Mt. Elbert / Mt. Massive Camping Trip - Day 2

August 3rd, 2010

Well for Tuesday I got up early and headed to Emerald Lake to do a little fishing. I took Mable with me and she just sat and whined. So I took her back and put her in the truck. I will tell you I threw everything I had in my arsenal and didn’t catch a damn thing. Several times I could even see the fish following the lure up to the bank and then turning away.

Even without catching a fish, the morning wasn’t a total loss as I had one of the best laughs I have had in a while. Let me see if I can put it in paper as funny as it was to me.

While sitting on the backside of the lake, I could hear voices of others making their way up from the parking lot. From what I could tell from across the lake it was 5 teenage boys. They were loud and yelling to each other as they all picked a spot to fish. So after listing to them ramble back and forth for a while, all of a sudden one of the boys on the end jumps up, yelling and screaming BEAR, BEAR!

I looked over and all I could see what a big fat round all black Labrador dog. The two kids sitting closest to the boy who thought he had seen a bear were also running half-way down the lake shore. I laughed so hard I was rolling. So was the owner of the dog who starting calling the dog to come back.

Oh, man the four boys really started ripping the kid that shouted bear. The entire episode was hilarious!

It was now about 11am and I decided it was time for me to move on. To go back I had to swing past the kids. As I came across the first one I noticed he had KU shirt on, another had on a Goddard High School shirt. One asked me if I had any luck and I replied no it’s not like Bass fishing in KS. They all perked up and told me they were from Goddard KS. Goddard is very close to Wichita where I lived for a while and often visit family there. I finished with telling them to watch out for those pesky bears! We all laughed.

Being almost lunch time I decided to drive over to Leadville and get some lunch. Also I wanted to get cell phone reception so I could see the morning’s emails. Not that I was going to do anything with the email but just felt like I needed to stay in the loop.

I parked on Main Street and decided to walk the street and get some coffee, lunch and check out a few of the shops. I had some luck as I found a Colorado 1931 license plate in excellent shape. Once I get the Model A on the road I will have this plate registered.

I was back at the campsite around 3:30pm. I went ahead and built a fire and then decided to try my luck fishing in the stream. Again no luck! Maybe it was from all the rain that we had the day before? Last year in September I managed to catch several fish.

The menu for the night was baked potato and steak. Everything turned out perfect and was one of the best meals I had had in a while. Plus I was really hungry and they may have helped everything taste as good as it did.

Luckily no rain this evening and I just kicked back by the fire with the whining dog sitting on my lap. Bed time was about 10pm as I planned on hiking on Mt. Massive the next day.

Mt. Elbert / Mt. Massive Camping Trip – Day 1

August 2nd 2010


The following day after returning from Cripple Creek I packed up my truck with all the essentials you need when camping. I had way too much camping gear and didn’t use half of it. I keep the camping gear for the family in plastic boxes in the garage. It was just easier to load the boxes so I was to make sure I had everything I needed. Didn’t need four rain ponchos but I needed one, stuff like that.

I hit the road about 10:15AM and was in the campsite I had chosen by 1:00PM, so I made pretty good time. I had to stop at the Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista to get a burrito. They have some decent Mexican Food and worth the stop. I can’t think of a time that I hadn’t stopped in, if I was coming or going that way.

I camped in the Half Moon Campground and had spot #1. It was a decent spot and was kind of surprised that no one had claimed it. It was a Monday though. The only thing that was a bummer was that I had to carry my stuff down a hill about a 100ft. I thought of it as a decent way to work out.

By 3:00PM on Monday I had camp setup and was ready to start enjoying the peace and quite and being unplugged for a while. Well the peace and quite didn’t last long!

I made one big mistake and I won’t make it again. I took our littlest dog Mable with me. She has done great on the trails around here and is overall usually a great dog. But OMG, all she did was whine and whine. She would stop at night when we were in the tent and for the most part of the trip she spent her time in the truck. I put a pillow and towel down for her and she would finally stop and sleep. I’d be sitting on the bank of the lake and she would just sit there and whine. Just sitting around camp she just whined. Very annoying! She did stop when we were on the trail hiking so that was a relief.

