So i will try not to turn this into a book but i have like 60 pictures and it was a busy weekend!
Meredith and Aaron flew into Denver at 9pm Friday night. we ate some pizza and caught up and made a game plan for the morning. Dietra and Dustin along with Wyatt and Danzig who live in Denver were also going to join us on this hike.  We got up sat. and as hard as we tried did not get on the road when we wanted to, pit stop for forgotten items left Meredith and I behind everyone, its ok i caught up ;)we all met in Leadville and made our way up to the soon to be determined camp site near twin lakes. we missed the left turn up 125.5, its right after the lower trail head parking lot for those that care, instead we ended up on the road above that 122. turns out there is a crude trail head to elbert there as well! but PLEASE stop when you get to the lilly pond that the beavers call home you cant drive any farther unless you have a rig like Dustin and can 4wheel it. (did anyone get a picture of that?)
we set up camp between rain showers and walked up the road to find the trail head since we would be starting in the dark, chilled at camp and had some fun. we got up at like 4:30am sunday morning to hike elbert, we got on trail at 5:45am in the dark, lots of missing pictures from that as they did not turn out. so we took the trailhead at the pond and then came to a junction and you want to go right, then a little ways up go left then you hit the elbert/CO trail and go up, from there its the same path to the top.
here is the 14ers info
http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=elbe2&peak=Mt.+Elbert
here are our tracks
http://goo.gl/maps/qpmR5
it took us 9hrs and 51mins to go 9.5miles RT, we gained 4,263 ft in elevation. now we had some sealanders with us that took some breaks  but if you are in good shape and hike CO a ton you should be able to do this in 7-8 hrs or less.
Ken and I were on the summit for about an hr waiting for everyone to catch up, we tried to not get out of eye site for to long but when you take the twin lakes TH it wraps to the side of the mountain and you do lose sight, but you get to see the summit and that gives you some motivation!  after a great break at the summit with some food and booze we made our way back down with lose dogs to save our knees, we also got rained on and hailed on! but it was ok, the weather was great, overcast and not to hot the whole day. ok here are a lot of pictures!


camp all set up!


the lily pond


on sat, Ken and I


Aaron and Meredith on sat checking out the start of the trail


Aaron fixing the busted chair!


crud trail head sign!


trail starts out in a great aspen grove (meredith)


the group coming out of the trees for the first view of elbert.


there she be!


Ken and the pups making our way up


looking back at twin lakes


lets go!


group shot with out me (behind camera!)


we started to get clouds just forming all around us!


ken snapped a shot of me on the way up


Summit Huskies!!




summit views












Dietra and Dustin getting close to the summit!


Meredith and Aaron not to far behind them


Dietra, Dustin, Wyatt and Danzig made it!


Meredith and Aaron made it!


you gonna share that food?


Dietra and Dustin summit shot


ken and I's summit shot

must have taken Meredith's and aarons on their camera...


IAHT group summit shot!!!!


yum











time to head back down








Aaron












back to the trees

we got back to camp and packed everything up and were on the road just before 5pm. we stopped for dinner in Frisco and then got home unpacked, watched Tommy boy and called it a night. i took Meredith and Aaron back to the airport Monday morning and said good by. im so happy everyone made it to the summit, i did not want to leave anyone behind!
as for a trail report, this was one of the best trails i have been on, other then the elevation gain there are no larger boulders to move around or rock steps to climb and i think that makes a huge difference on the legs. if you are in at least any kind of "good" shape you should be able to do it!

till our next adventure...

I saw your pictures on facebook!

These hikes look so amazing. It's crazy how the summit looks so close but it's really not. I hope one day I can tackle one! I just hope my hip and knee don't give out on me before that. Lol.

How great! This looks like so much fun! Thanks for sharing your pics of the hike with us

That trip was amazing! The altitude hit Aaron and I pretty hard, but we had no way to train for it. Had we been training at altitude, it would have taken us significantly less time

I'll add my pics after work

As always, great pics Jenn.  I'm still pretty proud of myself and Meredith and Aaron for making it!!!! We don't do this all the time, so I feel great about it no matter how long it took. I do have to say seeing the summit actually made me want to give up.  I was already so sore and seeing how steep it was made wanna cry lol.  No pics of Dustin going down that enormous crevice.  Defintely not meant for non 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Our pups were dead for two days afterwards.  I think next time we do this, we want to attempt it wthout the dogs.  Danzig wasn't too happy when we were close to the summit.

Glad you guys had a great trip, and it was thunderstorm free.
Your dogs look happy.

We on the left coast are sending you some monster thunderstorms, the likes of which we haven't seen here.
This is the result of a thunderstorm and resultant mudslide in the North Cascades.
http://www.golakechelan.com
(Some navigation required to see pix.)

Wow the pictures turned out awesome! The scenery is beautiful!

Great pictures..  I wish we (John and I ) could do something like that some day.. ... But we are really our shape for Old folks lol ..  I am thinking we will make it to Colorado some day being John's mom is living in Longmont with his sister and maybe we can do a hike of sorts.   At least we would like to bring the dogs to a meet up there if and when we make it out there.

Here are my pictures

First glimpse of the mountain


Jack and Sierra playing in the beaver pond


Dawn at the trailhead




I really like this one of me




Dietra and Dustin with the boys coming up over a climb




Jack decided to claim the peak by pooping on it

I really hope you and Ken never lose your zest for life, another really great hike. What's with the shirt with the built in mittens?

Once again, fantastic pictures of an awesome trip. Sometimes it amazes me that places that beautiful exist in real life...

Hughie, are you talking about my blue long sleeve shirt i have on? they are not really mittens but they have a thumb hole to keep the shirt over the tops of your hands for either warmth or sun protection. I hope my body holds up for as long as it can so i can keep enjoying these mountains! i love seeing "older" people still hiking they inspire me
Linda, i hope you 2 do make it out soon, i would love to take you up a mountain!

Yup, the blue shirt. Never saw one like that before and I have Grand daughters from 4 mos. to 15 years, I've seen a style or two. I can see where it could be helpful, first thing I thought of was ski pole, second was putting winter jackets on before mentioned grand children!
One last thing, do you know when the survey markers at the summits were laid? Are they really old or not so much?

Not sure about the markers, that was listed as #2 so either there was a #1 that no one could find or its the 2nd on placed on the summit. People are assholes and like to steal the markers...

Just looking through this again, how high is Mt. Evens? For some reason I thought it had the highest peak, must have been something else it was known for.

14,265 feet is mt Evans, it is the highest paved road in north America!

That's it. I have not been out there since '86 and my memory is fading or writing it's own history, what ever. Thanks again.