The Decali hike...no Bross

God is amazing...He's also an amazing artist...look around, look at His creation. I'm no artist, but I do like to dabble in some painting. And I will be the first to tell you that sometimes...when things aren't going well artisticly (Is this misspelled?)...I will put my brush aside and not look at my painting for a while. I believe God sculpts all mountains...but on this trip...two of the four peaks looked like unfinished work. Quite honestly...they were ugly. I think God put down His tools and moved over to the Elk Range and started working on the Maroon Bells instead...just saying.

The Decalibron = Mt. Democrat 14,148', Mt. Cameron 14,238', Mt. Lincoln 14,286', and Mt. Bross which we did not hike because it is on private property and the owners do not want anyone on the mountain. Hence...the entire thing is referred to as the Decalibron.


Who: Sarah (my wonderful), Aaron "Lu" Lawler, and myself
When: 09/05/11
Mileage: 5.25 miles
Elevation Gain: 3300'
Class 2 hike


Started out on our hike on 09/5/10 from Breckenridge at 5:15 am. I drove my 2010 Toyota Prius up the Kite Lake TH. We basically made it all the way up to the TH and parked a few hundred feet away from the paid parking area. I think I bottomed out once or twice, but I took my time and made it up without a problem. My Prius did very well...I was very proud of her...she did not deserve the beating I put her through... 
We were officially at the TH a few minutes past 6am and were doing great on time. My wife Sarah, buddy Lu, and I were hoping to bag three peaks today…we decided to leave Bross alone because 14ers.com requested us not to… That's right Bill...since you requesteth, i will complyeth...Sarah chose not to bag Cameron and Lincoln with Lu and I. She found a group and made her way down. It was a busy mountain with hundreds of people on it…though I felt awful, I knew she was going to be fine. Especially with the two hikers she was with…thank you whoever you are.

So Lu and I started on our way up to Cameron...we were blazing up the trail. We got up top relatively quickly...When Lu and I got to the top of Cameron, we were hit with 65 mph gusts…it was blowing us over. We were having fun in these winds...it felt like the wind could hold us up on it's own.

It was a beautiful day on the mountain, although very windy…In all reality, the hike is uneventful...It's one long stair stepper all the way to the top. But the views were great and the time spent with Sarah on the mountain was what this trip was all about!

The picture above was taken on the Summit of Cameron...there's not much to it. It felt like you were on this huge mound...not a mountain. It was basically rubble...but from this point, you could see Lincoln. It's the Peak on the right...

Cameron is pictured in the background above...as you can see...one large mound. Eh...

And finally, the third summit..Lincoln. The winds were strongest here...so strong in fact I did not want to take the picture standing up and had to keep my hand on my hat so it wouldn't blow off...The best views of the day were from the top of this mountain!

Democrat Summit: 9:00 a:m
Cameron Summit: 10:15am
Lincoln Summit: 10:30am
Completed the hike: 12:15pm
***I was surprised to see so many hikers disregard the private property warnings for Bross…there were so many people hiking the ridge over to Bross…but in hindsight, I should have done it too...now I am going to have to go back at some other time and finish off this ugly piece of rubble called a moutain.*****