 14er in prep for Mt. Elbert in 2 weeks.
track info:
http://goo.gl/maps/qJ9NV
we made pretty good time, 6.5miles in 5hr 50min. gained 3,481ft. now this is the section i will take to bitch a little bit, move to pictures if you want.... i asked my friend to meet us at 7am, thinking we all move at a good speed we can start later then 6/6:30am, well when you get there and are ready on time and your friend is no where in site you wonder whats up, yeah they parked at the LOWER parking lot and were waiting for us... 30min wasted!! so we got a 7:30am start, and the weather report was wrong and it was WAY hotter then it should have been for that time of day in the mountains, i was striping layers off so fast. i also am gaining a dislike for 14ers and now understand why Eddy hates them, i miss hiking 13ers. hiking a CO 14er is like being part of an ant train up a mountain, single file line on a thin track and if you move slow you hold up the rest of the line. I cant tell you HOW many people i had to ASK to move over and let us pass, come on people you can feel and hear my dog on your heels, just pull over to the side for a sec. its like driving on a mountain pass either up or down and there is that one car going so slow and there is no way to pass them and they are to thickheaded to just pull off to the shoulder and let everyone else that knows what they are doing drive. after elbert im going back to my quite mountain trails for the rest of the season!

for you CO peeps that may do this, best thing is to take I-70 to the trail head early (drive up the road and park on the side, dont go in the bottom lot unless you have to) and avoid the people and weather, it is all exposed. bring even more water then you normally would on a hike for the dogs there are no streams or snowpack, we used up 3.5liters of water on the dogs before we were down. keep you dog leashed, there are lots of goats up there and rocks to fall off of on the sides. oh and its a incline trail to start, no letting up till your on the top. to avoid the traffic on I-70 go home over hoover pass and take 285 home.

ok now for some good pictures



so many goats!!!






summit always seems so far away




ken and sierra


almost there


summit




family summit pic










watching a storm build


this lady.... she was the most unhappy hiker i have ever met, got pissed i asked her to move over so we could pass then we took a break a bit later and she passed us then we caught up to her again and jack brushed her leg and she mumbled something under her breath and gave me the evil eye! at least my dog is on a freaking leash lady and if your this pissed off what are you doing up there!!!


ken heading back down, Sierra pulled him on his ass a few times on the way down.


more goats


never a good sign




brush any one?



ok, next post will be about Mt. Elbert, Colorado's highest peak and we will see if Meredith, Aaron, Dierta, Dustin and Ken make it to the top, they have all been warned that the only reason i will turn around is weather!
till then....

Those goats look huge!

How do the dogs do with that rocky of a trail? And sounds like that lady woke up on the wrong side of the Mountain that day!

dogs did fine on the trail, it was ken and I having issues keeping our footing while they were dragging our asses DOWN the mountain!!! Sierra seems a bit sore today though and Jack is still passed out, they have much training as do i in the next 2 weeks to get ready!

the goats were BIG, there was even a cute baby to   S&J did not seem to care about messing with them thank god!

The goats are cool. How rocky that is, I'm not sure I would enjoy that so much. Granted, I've never had any mountains to hike living in Louisiana.

I definitely know what you mean about the dogs pulling you on your ass going downhill! Bodhi gets confused when I start yanking him back and swearing.

My feelings about mt. goats have changed since that hiker was gored to death by a goat in Olympic National Park three years ago. I'm a lot more wary now.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/105133154.html

Why that's really sad about that man being attacked. when we were heading down 2 people warned us the one goat was not being friendly and with it near the trail we stopped, were going to anyways as ken had to pee, but there were others warned that kept walking with no regard to the close goat... by the time we were ready to move the goat was way off the trail. i never mess with wild life that out weighs me!

im getting real tired of all the comments from others about cheating going up hill with the dogs pulling us, my standard reply is now, well they pull our asses down the trail to! and sure enough some witnessed that yesterday and were like, man you were not kidding, as im sitting on my ass on a hard rock!!!


the trail it self was made up a packed small/med rock, large rock steps and a shit load of lose small rocks and dirt

That did sound like a rough hike with all of the people. Lol that lady is texting on a 14er, probably did that the whole way up too causing human traffic jams haha I can't imagine her passive aggressive driving skills, nasty lady. Sucks your friend got mixed up with the parking lots. Starting late and going against the plan is never fun. I agree with the 13ers, I feel like the 14ers are congested and it takes away from the experience and nature. Lucky you saw some goats, haven't seen any yet. Oh and Mt. Elbert is the tallest peak here in CO right? Looking forward to that post as well.

I don't care if it is cheating, if it means getting to the top of Elbert I'll happily have Jack and Sierra pull my ass up there

Hey I can't really see in the pictures, what type of backpacks do the dogs have on? And have you been happy with them?

Great pictures!

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun asides from that grumpy lady. Great photos!

Sadie, they are ruff wear packs, best thing on the market for the hiking we do.

And yes elbert is the highest peak in co