On September 2nd, 2023 I summitted Mount Massive. I arrived on Friday morning at 1:00 a.m. and carefully drove my way to within about 1/4 of a mile, to the Mt. Massive trailhead. I have a Suburban (not lifted) and did not attempt to navigate some large rocks and deeper dips on the road. I believe that I could've made it but there were numerous camping spots near so I claimed one and got some sleep. Friday was a 30% chance of rain but Saturday weather was projected to be 0% so I waited for Saturday. I was up at 3:15 a.m. and was on the trail by 4 a.m. The trail was easy to follow from the trailhead and through the forest but I did make a mistake at one point where the path split and I was not paying attention and stepped over a branch which was laid across that path, which lead to the creek, and was not the proper route. Any time there is a branch laid across the path, my understanding is, that is not the most direct route or maybe not the correct route at all. I made my way up and out of treeline and at the transition point of coming out of treeline there is a significant boulder field, and is easy to get off route, however line of site helps with adjustments. I met alot of people on the route and one of my favorite parts of hiking is meeting people and hearing their story. Like the 81 year old guy from Minnesota and his son. (If I can only be in his kind of physical shape when I am that age maybe I could summit all 58!) Once out of treeline and up to the first of several false summits I would say the route finding is easy. There is a section where you are required to hike downward between two false summits and I hiked much too low and had to hike back upward for about 300-400 feet. My best advice after reaching this area is "hug the ridge" because there is a noticeable path where it appears you should hike downward (and at this point for me hiking downward seemed inviting!) I believe this is mentioned in the SW Route description. After summitting a group of us determined there was no survey marker, which sucks but someone had a sign so that helped. I grabbed a snack, took some photos and then headed back down. Going back down was much easier but keep in mind it is easy to pick the wrong descending route which brings a hiker to the Mt. Elbert Trailhead instead of Mt. Massive Trailhead. One woman and her charming pup, who left the summit well before I did caught up to me on the descent because she had taken the wrong path and it adds several miles to your hike. My quads were very tight during the descent because of the work and I had lost 30 lbs. getting ready for this hike so, I can't imagine how much more I would've struggled if I had not trained for the hike and lost the weight. No rain, a little windy, but blue skies and beautiful views everywhere! Cheers everyone and thanks for the helpful website Colorado 14ers! Until next year, Bill from Iowa ~