8 miles RT, approx. 3,950′ of elevation gain. Just under six hours camp to camp.

Last weekend, it was decided to head up outside of Leadville, camp a night, then hike Mt. Massive in the morning. It was Nate’s turn to drive, so he picked me up from work and we took off for the mountains.

It was pouring rain most of the way up (which is all good and well, but it still hasn’t rained in Denver all summer), leading to some concern that we’d be miserable setting up camp, having dinner, etc. Fortunately it stopped as we got there, and it was nice and cool. As we got to the trailhead, an unnecessary river crossing was made, twice. The water was up to the bottom of the doors on Nate’s Cherokee. On to the pictures:

Scout hanging out while we set up camp.

The main beverage for the evening:

The view from camp:
Andrew getting dinner going:
Andrew drinking, Nate screwing around with the fire:
Andrew enjoying a Backwoods:
On to the morning. There were Columbines everywhere – more here in one day than I’d ever seen combined.
Marmots:

Not marmots:

Another marmot, captured with my new lens:


Not a bad view.

Summit.
After hanging out and eating Doritos on the summit for half an hour or so, we headed back down, grilled up a few more burgers, and took off.