After successfully getting to the the summits of Mt Harvard and Mt Columbia, I decided on taking a zero day to rest, wash my laundry (not that there was that much yet), soak in a hot tub at my hotel, check my gear, and decide on my next target.

I could do some more ‘warm up’ climbs of 14ers that are tricky (although not impossible) to reach from the Collegiate Loop. La Playa Peak and Mt Elbert were the best choices at that point. I could have also started the loop starting from Mt Princeton or Twin Lakes, but I wasn’t quite ready to start the big thru hike yet at that point.

So, I got a cabin at Twin Lakes for two nights so I could do those two nearby peaks. I had already done Mt Elbert three years ago, but La Plata Peak would be a new one for me. It would also be the hardest one so far this trip (due to the length of the hike, the steepness, and elevation gained in a single day).

But first, I had to replace my convertible hiking pants. Somewhere on Harvard or Columbia, I had ripped the backside of the pants (again). I could try sewing them up (again), but the rip was pretty big and added to the previous repairs I was a bit worried about doing the big thru hike with these pants. I did have my day hike convertible pants with me, but they were not as sturdy as the ones I used for backpacking. Since I had the zero day anyway, I went looking in Buena Vista for some replacements. I didn’t find any at the local sportswear store, so called around in Leadville and Salida, but no one had any in stock. There was a REI store up in Dillon that had them in stock in my size. It was a long drive to get there (hour and a half one way), but I had the whole day available anyway and couldn’t check into my cabin until mid-afternoon, so I took a pleasant drive thru the mountains and picked up a new pair.

As I drove through Twin Lakes to my cabin, I stopped at the general store and dropped off my second resupply package. By that point, I was pretty sure I was going to start my Collegiate Loop thru hike from the Mt Princeton Hot Springs area. That left Monarch Crest and Twin Lakes as the resupply points.

Settling into my cabin, I was a bit worried about the weather report being a little iffy the next afternoon. So, I went to bed early with the intention of starting the hike up La Plata Peak pre-dawn to try to avoid the weather stopping me from reaching the summit.

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I woke up and had a quick bowl of cereal before driving to the La Plata Preak trailhead, munching on some mini donuts along the way. It wasn’t far to the trailhead, so I pulled into the parking area, pulled my day pack on, put my headlamp on, and started down the dark forest road that was the start of the trail.

After a very short hike, the trail turned onto a regular single track trail that slowly climbed through the forest and then a nice meadow. This would be the most pleasant part of the day for me.

After 2 miles, the switchbacks began. They were fairly well laid out, but there did seem to be 3 sets of them each with a section of trail that made it seem the switchbacks were done. My paranoid side thought the ‘evil’ trail designers were intentionally playing tricks on hikers. 🙂

After a long climb up, I reached the ridge and saw the route I’d have to take to the get to the summit. I almost turned around.

This was not a gentle slope to climb like Mt Columbia’s ridge was. It was very steep, had tons of rocks, and the full trail wasn’t visible from where I was. Not a good combination.

After a short break, I started up the trail along the ridge. The views were great, but the hike was very slow and tiring. Fortunately, the trail became clearer as I got closer to each section, so there wasn’t much problem following the trail other than the exhaustion of the climb.

Without reading the trail descriptions, there were several false summits that could have ticked me off. But knowing the route of the trail kept me from being deceived… this time. I’d been fooled by false summits way too many times in the past.

As the summit finally came into view, I was greeted with a light shower of HAIL.

What a welcome to the summit. 🙂

La Plata Peak 14,336 feet! My eleventh Colorado 14er overall and third for this trip.

While the dark clouds had rolled in as I approached the summit before the hail started, there wasn’t any thunder and the hail was small and just lightly coming down on top of me. So, I didn’t feel like I had to abort my summit attempt on the way up and I didn’t have to run down from the summit just yet.

I took my usual series of pictures and took a few minutes to look around and enjoy the view. But I wasn’t going to take a break for a snack. After enjoying the view for as long as I could stand the hail, I headed back down.

Fortunately, the hail tapered off (and I even saw some blue skies above and behind me) as I made my way down the ridge and going down this ridge was a lot easier than coming down from Harvard.

I did see my first marmot of this trip.

When I got to the switchbacks I was again pelted with hail and then rain. Unfortunately, it was much heavier and lasted longer than when I had been on the summit. That made the hike down the switchbacks much worse than the way up.

More importantly, somewhere along the switchbacks I slipped and tweaked my right knee somehow. I massaged it a little and continued downward. A little pain as I went, but nothing that would keep me from making it back to the trailhead. But it was worrying since I had only started this long trip.

Since this was a very long hike, I had taken my water filter with me in case I needed extra water along the way. While I did run dry at the very end, I decided not to bother stopping to get a little extra water at the end. I think it was only an half hour back to my Jeep at that point, so didn’t want to take the time to stop and filter the water.

As I neared the end, I noticed the South Fork Lake Creek was running pretty heavily. Not sure if that was due to the downpour or was like that when I passed it in the dark, but was interesting.

Collapsing into my Jeep, I congratulated myself in the successful climb of my third 14er for this trip, drank a cold Diet Coke, drove back to my cabin, and collapsed into the bed. After a rest, I did get a nice dinner at the Twin Lakes Inn before really getting to sleep. At that point I was uncertain what I would do the next day.

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