On Thursday, July 27, we received word that the three closed 14ers, Mount Democrat, Mount Cameron and Mount Lincoln in Alma, CO have been opened via a waiver system through the end of this years’ climbing season. Mount Bross, part of the four 14er route is still closed, but there is a bypass trail that gets you to about 14,000’ elevation and just about 175’ shy of the summit. It also costs $8 to park at the Kite Lake trailhead or $20 per car per night to camp.

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, several 14nrs have been closed due to potential lawsuit concerns by the private owners of the peaks/routes to the peaks. These peaks, including many others throughout Colorado are the sites of previous heavy mining and so areas of these mountains are dangerous due to the instability of the stopes, open mine shafts, and other potential hazards. Hikers must remain on the approved route. Mount Bross remains closed as it is owned by several private parties and not all have agreed to the waiver system as of this posting. 

So why is it called DeCaLiBron? The route to cover all four peaks utilizes the first few letters of each 14er name: Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross!

We took advantage of the opening of these 14ers and hit the road by 2:00AM Saturday morning to make it to the trailhead by 4:00AM (getting a measly 4 hours of sleep). We were not sure how busy the trailhead would be since this was such exciting news. (You can only imagine how my Aries-self was handling this news!).

We made the drive up the road to Kite Lake which wasn’t too awful except the last ½ mile or so. Luckily, there were some good spots still open and there are bathrooms at the trailhead too (which is ALWAYS a win after a 2 hour drive). We had two loop options: taking the trail to Mount Democrat or the bypass trail to Mount Bross. We chose to head clockwise to Mount Democrat because it appeared to be the route where you gain more elevation early on which we prefer (before we get too tired!). 

Also, as my usual self, it took me about 2000’ elevation to realize why the lake was named “Kite Lake”. It looks like a kite and the road leading up as its string! Very, very cool.

As we wandered along the trail in the dark with just the light of our headlamps, we could hear the creek and occasion squeaks of chipmunks and marmots. The trail wasn’t too bad but our lungs and heart were challenged right away as we are still working on acclimation to the elevation.

I really love starting our hikes in the dark because of the serenity of the night and then the waking up of the world through the beautiful sunrises we get to experience. The route overall was very quiet and peaceful with few hikers. The twinkling of some climbers headlamps could be seen against the mount backdrop which helped us know we were headed the right way and there were others out there.

The route up to Mount Democrat started getting a bit rocky with a little bit of scrambling but nothing too bad. The summit was beautiful and had very little wind. We wanted to spend a few minutes taking it all in but knew we had three more peaks to summit and so we made our way back down towards the Democrat-Cameron saddle shortly after arriving. 

The sunrise at the saddle was amazing. We took a few minutes to adjust our layers and started the trek up the mountainside to Mount Cameron. This peak is one of five 14nrs considered an “unranked” peak. This is because its peak does not rise at least 300’ above its neighboring peak (this one is only 152’). Either way, it is still a 14er and can be summited like all the others. The hike up this peak was not challenging except I had to take several standing breathing breaks as the elevation was tough today. The summit was surprisingly “wide” and flat, covered in gravel. We took some quick pictures and then headed down the far side into a gravel valley to head over to Mount Lincoln.

Mount Lincoln was named after the 16^th US president, Abraham Lincoln by Wilbur F. Stone in 1861. This mountain is full of false summits – just when you think you are at the summit, surprise! You aren’t. The last 100’ or so had a little bit of Class 2 scrambling along its ridge, but nothing too spicy. The views were amazing. 

We spent a little time on Mount Lincoln before we backtracked down a little ways to make the left-hand turn for Mount Bross. The hike to Mount Bross was pretty easy and was a nice relief for my feet and lungs. 

We worked our way up the old mining road to the 14,000’ spot just below the summit and took our picture there. We wanted to respect the owners and not trespass on their property just to ascend 175 more feet to say we summited Mount Bross. We did see others ignoring the private property signs unfortunately. 

We then began our final 2000’ descent back to Kite Lake. It started off not too bad but turned awful. The trail got quite steep, full of loose rock, gravel, and dirt, requiring heavy use of our trekking poles and lots of quad and hamstring work. Right when you thought it would let up, it got awful again. We passed a few hikers working their way up the trail and were not envious at all. There is no way I would ever tell someone to hike up the Mount Bross bypass trail – particularly in the dark! I am so thankful we chose the Mount Democrat route up. More power to all of you who hiked counterclockwise! This was the most exhausting part of the entire route and took us over an hour to reach our truck. We did happen upon a really pretty waterfall into a huge patch of snow/ice which made the descent a little less frustrating.  👍 Seeing our truck was an amazing site though!

This was a very rewarding hike, although exhausting. I highly recommend taking advantage of the opening of these 14ers while you can. One suggestion (and 100% my own opinion) is I would hike clockwise like we did and then turn around at the 14,000’ spot at Mount Bross and head back to the trailhead via the Democrat-Cameron saddle. I can’t imagine hiking down the Mount Bross bypass route ever again! Just my opinion!

7.75 miles
3700’ elevation gain
6.5 hours roundtrip
DeCaLiBron Clockwise Route
Class 2