14ers with friends

(Continuing our adventures from last August...)

We've been enjoying Robyn's latest quest, climbing lots of Colorado 14ers.  Great training, wonderful scenery, and it has been long enough since we were up many of them that it feels like almost-new territory.  Plus you never know what animals you will find above treeline on any given day.

And Art was also in the area and ready to join us for part of the adventure.  Yay for a reason to get up before sunrise!  None of us appear quite ready for the flashbulb in our face:

The idea of the day was a double, Mounts Belford and Oxford.  Moving up the trail, waking up and eventually warming up:

It's another beautiful day in Colorado:

I could not begin to guess why I had taken this picture...

...ah ha!  There's a Robyn hiding in the trees - hello Robyn!

At the top of 14er #1 for the day (Mount Belford), with zero selfie coordination:

Nope, we still don't got it:

Let's see how Robyn did - much better!  A group shot we can be proud of:

Art headed back down while the rest of us pushed through the wind, dropped down to the saddle, and started up the trail toward Mount Oxford:

Getting our climbing legs in shape:

Cozy group photo on the top of Oxford and a well-deserved sandwich break:

So many places to go... and lakes to visit maybe someday:

So John, what do you think?

Enjoying the lighting (and lack of dark clouds) on our way back to Belford:

We hung a left on a different trail to see something new on the way down, which amazingly included more mountain goats, super cool!  We saw more goats last summer than perhaps any other time we've been in Colorado.

For some reason, seeing Robyn take a picture of flowers makes me want to take a picture of the process:

We truly had a Summer of Flowers, all the way through August - very lucky:

We were in the area, so why not try for another 14er the next day?  Looks like we at least slept in a little longer this time:

Mountain sunrises are the best:

A little stair work this morning:

Shadow selfie:

Awwwwwwww!  It's a pika, one of my favorite animals - hello cutie!

3 peaks in 2 days, worthy of a little celebration:

John took this picture to show us that every single person on the summit (except me and Robyn) was on their phone:

I prefer this view over the phone screen:

Enjoying the downhill:

John's phone took an excellent picture of the scenery:

Trail work time, courtesy of John and Robyn:

It's safer if I stick to the role of documentarian.  Thank you both!

I think we were all hungry after those efforts, even our truck...

Fun couple of days, thank you Robyn and Art!