Huron

This past weekend I hiked a 14er for the first time with a dog! Dempsey and I climbed Huron Peak (14,003') near Leadville, Colorado. We also brought along Dempsey's person, Seth. I climbed this peak in 2006 with Lisa but took the non-standard route and ascended the back side of the mountain.

On this 11-mile round trip hike (taking the standard route) we gained 3,800' of elevation and ultimately achieved the summit! I was too nervous to take my Subaru on the 2.1 mile 4-wheel-drive road, so we walked it. I felt ok about that because we saw nothing but trucks and jeeps at the trailhead and passed bits of cars on the road on the way up. After the road portion, the hike pretty much went up, steeply at times, for the rest of the way. We started at 6:00 am, and hit the top right around 9:00 am. After a night filled intermittently with sleep in a tent, 6:00 am felt quite early:

The sky was clouded for most of the ascent and there was still ice on the creek in some spots. It even snowed a bit just after we departed the summit. Overall though there wasn't much snow - a complete departure from last year's snow situation.

Summit shots - this was Seth and Dempsey's first 14er and they did great!

The Three Apostles were stunning from the summit:

The hike out was a slow back and forth down switchbacks to get below treeline and back onto the road. We were treated to plenty of flowers and more amazing views on the hike out:

We were packed up and back on paved roads by noon.  All in all, a fantastic way to spend a Saturday morning.