On August 4, 2011, the K Financial team hit the road at 3:15 AM to climb La Plata Peak, a 14,336 mountain in the Sawatch Range. We arrived at the trail head a little after 6 AM and began our adventure. We were messing around and enjoying the wilderness a little too much at the start of our hike and missed a critical right hand turn, heading to the left instead. By the time we realized we were on the wrong
trail, we had gone too far to turn back. So we voted to press ahead and blaze our own trail.
We navigated our way along a stream through a thick forest. At times there appeared to be a trail, but it eventually disappeared and we were on our own. Finally, when we hit about 11,800 feet and were above tree line, we were able to assess where we were and what direction we needed to go. We realized we had gone pretty far off course and
needed to cross some boulder fields and other extreme terrain to get back to the trail. After about 3 hours of bushwhacking, we re-connected with the trail on the final approach to the summit. This was a happy moment for all. We had to climb about 1,500 feet in the last mile, which
was going to be tough. The sky was dark blue with very few clouds, so the final climb seemed like it would be uneventful. As we ascended, though, dark clouds started rolling in and by the time we reached the top we started hearing thunder. So we snapped a few pictures, exchanged some high fives and headed down the peak as fast as we could. It rained most of the way down, but that did not matter too much. The hike was fully awesome!