After camp was all setup and the wood stacked, I drove down the road to check everything out. Even for a Monday, I was surprised at the number of campers and hikers. It was actually pretty active all four days I was there. Both the Elbert and Massive trail head parking lots were full and you had to use the overflow area. It started to sprinkle so I decided to head back to camp and get the fire going. By the time I was back the light sprinkle and turned heavier. So I grabbed one of the four rain poncho’s and put it on. With a little work in the rain, I got the fire going. The rain letup to a sprinkle again which was nice.

The meal for the evening was bratwurst. I cooked four of them, ate three and gave one to Mable. That shut her up for about 60 seconds. After just kicking back by the fire in the rain and having a few cold ones I headed into the tent around 8:45PM. Didn’t take long to crash, but the old ears were pierced for any strange sounds. I didn’t have to worry about that to long as it started raining harder and I think it finally quite about 2 or 3 in the morning.

Mt. Elbert Trip

I left the house about 10am on Wednesday and headed towards Leadville. It was snowing as I was going through Woodland Park, but once past the pass the snow cleared and it was just overcast. Found a decent campsite, unloaded and setup camp. Built a fire and checked out the surroundings.

Made it up to Mt. Elbert and had a great time. It was cold, damn cold. I about froze to death at the top of the Peak and couldn’t wait to get down. The wind was blowing and a couple of time it just about pushed me over. The snow was fairly deep in area’s that had drifted over. Didn’t have a need for the snow shoes

I made my first attempt of doing a video documentary of my trip. Unfortunately I still have some bugs to work out as the camera I was using didn’t pick up the sound to well. I will try again in the next couple of weeks.



After doing Mt. Elbert and being in the cold, I decided to put a hold on Mt. Massive until summer or at least a day with sunshine.

Going Camping

I have scheduled time off work for this Wed, Thu and Friday. I have already gotten everything together and will just need to hit the store to pick up some food and get some firewood. So the plan is to head out early AM on Wednesday up to Half-moon Creek by Leadville and hike Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive.

Of course it will be fun to see if the weather is going to cooperate for this. It looks like we may have some snow dustings Monday and Tuesday up where I’m headed. I doubt that there will be much, but may prove interesting once I get up on the peaks.

Rocky Mountain High

My travel schedule is about to pick up for the next few weeks. I have been trying to figure out if I can get one last big hike in before the summer is over. But I may be too late as summer is over or at least that’s how it feels with the rain and cool temperatures we have been having.

Once I figure out the schedule I am thinking about doing Mt. Elbert (14,433 ft) and Mt. Massive (14,421 feet) outside of Leadville, CO. These are the two highest Peaks in Colorado with Mt. Elbert being the highest point in Colorado and the second highest in the lower 48. A few stats on both Peaks are as follows:

Mt. Elbert
Length: Approx. 8.75 miles roundtrip
Highlights: Highest Peak in Colorado, Great views of Leadville, Twin lakes, Mt. Massive and the intrinsic satisfaction derived from standing on the second highest point in the continental U.S.!
Difficulty Rating: Advanced
Elevation Gain: Approx. 4,700 ft.

Mt. Massive
Length: Approx. 14.5 miles roundtrip
Highlights: Second highest Peak in Colorado, Great view of Mt. Elbert and the intrinsic satisfaction derived from standing on the second highest point in Colorado!
Difficulty Rating: Advanced
Elevation Gain: Approx. 4,410 ft.

To get both Peaks done will require a day for each. I am going to camp out for three to four nights up along Halfmoon Creek. I figure the first day I will setup camp and do some fishing in the creek and Turquoise Lake. Day #2 will be up Mt. Elbert, Day #3 up Mt. Massive and on day four will be a little more fishing and then break camp and head home.

At this point this is all just big talk. Will keep you posted on how this trip comes together.

I took the picture above from the backyard this afternoon. I worked from home today as we were having some work done. I was working on the back porch when this Eastern Black Swallowtail flew by and landed on a potted plant.

Eastern Black Swallowtail
Papilio polyxenes

The Eastern Black Swallowtail is found throughout the Midwest and Eastern North America. The wings are a beautiful combination of black and blue, with orange and white spots. This swallowtail is smaller than most, with an average wingspan of 3”.