We started out with the idea to take a nice hike to Mt. Audubon near Brainard Lake. Unfortunately, the park service decided to close the road to the trailhead on Friday. Since we didn't feel like hiking 3 miles over pavement just to reach the trailhead, we decided to try a hike that no one in the group had been on.
It was a gorgeous day to hike. We hit the trail at about 8:52, just early enough to beat most of the other hikers. We couldn't have asked for a better late October hike in the Rockies (at least not without raising some serious questions about our sanity.)
We took about 4.5 hours to do the round trip including about half an hour for lunch on the summit of the West sister.
The map of the Twin Sisters trail. Trees and ridges blocked the GPS signal in a few places causing some of the track to wander a bit.
A 3D view of the trail facing East from 45° elevation.
We gained over 2000 feet of elevation in 3.7 miles. The grade on this hike was one of the most steady I've seen (ignoring irregularities due to GPS dropouts.)
Looking towards the summit of the West sister.
Our Fearless Leader after reaching the saddle between the sisters.
This is the saddle between the sisters. The radio tower is used for tracking aircraft and hiker rescue beacons.
The other sister is a bit more difficult to climb and since we were satisfied with the hike so far, we didn't try to climb both peaks.
Yours Truly.
Longs Peak.
Estes Park and Lake Estes.
Lunch is over, and it's time to head down from the peak.
National Geodetic Survey Marker circa 1949.
