The full trip report is hosted on my blog. You are free to comment on it there or engage with it via ActivityPub. https://novakeith.net/2026/09/07/decalibron-four-14ers-in-a-loop/

I arrived to the Kite Lake trail head around 5:45 am and found no parking, so I had the joy of being the first to park on the approach road. I’ve read some stories about this road in years past, but luckily it was recently re-graded so the drive up was calm. I think some of that work extended to the shoulders of the road as well, because although the road was steep, I had plenty of room to park on the side. I’m just glad my parking brake works.

The hike up Mt. Democrat’s slopes are not terrible… until the final ~100 feet before the false summit. Lots of scree and an aggressive angle made for some choice language from myself and other hikers. There is a huge sense of relief when you get to the top of the false summit, because from there you can see the true summit of Mt. Democrat and it is visibly an easy jog to the top.

Compared to Mt. Democrat, the slope up Mt. Cameron was a breeze. At a certain point the quasi-class 2 stuff just disappears and it becomes a dirt trail to the summit. I don’t have much to say about this piece of the hike except I made a lot of good friends on the way up, mostly due to leapfrogging each other. The top of Mt. Cameron was a bit ambiguous in the sense that I wasn’t really sure what was truly the “top” (someone else pointed this out as well). To be sure, I hit both of the summit candidates on my way over to Lincoln. And I saw some beautiful standard poodles at the top too.

Heading towards Mt. Lincoln from Cameron is about the best relief of the day: it doesn’t appear too far away and for the most part appears unchallenging. There is a brief stretch near the top of Lincoln where you need to pick up your heels off the ground to take some bigger steps, but it is extremely brief. The view from the top of Mt. Lincoln was my favorite of the day – uninterrupted views of Quandary Peak to the north, as well as the front range to the east.

With Lincoln complete, the true hell of the day began. Descending towards Mt. Bross is straightforward, and again, this was as easy as it looked – there is nothing technical in this section. I made my way down the class 1 slopes towards Bross, and then back up as the trail re-gained some altitude. There is a notable trail junction at which point I needed to make a choice: trespass to reach the summit, or stay on the public land trail that stayed about 50 feet below the summit. I opted to not trespass today, even though I have objections to private land owners restricting access to the top of Mt. Bross. I skirted my way around the true summit to reach a junction on the south side, which is where I met the majority of hikers descending from the peak.

I knew descending from Bross was going to be a pain in the butt, the other trip reviews of this loop made that clear. But I was not expecting the absolute hell that descending something like 3000 feet in 1.5 miles presented in reality. I can’t put into words how awful this part of the day was – this took extra time and attention to not fall and injure myself or people around me. I was exhausted by this point too, and feeling a bit nauseous probably from the combination of Liquid IV and protein bars. I slowly pushed down the side of the mountain until finally, back near the trail head, hikers get some relief as the trail truly levels out. On the way out, you are rewarded with a nice waterfall as a pat on the back for the days work.

I’m glad I could knock three ranked peaks and one unofficial peak off my hiking list. If I could do it all over, I’d love to skip Mt. Bross’s south slopes. Maybe if the private land ownership piece ever gets resolved in a satisfactory way, I’ll go back to tag the actual summit and “South Bross”. But for now, I’m happy with this trek.