There are two ways up Handies. If you stop at the first parking lot I believe it is an 8 mile hike round trip. We went to the second parking lot and came up the other side of Handies. This made it about 5.3ish miles round trip. Overall I am told the way we did it was steeper but shorter. Mikayla was a little trouper.
She was tough and only until the very last push did she start to break down. It was getting steep and she started crying. At this point we were so close to the top that I was not going to let her stop and call it a day. I was more than willing to take lots and lots of breaks to get the the top but Tom offered to give her a piggy back ride to the top and of course she took it.
Here is a picture of us. She made it to the top at 14048 feet.
Shortly after we got to the top a man that we had passed on the way up showed up. This is a picture of the youngest person (6 years old) and the oldest person (70) on the peak!
A picture of the six of us.
Mikayla getting her ride to the top.
Taking a break before we made the final push to the top.
This is not a great picture but on the drive back to Lake City there was a bunch of cars pulled over. This is a bad picture of a MOOSE!! I have lived in Colorado for 14 years and I have never seen a moose. I have heard there are some around Lake City and up in Crested Butte we will hear about someone seeing one every few years or so but this is the first moose that I have ever seen. He was happy to just walk around and munch on the willows - he did not care at all that we were all standing above him taking pictures. It was wonderful.
