14ers!

Ok, so there are 53 mountains in Colorado that reach over 14,000ft. These are called 14ers and there are people out there who make it their goal to do them all. While I'm not that gung-ho, I do like climbing them, and I had done 5 of them last year. I wanted to do some more of them while I was out here, but I had to find ones that were easy enough that I could do them alone without fear of dying or getting lost and whose trailhead I could get to in my Taurus (you need 4wd to get to some of the trailheads). Lucky for me Sunshine and Redcloud fit these requirements, and were roughly on my way to go visit my friend Bob in New Mexico. I drove down to the trailhead on Sunday, and set up camp:



It got so cold that night that there was frost on my tent the next morning. I headed out around 7:30am, and hit the summit of Redcloud around noon, after a long, slow trek. Summit shot:



Then it was over to Sunshine, with a shot of the summit:



Unfortunately, the only way to get back to the trailhead was over Redcloud, so I technically climbed Redcloud twice yesterday. I stopped for a celebratory beer at the summit, then hiked back to camp. 9.5 hours, 12 miles, and 4800ft of elevation gain later, I made it back to the car, tore down my tent, and headed into town for a warm meal. I camped last night at Mill Creek, hoping that the lower elevation would make for a warmer night. And now I'm off to New Mexico!