A friend of mine was in town this past week with his son on a combined business/pleasure trip. The pleasure part included doing some Colorado white water rafting and mountain climbing.

I met them in Buena Vista, after they had done some river rafting, for a bite to eat. After that we were off to find a place to camp so that we could get up early and hike Mount Princeton.

It all looked good on paper! A bit of misleading information acquired earlier, combined with starting out a little later than planed had us 4-wheeling our way up to the trail head on some exposed rough terrain as the sun was going down behind the Rockies! Not feeling comfortable with the situation, we eventually decided to pull off at timberline and call it camp. My friends slept in a tent and I slept in the jeep. It can be a bit chilly at 12,000 feet!

We got up early the next morning and started our hike for Mount Princeton summit. After and initial start from one trail, we eventually aborted and started our climb from another trail head. My friends did a great job. We didn’t actually reach the summit, but that was not our goal anyway. We wanted to experience some high altitude Colorado hiking. The trip was great and I believe my friends son is ready to summit next time!