Where do I start on the epic hike?

I suppose we start early in the morning as we pulled into the Poudre Lake Trailhead. This trailhead is also part of the Continental Divide which splits the country in 2 halves. Water flowing down into the west half of the line will eventually make it's way into the Pacific Ocean, while the east half will eventually make it's way to the Atlantic ocean. We had to start our hike early in the morning (about 7:30am) in order to give us enough time before the afternoon storms came in.

The sun was already beating down on us even at the starting elevation of 10,759 feet. We laced up our hiking boots and set off on our quest for the summit of Peak 12150. Right away we encountered steep elevation gains which made the early portion of the hike more work than we had anticipated. Luckily for us we were still under the tree line so we had a bit of shade the first couple miles.

Coming up to around 11,300 feet we crossed a small patch of remaining snow on the trail and then made our way past tree line where trees stop growing,and it opened up to the vast alpine tundra. The tundra is by far my favorite ecosystem of the mountains. It's truly awe inspiring, with views that really make you appreciate the wonders of nature. There is a downside to all the beauty of the tundra though. And that is howling, relentless winds and a severe drop in temperature. We came prepared for this and after a short rest to grab a drink and have a snack we put on our wind breakers (I use a Marmot Pre-cip)and hats then set off for the summit in the distance.

The small patch of remaining snow on this trail.

A short ways into the tundra we came across what appears to be a family of groundhogs! I'm not entirely sure what they were exactly but they were very photogenic and I was able to get quite close for some pictures!

We hiked for another roughly hour and a half or so until we got the the final stretch. The last bit was along the edge of the mountain and we had to hike over loose rocks while battling over 50mph winds. We all persevered and made it to the summit. Our elevation was at 12,175 ft, temperature had dropped by almost 40 degrees from when we started our hike, and the views....the views were spectacular.

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Summit Hike in Colorado!