Heading Out...

It was such a gorgeous morning Saturday. The skies were clear, the air was quiet, and the temperature at our house when we left was 72 degrees. Bear in mind that we are just 7-feet short of a mile high, so we've got some elevation. It was lovely. Though it was an hour later than we had originally planned and hoped to set out, we were excited and ready for the adventure.

We made a quick stop in Canon City for gas, coffee, and some high calorie junk breakfast food, then we were on our way. A little less than 90-minutes later we made our junction at Hartsel. Anyone want to guess the temperature then? At about 8800 feet in elevation we were seeing the temperature sitting at 35 degrees. Yikes!! It was warmer than that when we did our early season climb on Mount Sherman! No stop this time, just a continuation of our drive in Buena Vista (pronounced B-you-na Vista). The sun was rising now and it was amazing. We could see the rays peeking over the summit of Mt Sherman and it was incredibly colorful from the haze of smoke the multiple wildfires in Western Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

Near Antero Resevoir the wildlife started were starting their morning feast. Jeff was snoozing a bit, still sort of hung over from the Benadryl, but I saw a ton of antelope grazing in the meadows. I am amazed that I didn't see any deer or elk at this time, but the antelope were still wonderful to see.

Coming into Buena Vista is always quite a sight. The Collegiate Peaks greet the drivers with a huge presence. Mount Princeton was looming this morning and letting everyone know it was going to be a fantastic day. I looked at the thermometer and saw the temps had risen to 45. Granted, we had dropped to just below 8000 feet, but still...

We made another quick stop in this town we greatly enjoy and went on to our trailhead. We had a little over 45-minutes to go. We'd already been on the road 2-hours, so we were anxious to get started. The upper waters of the Arkansas River were beautiful in the morning sun, and there were already a number of anglers out. It was a super easy drive into the outskirts of Leadville where we made our turnoff toward the trailhead. As we climbed the dirt road toward the base of the mountain we saw a very large number of primitive campers waking to greet the day. They were completely bundled up. Uh, that doesn't look good. We looked at the thermometer when we hit the trailhead. 10,000 feet (or just below) and it was 32 degrees. Oh boy...I'm not sure we packed the right clothes! Jeff was in shorts and a tee, I was in convertible capri pants and tank top, and we only had our lightweight softshell jackets and windbreaks. We did both grab a lightweight fleece on the way out the door, but didn't expect to use them.

We found one of the last parking spots (this is a popular trail) and braced for the cold. Stepping out gave us a huge sigh of relief because the amount of sunshine we had made it not too bad! I was fine in my fleece and my pants already rolled into shorts. Jeff was fine in his long-sleeves and shorts. We put our boots on, made sure our packs were ready and put them on, grabbed one more swig of water to keep our camelbacks full, and started out. It was going to be a great day full of adventure!