This was an unexpected, last minute trip. I got an invitation on a Thursday at 3:00 to leave at 5am the next morning. I was able to go so I scrambled and threw together my food. I'm glad I still had some M.R.E.s left!

We drove for about 8 hours to get to the trail head which was about 15 miles outside of Leadville, CO. It was about 3pm when we started up the trail with our packs. We had to hike over Half Moon pass and down about 1000 feet into East Cross Creek to our camp.

The next morning we got up and headed up the trail towards the summit. There were a lot of people camping around us and we even saw several groups head for the summit before we left. We passed about 8 people just on the trail, I had no idea how many people were on the mountain that day. As I was approaching the summit, I passed several people coming down. There were about 25 people on the side of the mountain going up and down.

When I reached the summit, there were about 8 people up there already. Most people we talked to were from Denver. A few were from Colorado Springs and one guy was from Grand Junction. I remembered how close we were to Denver and then realized why there were so many people up there. I talked to a couple that slept in the cabin that is on top of the ridge in photo #9. They got up that morning and hiked around the ridge to the summit with their full packs because they were going back the way that we came in.

We signed the register and had lunch at the summit before heading back down to camp. The rest of the trip was pretty quiet except for dealing with all of the mosquitos and not having any bug repellant! We came back home through Grand Junction and drove over the Grand Mesa. It was the first time I had ever been there. I'd like to take the family camping there sometime.

So, in conclusion, it was a fun last minute trip and I was able to bag another 14er. Woohooo, only 54 more to go!