Bob left his friend's house at 11:30 because he wanted to be back early. Maybe he hoped I would return sooner than 1:00. I was not even at the summit until 1:14. Throughout the hike I had been texting and sending him pictures on my breaks, and did not receive a single message in return from him. In past hikes he would reply to me, so I knew he was having the same connectivity trouble on his end. I had my WiFi off and airplane mode on while hiking to spare the battery. I reversed those on breaks in an attempt to reach Bob. We have Spectrum Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

There were several fallen trees over the trail, which was easy to follow through the woods until timberline and then it became faint. Timberline is about .80 of a mile from the start. I came to a place where I could identify my position according to pictures that I brought with me from the 14ers dot com directions. On my way down I wasn't as sure about the trail at that point but a few cairns helped guide me back to the right place at timberline.

I dropped into the larger saddle at about 10:20; three hours after leaving the trail head. I thought I had a conservative estimate of one mile per hour ascent, and faster down. According to my app (MapMyHike), I had hiked 2.2 miles, so I was slower than I wanted to be, but this should mean I have less than a mile to the summit. I did not know the terrain ahead was 100% boulders, and of course it's all uphill, and that short stretch would take me another three hours!

I continued to send updates to Bob. At 11:24, my text read "2.57 miles at 11:22 am (I always included the time of my text). Another half mile to go. I won't make it by back by 1:00." I hoped he would relax and not bother to return that soon.

My text at 12:10, "2.82 miles. Not there yet. Every 10th mile is excruciating. I will be up shortly." It would be another hour.