re: Colorado Mountain Town Mid September

It's okay. Nobody expects the weatherman to be right.

Checking forecasts for hiking La Plata tomorrow. 14ers.com peak report shows thunderstorms arriving after 10am. Open Summit dials that down a bit and shows precipitation and thunderstorms arriving sometime between 12-2. Anything further we should consider before committing? I’m still a little skeptical with the weather tomorrow unless unless it’s the standard afternoon lightning & thunderstorms. Plan to arrive at the trailhead between 4:30-5, at the latest.

Today ended up clearer than expected rain wise. Got out this morning hiking Mayflower Gulch, however, I ignorantly wore shorts and a t-shirt and froze my arse off in the wind. Mining ruins were pretty awesome to witness a small piece of CO history. There was a giant steel cable draped across the entire gorge connecting a mountain side mine shaft to a mine tower in the valley below. We apparently missed some mine shafts and mountain goats if we continued up a few switchbacks above, but it was cold. Will work on posting some photos from my camera later.

Was about to post in here for a weather forecast. Think we’re doing Elbert, forecast for storms around 12pm according to mountain-forecast.com

Which route are y’all doing Elbert from? Southeast on the Black Cloud looks interesting, but tough. Also, bring more water than you think and some Gatorade helps. I nearly finished my 2.5L pack last week on Hope Pass.

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Was about to post in here for a weather forecast. Think we’re doing Elbert, forecast for storms around 12pm according to mountain-forecast.com

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12 pm is a reasonable assumption for storms to start. Elbert especially can be really tricky because it's open on one side. Elbert has been catching some early storms (10-11 am) on the heaviest rain days, but it looks like a lateish moisture return tomorrow.

I'm thinking an afternoon spark when the moisture returns for storms. At this point, I'd say you want to be below the treeline by 2 pm as a hard limit, and keep an eye on conditions.



This is what trouble starts off looking like. Those sorts of clouds popping up over the mountains mean you got an hour or 90 minutes at most to get below the treeline. Sometimes the storms will fade and you'll cuss the decision, but more often than not you'll be glad to be not dodging lightning on the bald face of a 14er.

If the wind starts getting gusty on you, probably time to head down. Most of the time that means you have storms starting to form above you or migrate your way.

Seeing fog in the valley below, well that is good. Means there's an inversion and not seeing a lot of rising air yet.

I'll know if I'm wrong tomorrow about as soon as you all will. I can see Elbert from the house and I know La Plata is tucked right behind Rinker.

I will most likely do an update tonight with the 00z suite of CAMs get run.

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jordan21210

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What are you driving?

I know a way to cut off a mile from the South approach if you have an AWD vehicle.

ETA: There's a forest service road that hits County Road 24 right next to the South Elbert parking lot. There's some dispersed camping off the following dirt road, so if you see tents you done fricked up.

Follow the road back to the second south elbert trailhead. Area is called the Lily Ponds.

It's narrow, rocky, and I'm sure the recent rains have done the road no favors. I've got a Forester back there before and managed to back it out like .2 of a mile, so you don't need a wrangler. Just wouldn't advise it for a visitor to the area unless you have a good AWD vehicle. Not going to have it be my fault if you get stuck.

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We’re in a Kia Sportage AWD, so think we can tackle some moderate terrain. Other group were with is in a VW Jetta wagon, think it’s AWD but if clearance is an issue they’re probably a no go.

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Unless the rains have really fricked up the road, I think you could get the VW back there. You can get an Outback back there. I'd just let you be the lead car and try to pathfind for them, not that you really have much space to do more than drive forward.

You're not on the side of anything steep either, just pinned in with trees and a little slope down on the drivers side heading out.

If I'm wrong and the VW struggles, you can still find a place to park in those dispersed camping areas and just hit the south approach. The north route would be a good one in a lot of cases, but I really wouldn't be looking to add an extra couple of miles of hiking just to get to the trailhead tomorrow.

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What visitor center are you at?

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Twin Lakes.

Only do it on Tuesdays and the occasional weekend.



That's the how. Road right by the trailhead. Follow it back.

Questions on the potential water crossing back there, but shouldn't be much to it this late in the year.

I drew a box where you hit the South Elbert Trail vs where the trailhead everyone uses is.

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If you feel like hiking Elbert tomorrow, feel free to meet us.

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Appreciate the offer, but my 10 mo old has gone rouge the past two nights. Running on about 8 hours combined since Thursday morning. So I'm giving my wife baby duty tonight and I'm going to enjoy a nice coma.

Thanks for the update. Plan is to be at the trailhead at 4:30am and off the mountain peak and below treeline well before noon. Will keep an eye out on the sky.