From our home-base in Leadville, day three was a bit of a haul. We decided to head further south in an attempt to get out of the rainy weather. Shavano and Tabeguache were on the menu today. Our usual 4:30 wakeup got us down near the trailhead in time for another spectacular sunrise.

The trail rolls for a short while before becoming yet another steep grunt up through the trees. As many times as I do these hikes, I still shake my head at the size and steepness of these mountains sometimes. Soon we passed through a massive area of blown-down trees. I remembered reading about it a few years ago, and it was impressive to see up close.

Once we passed treeline, the trail became a straightforward ascent up to a small pass.

From the pass it was a few hundred vertical feet to the summit.

From the summit of Shavano we dropped to another saddle and made the climb up to Tabeguache. Took shots of the ‘summit monkeys’

and then a couple more…

On the hike back to Shavano, a photo opportunity presented itself. The ensuing exchange highlighted the difference between my son just wanting a quick snapshot, and me planning the cover shoot of Outside magazine or something. Hey, I carried that big camera over all these mountains – I might as well get some good use out of it!

MB: Dad, will you take a picture of me up on those rocks?
CB: Sure! Let’s see, I should get over there for the best light, maybe up a little higher for the horizon, you should stand there, look like this, and …, and …
MB: Well, it doesn’t have to be awesome. Err, at least not up to your level of awesome!

Hey, I’m cool with semi-awesome if you are.

I gotta say, Malcolm was a great sport with all of my picture taking during our hikes.

The nice weather allowed us to linger for a while when we returned back to the Shavano summit. Much to the delight of some curious marmots.

This ninja-squirrel demonstrated some cool moves.

Then it was all about getting back to the car.

A huge dumper of a thunderstorm unloaded on us with about a mile to go. All of a sudden the tired-leg plodding pace at the end of a long hike turned into an all-out run back to shelter. It was a great way to finish.