Wednesday, June 22, 2005 - We left Kathy and Bill at the BLM campsite and drove to the Lakeview Campground between
Buena Vista and Leadville. This campground is at the start of the Mt. Elbert Trail. We hiked the first part (the jeep road)
of the Mt. Elbert Trail. We then drove into Leadville and had Chinese. There was a loud thunderstorm this night.
View of Mountains from Jeep Road
Thursday, June 23, 2005 - We started hiking at 5 AM. We met a man and his grandson just above treeline who had been to
the summit. They had camped the night before at about 11,500 feet. They had heard the thunder up close last night. There
were many and varied colored wildflowers above treeline. We reached the top at 11:30 AM. There were two other groups there.
One had arrived from the north and the other from the southwest. On the way down, we passed a man and his dog. They had
camped at the end of the jeep road and got a later start. They ended up passing us going down. That was one tired little
dog. We got back to camp at 4:30 PM. The trail was 12 miles round trip and gains about 5000 feet.
