Attempt 1 On Antero

I knew this day would come eventually….the day I plan to summit and don't quite make it.  My dad and I set out for Antero today with intentions of taking my car to the upper trailhead just below 12,000', which would have made for a total hike of just under 7 miles and only 2,200' of elevation gain.  Shortly after starting up the 4WD road, we hit a couple spots which were a little difficult to get around.  Not knowing if it was going to get worse or get better even if we did power through, we decided to just go ahead and park the car and start the hike.

Where we parked the car to start up the trail.

This put us at a starting elevation of 9,700'.  As we walked up the road, we realized that we definitely could have made it farther, but decided to just continue on.  We made it to a stream at ~ 10,850' after about 2.5 miles of hiking.

The majority of the "trail" up Antero is actually these large ATV roads, so we saw a handful of other people heading up on ATVs/Jeeps.

Unfortunately the road is not terribly interesting, but the conversation with my dad is always great so I didn't mind.  As we continued to make our way along the road, the clouds started to worry us a bit.

We knew there was a chance of rain (as there is pretty much any day on a 14er) and decided the last 800' was not quite worth the risk.  If we had been able to make it to the upper trailhead, we would have had plenty of time to summit (or, rather, had we known we were going for a 14 mile hike instead of a 7 mile hike, we might have started earlier to beat the weather).  Within 15 minutes of turning back, we were hearing some loud claps of thunder and by the time we made it back to the car, we had been rained on quite a bit and the storm was intensifying.  So we felt good about the decision, but a little bummed we didn't make it to the summit.  I'll have to work that one into the schedule a little later this summer.  We will definitely drive up father the next time around (and I have also put in a vote for renting ATVs to get us back to 13,600' since we already made it that far and then just hiking from there.....only kidding....mostly).  Always a tough pill to swallow when you hike 14 miles and gain 4,000' and don't summit, but like I said, my dad and I always have a great time together.  Looking forward to my next hike on the agenda with him (Kit Carson/Challenger Point).

Hike Summary
Date:	Friday, June 27, 2013
Mountain:	Mt. Antero
Hike Start Time:	6:22 AM
Summit Time:	N/A
Hike End Time:	3:18 PM
Miles:	14.24
Elevation Gain:	3,933