These two fourteeners are now my 14th and 15th 14ers!

Not knowing how long this would take, I fully expected a 10-12 hour day of hiking. My book by the Colorado Mountain Club mentioned 9-10 hours for these two peaks. I started hiking by 4:56 at the Blanks Gulch Trailhead and was able to summit Shavano shortly before 8:30. I didn't hang out for long and made my way to the Tab summit shortly after 9am. After hanging out for 45-50 minutes, Shortly before 10am I started my descent down Tab and ascent back up Shavano to finally descent back to blanks gulch trailhead. The clouds did start to kick up around 10am, By 11:30 they were close to the Shavano summit. Thunder could be heard on the way down by 12:30, but it never rained. Winds were light and the sun was out. Combined with an early start made for great day to bag some 14ers!

The Colorado 14ers initiative is doing heavy trail work both above and below tree line.

It took me just under 3.5 hrs car to Shav summit, and another 40 minutes over to Tab summit. There is some snow on the summit of Tabeguache, but it is easily avoidable. It is summertime Conditions up in the Collegiate peaks.

Still learning the ins/outs of my Garmin, I paused it on the summit of Tab while I hung out in the sun for 50 minutes. Pausing your garmin activity for too long will end your activity, and you will need to start a 'new activity'. My overall moving time ended up being 7:17, and with my 45-50 minute break on the summit of tab and taking a leisurely pace back down the mountain, my whole excursion was a just over 8hrs car to car.

The Indian Paintbrush is not quite in full bloom but I imagine they will be in the next week or so!

Here we can see the southern saddle of Shavano and the trail leading up to the summit.

Antero to the North as seen from Tab.