2025 has been a rough year going through personal issues and a marriage separation, living on my own again for the first time in over 13 years. Anyways, training for a 14ers trip this summer has been rough but it was done, and even felt the best I had felt in years throughout the climbs after dropping 20 pounds taking the weight off my aging knees.

As always, my trip to Colorado from Wyoming starts with a stop at the Lincoln Memorial Rest Area, as well as finally stopping at the Ames Monument and Tree Rock off I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne.

Next, came the drive to the Lindsey Peak Trailhead, in which came across the same Black Bear 3 times, down by the water, again before bed trying to take care of bathroom business during twilight, and again in the dark after starting the hike in the early morning.

I was able to catch the Lily Lake Sign split off in the dark, but not so much the multitude of trails after cross the creek that added some time but once the sun started coming up, it was pretty straight forward after that. I took the northwest gully approach, in which a basketball sized rock came down a few feet past me on the way down. I was already nervous about Little Bear and rockfall danger, especially after the recent SAR, so this rattled me a bit once I hurried back down to the saddle. Overall, a good start to the trip and a successful summit.

Next up came the infamous Lake Como Road the next day with a stop at La Veta Pass Uptop location. With the recent break-ins where people park, I made it a point to get as high as possible near the 8,500' mark, and thankfully came back a couple days later not broken into fortunately. Lake Como Road is as bad as they say with all the rocks, and this is where I developed a bad blister on my right index toe on the way down that started to hinder me on the last 2 climbs I had after these 3. On the way up, I made it my mantra to get all 3 in as safe a manner as possible so I didn't have to hike back up this road ever again.

After finding a nice spot to camp near the Little Bear turnoff near the creek, I bed down for the night to rest for Blanca/Ellingwood the next morning. The only issues for the combo was starting in the dark and my headlamp not working with new batteries not helping either. With an hour of darkness, I just used my phone as I had a solar charger to utilize once back at camp. I opted for Blanca first then to Ellingwood. Another older gentleman was on the same course as I was and ended up doing the traverse together for route finding help, which was not bad and ended up being a fun time. He was off back down and I had another night with Little Bear to do the next day. Making a fire, I burned all afternoon the dead brush around that helped keep the mosquitos at bay, just an annoying buzz as I had pre-treated my clothes and had ample bug lotion.

Little Bear was on the agenda for the next morning. I did not want to do it in complete darkness but early enough to be the first up through the hourglass, as I was anxious on rockfall danger. No issues occurred and no rockfall of any sort with a successful summit and not as many pictures as I wanted. Done is done, and the hike down Lake Como Road was a long 6 mile death march but glad it was over for my only rest day to come.

Off to Twin Lakes that evening for some decent foot and drinks to relax for the evening and overnight. I took the obligatory sleep in my truck on top of Independence Pass for a nice sunset and restful sleep.

With the harder of the climbs completed, Mt. Massive was a long but straight forward hike that saw a nice sunrise and a cool rock chair and first summit marker at the top.

Once down, I drove to the trailhead of Mount of the Holy Cross planning to backpack in to camp at the camp by the creek over Half Moon Pass. Due to some personal issues at home with what I started this report with, and thus, was late by the time I got there to have cell service to deal with that. Thankfully, this occurred because when I went by the camp sites at 4:15 in the morning, all 10 sites had a rock on the posts indicating they were all occupied. I figured all were already ahead of me but ended up being the first ascent of the day having the peak all to myself. Another great sunrise and some nice sunrays even with the increasing smoke from the fire in western portions of the state. This was definitely my favorite peak of the trip, as it felt ironic to be a Sunday morning at that for this mountain.

Overall, another great 14ers trip that increased my total to 48 of the 58 completed with another 6 on this trip. What my future holds, I am not sure at this point to include what I will do next summer. I do want to do Mt. Hood and Mt. Rainier next June in 2026 for highpoints 48 and 49 to leave Denali, and maybe doing a couple of the Elks but time will tell. All I know is, the mountains keep my mental health and sanity at check in times like these, and this is why I climb. As it is more important for the journey along the way than just the summit itself (even though, it is nice to reach them).

In all, I am satisfied with this trip and enjoying all of God's work, KEEP KLIMBING!