Saturday Sopris Summit

"The early bird gets the summit," is the mantra I repeated to myself as I rolled out of bed at 2:30 am. Hitting the trail at 3:00 am was rough, and even though there was a full moon, we still needed headlamps. The trail was rocky and hiking it in the dark was not ideal, but we hiked on.

Finding ourselves above tree-line as the sun began to rise made hiking in the dark for 3 hours totally worth it! It was a magnificent sunrise; one I won't ever forget.

Sopris defeated me last summer, and I was determined to summit that stubborn mountain this summer. From the trailhead to the summit the hike is around 13 miles roundtrip. When you combine that with the intense elevation gain it makes for a really long day. The summit of Mount Sopris stands at 12,966' high.

We reached the summit around 9:00 am, and were happily surprised by the lack of wind - and people! We spent an hour alone on the summit of Mount Sopris sharing snacks and celebratory beer!

We began our decent at 10:00 am and were thrilled when we made it to Thomas Lakes around noon. We took a long break at the lakes and as the storm clouds began rolling in we decided to keep heading down to the car.

The last 2 1/2 miles of the hike felt like an eternity, but we kept trucking none-the-less. It was the perfect Saturday to summit Sopris, and I couldn't be more excited to have made it to the top!