It was inevitable that I would eventually find my way to Mt. Elbert, Colorado's highest summit. It's only five miles south of Mt. Massive where I'd spent the previous day, so today was Mt. Elbert's turn. I decided not to use the ever-so-popular North Elbert Trail starting from near the Mt. Masssive TH - that one seems to get about 90% of the traffic and this is probably the state's most climbed 14er. Instead, I used the South Elbert Trail that might more accurately have been called the East Elbert Trail. The regular start makes for a longer hike than the North Elbert Trail, but by using the 4WD TH, I could cut off two miles each way, making it shorter than the North Elbert Trail, about 7.6mi with 4,000ft of gain. Of course just going to Elbert and back would make for a short day, so as usual I had to hunt up some bonus peaks. South Elbert and Bull Hill did nicely in this department, keeping me occcupied for the better part of seven hours.
I spent the night camped just off the access road to the 4WD TH. Unlike the
previous night, there were only a few cars that drove by. In the morning I was
up and drove the remaining 1.5mi to
the TH in the dark, finding only a few cars
there. Most of the road is in decent shape, with the crux coming at a wide
creek crossing and then some pretty rough road just before the end.
It was obvious that this was a far less popular way to
climb Elbert. The South Elbert Trail shares about half a mile with the Colorado
Trail before 
forking off
on its own. The initial 2mi or so are through forest
before opening up with meadows and eventually above treeline. The Colorado
Initiative folks have been working on 
improving
this old and well-worn trail.
There seems to be a great deal of money, time and effort being poured into it.
The steepest portions have been rerouted, with some restoration effort made on
the old trail sections. Large 
wooden barriers
have been erected in places to
keep the riff-raff from cutting the trail, but I found them to be far more of
an eyesore than the resulting shortcuts would be. Oh well, they didn't put me
in charge, so I shouldn't complain (too much).
Using Gerry Roach's Colorado's Fourteeners guidebook, I had decided to
make a loop of things by first visiting South Elbert. To this end, I left
the trail around the 12,000-foot level and traversed into and across
the 
Bartlett Gulch drainage
heading southwest. The idea is to get on South Elbert's NE Ridge
and climb to the summit from there. As I was crossing
the gulch (really just a
wide, very pleasant meadow-y area in the upper reaches), I decided to skip
Gerry's instructions to jump on the ridge southeast of Pt. 13,227ft. This looked
like some tedious, rocky work from my view. Instead, I decided to climb a
grassy slope to 
a small saddle SW of Pt. 13227ft. This would
give me more time
hiking across the green meadows and give me less rock work. Not that I would
have any shortage of the latter. Once at the saddle, I had a steep,
1,000-foot climb
in less than 2/3mi. It wasn't bad as the footing was pretty good, but it
was tiring. As I was making my way up, I spied another hiker on the next
ridge to the south, probably having come up the Black Cloud Trail (the REAL
South Elbert Trail). His ridge had a far more pleasant gradient but a longer
distance, and I would leave South Elbert before he arrived.
It was almost 9a by the time I topped out on 
South Elbert. Mt. Elbert
can be seen about 300ft higher to 
the northwest, though there is also
a several
hundred foot drop between them along the connecting ridgeline. There is a
super fine view of 
La Plata Peak
to the south (tomorrow's scheduled 14er). To
the southwest was 
Bull Hill,
the lowest of the day's summits and my next
objective. There is a 600-foot drop to a saddle, followed by 400-foot climb to
the summit. This would add an extra 1,000ft of gain and 2mi to the loop
described by Roach in his guidebook. I was hoping I might find a use trail
heading out to Bull Hill, but alas, it was not to be. Instead, I had a
cross-country jaunt of rock slopes mixed with some vegetation. The vegetation
seemed more pronounced along the top of 
the ridge,
so I followed this for the
most part. Yesterday's fierce winds were a little less so today, but it was
roaring over that ridgeline between Elbert and Bull Hill. So I had a tradeoff
of more wind for more vegetation which I vascillated between depending on how
cold I was feeling.
I reached 
Bull Hill's summit
(btw, Bull Hill is Colorado's highest named hill,
only outdone in the lower 48 by Mt. Shasta's Misery Hill, 100ft higher) by
9:50a, quickly taking a few 
pictures
before ducking back out of the wind. It
would take another hour and twenty minutes to make my way between
Bull Hill and Mt. Elbert,
fighting with the wind for much of the time. I was perhaps ten
minutes from Colorado's highpoint when I crossed paths with two other hikers
heading back down the Black Cloud Trail (it's not much of a trail from South
Elbert, but its better than nothing). One of them commented encouragingly,
"You're almost there! Just a little ways still." I found this more annoying
than helpful, but I smiled and returned, "Thanks." I mean, I could see
the summit in front of me, right?
Elbert's summit was 
populated by the expected large crowd.
There was a sort
of queue for people to take a picture at the highest point with a summit sign.
Other's were huddled behind rocks on the leeward side, snacking, cell phoning,
and chatting. My summit visite was exceedingly short - I basically walked
across the summit, snapped a few 
pictures
without even stopping and then went
looking for my exit down the South Elbert Trail. I found a surprising number of
folks still making their way up the trail, but like yesterday, today was a good
day for a late start. There was no threat of eletrical activity aloft and a
late arriveal at the summit when it was a little warmer would help take the
sting out of the wind. The new trail work did not extend to the upper 1/3 of
the mountain as yet. One could see places where it was
badly needed, and indeed
they are reworking this rutted section currently, the new trail segment just
not yet open for business. It would be nearly 1p by the time I returned to
the TH,
just about the right amount of exercise, by my reckoning. Yesterday's
outing was 2hrs longer and quite a bit more tiring, so it was good to get more
rest today. Shower, and back to Leadville - meeting up with Eric and Leroy this
afternoon.
Continued...