Until I hiked Missouri Mountain this week, I hadn’t hiked a 14er for four years after having an extreme, two-day debilitating headache on the last double I completed, Shavano and Tabeguache. Now, with the hole in my heart closed and oxygen circulating through my blood correctly, I thought I’d give it another try.
My friend Tanya always summits a few each summer, so we agreed to tackle Mt. Princeton, part of the Collegiate Peaks in the Sawatch Range. Mt. Princeton is located about 2.5 hours southwest of Denver near Buena Vista, Colorado.
As a result of the distance and general best practices of being off the summit by noon, we camped the prior evening to get an early start.
We left Denver in the late afternoon with the intent to find dispersed camping, though we did not have a set location in mind. We first drove to the lower parking for Mt. Princeton and briefly ventured up the four-wheel drive road. Judging by the pace we were going, we were hardly going to cover the 3.5 miles by nightfall.
HAPPY HIKING!