One Day, Four Fourteeners

We loaded up in The Vansion and headed to Alma, CO to hike the Decalibron Loop. The Decalibron Loop gets it's name from the four fourteeners you summit during the hike: Mount DEmocrat, Mount CAmeron, Mount LIncoln, and Mount BROss. I have no idea why there's an "n" at the end, but we'll go with it.

The Kite Lake Campground was overflowing with hikers and climbers looking to get an early start on Saturday morning. But we were lucky enough to find a nice spot to camp just off the road on the way to Kite Lake on Friday night. We enjoyed a small fire and a beer and went to bed early. We woke up at 5:00 am on Saturday morning and were on the trail by 6:00 am.

We decided to hike the trail backwards, starting at Bross and finishing up with Democrat. The trail to Bross is all loose rock and gravel; I was glad to have my hiking poles on that ascent! The summit of Mount Bross is closed currently, and the trail takes you about 300 feet below the summit and over to a saddle that leads the way to Mount Lincoln.

Once you've made it up to Bross, the hike over to Lincoln is relatively easy. I enjoyed the ridge walk and the view from Lincoln. It was the perfect spot for a snack, and we spent some time hunkered down in a rock shelter before continuing on to Mount Cameron.

Mount Cameron is classified as an Unofficial Fourteener, because of it's proximity to Mount Lincoln, but I'm counting it nonetheless! The wind kicked up on top of Cameron, and we didn't hang out too long before deciding we ought to start our ascent of Democrat.

Mount Democrat was a struggle for us to do at the end of our day. It's steep and rocky, but not too long. I definitely understand why the majority of people begin their hike with Democrat - and not end it there! We made it to the summit just as the clouds began to move in, and after snapping a couple of photos we headed on down to beat the storm. To our surprise it began to snow instead of rain as we made our descent.

The dogs found a patch of snow near the top of Democrat that was begging to be frolicked in, and they took that opportunity to frolic indeed! In all, the Decalibron Loop took us 6 hours to complete. We took our time, stopped on the top of each summit and really enjoyed our time above 14,000'!

We camped again on Saturday night on the road to Kite Lake. We celebrated the epic day of fourteener summits with chilled wine and a delicious dinner. 

Desert Adventures

I love the mountains, but sometimes my soul just craves the desert. And because of that craving, my husband and I usually find ourselves in Fruita or Moab at least twice a year. On this particular trip to the desert we met our friends Steve and Mel from Durango and hiked Fisher Towers together.

Fisher Towers is a popular Moab hiking and climbing destination, and it's obvious why! We hiked for about an hour and a half then stopped for a lunch and beer break. The crisp wintery Euphoria (Ska Brewing) went down smooth on that warm fall afternoon in the desert. And it paired with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches surprisingly well, too!

After our hike, we said goodbye to Steve and Mel and went searching for the perfect camping spot. Moab has become such a popular destination that camping can be hard to find at times. We lucked out finding a great spot out of the way several miles past the Amasa Back Trailhead.

The next day we decided to explore Dragonfly Canyon (aka Culvert Canyon) down Potash Road in Moab. It proved to be a spectacular hike with pools or water, high canyon walls and even an arch near the end of our hike. My Utah Hiking book does explain of the trail, "I can't tell you exactly how to get there. I can only point you in the right direction and enthusiastically suggest you go!"

The trail is not well marked in all spots, and we seemed to have done a lot of meandering before finding our way up to Jeep Arch. It was truly a spectacular hike, and we plan to make our way back there in the near future.