Elevation Gain - 3,500 feet
Time - 7.5 hours
I woke up at 3 a.m. and drove downtown to meet up with Josh and Jason. While it was still dark we made our way south through Pueblo and towards the general direction of Alamosa to the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. Spanish for "Blood of Christ", it's the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. In its shadow lies the Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.
We saw a lot of wildlife as we made our way up the dirt road to the trail head. On that road we spotted about 40 deer. Farther up, we came around the corner and found ourselves face to face (figuratively) with a bear sitting in the middle of the road. All we have in Colorado are black bears, so we were very surprised to see one with blond fur take off down the hill when we stopped. A quick search on the internet revealed that black bear coloring can vary from black to blond.
The beginning of the hike was the most scenic. We picked our way through the woods following the Huerfano River. We passed waterfalls, wildflowers, and had to make frequent river crossings. The trail follows the river for a long time, all the way to the basin below the peaks, but it thins out the higher you head up the trail. The 14er in the picture below is actually Mount Blanca - you can't even see Mount Lindsey from this beginning section of the trail.
In the basin below the peaks we came across what looked like a giant sheet of broken glass. We figured that this was due to the constant cycle of freezing and thawing. On our way down the area was a big pond, confirming our suspicion that we had found it after the water had drained out but before it had completely melted and been refilled from above. I've decided that I need some new gear, because I always dislike way I look in these summit shots. We made it to the top at about 10:15 a.m., fours hours after we started our hike.
The route to the summit looks forbidding when you approach it. Even from the base of Lindsey it looks difficult. Up to this point the journey would be considered hiking - from here up it turned into scrambling. The first picture is a really good shot of the route we took. The main snow field going straight up is the way. We had to stay to the right of the snow and move very slowly since the trail is filled with loose rock. Our cautiousness on the loose rock was not really for our own safety (it's pretty easy to make your way up), but for the safety of the hikers below. Many times a rock let loose and went tumbling down the mountain. We crossed a few snow fields on the way up. As long as we went slow, the scrambling up Mount Lindsey was fun and provided no real sense of fear.
We met a four-legged hiker and his owners on the way down. There's nothing like petting a dog on the side of a mountain. When we made our way down to the saddle, I took an hour and half break in a boulder field while Josh and Jason took a detour up one of the top 100 highest peaks in the state. Personally, I know I'll never have the desire to climb the top 100, so I chose to eat a Snickers and enjoy some alone time on the mountain while they checked that one off of the list. I took the middle photo of Lindsey while waiting for them to return from their detour. It's a good shot of our route (look for the area of loose rock that funnels up to snow at the top just below the ridge) and the actual summit. On a lot of these peaks the main climb gets you to the false summit, with the highest point a few hundred yards walk away. In this picture, the second highest point is the actual summit.
This was a long day. Not only had all of us taken a few months off due to "life", the real time on the mountain when you consider Josh and Jason's detour was more like nine and a half hours. The round trip driving time was about five hours, so it put us at about a 16 hour day. After this hike, I've now climbed 25% of the state's 14ers.