Copeland Mountain - Rocky Mountain National Park

[@FatherGapon-gw6yo]

Popped off there down by Pear Lake one fall-long but memorable.

[@allenfritschel1859]

t That is a really tough climb, grate video from the top, Congrats

[@dr.nigelcool3771]

Wow you caught the aspens at their peak.

[@MoodyPeaks]

We definitely did. I think I saw just about all the colors on this one that you are going to see up in the higher elevations. I would not be surprised that this coming weekend, the first weekend in October up in the higher up elevations, that all of the colored leaves will probably be mostly blown off by now.

[@FatherGapon-gw6yo]

The tighter you stay up Against Copeland thru the bushwhack the less brush whacking.

[@MoodyPeaks]

Agreed! I honestly did not think the bushwhack was bad at all, either on Copeland Mountain or for last week's Storm Peak. Maybe I am just a bushwhacker at heart 😆

[@wanderingbbEfoutdoortours]

Great video, wonderful adventure 😮

[@MoodyPeaks]

Thank you

[@ruggedland]

The shortcut is definitely shorter going to Lion Lake, but good to know it saves no distance going to Ouzel. Copeland will probably be my last 13er to summit in RMNP as there are more interesting ones I still need to do including the big ones in the Mummy range. Always enjoy your epic hiking videos

[@MoodyPeaks]

Thank you! And yes I agree, the campsite trail is only useful when hiking to the Thunder Lake/Lion Lake areas, but if going to the Bluebird/Ouzel Lake side, I don't believe the significance is much different. If you haven't hiked Hagues Peak yet, I think you will enjoy that one. There are so many options to climb it near the top, you can take it like a Class 2 as we did, or there are definitely more extreme routes.

[@theredyeti502]

I was hopin to see the Blair witch doll when it was dark 😆

[@MoodyPeaks]

I was and I wasn't 😆

[@theredyeti502]

@@MoodyPeaks 😂

[@1985cnote]

We played the video game the weekend prior so that's all I was thinking about!! 😂

[@theredyeti502]

@@1985cnote lmao that's hilarious

[@mikeess]

I'm curious, on average, how much sleep do you guys get if you leave the FOCO/LOVELAND area around 3:30am to do these monster hikes? I'm a night owl and often just stay up all night if I have to start off that early, but then around noon I hit a wall that caffeine cannot overcome and the last of the hike is a drag.

[@MoodyPeaks]

I think we have trained ourselves to go to sleep pretty early the night before a hike. I've crashed as early as 7-8pm, usually between 8-9pm, and I guess we usually wake up either in the 2am or 3am hour depending on the length of the drive for the long summer hikes, because we wake up later for shorter ones, but honestly I am usually so ready, excited or anxious, in a good way, that I usually wake up before my alarm more times than not. It must have become such a routine for us in these last 3-4 seasons that it's just like clockwork now. And I used to be a night person and was definitely not a morning person for most of my life, but that has changed here in the last few years, either due to our hiking schedule or getting older, or both. I don't prefer to drink booze the night before a hike, but sometimes I do in order to go to fall asleep earlier.

[@1985cnote]

I'm the go to bed early and wake up early type every day and try to aim for 6 hours minimum before hikes.

[@BASEguy955]

Someone's napping on the summit 😴

[@MoodyPeaks]

Lol yeah Christine had to put herself on the charger.

[@1985cnote]

My favorite summits are ones I can lay out on!! 😂

[@johnconroy4002]

I enjoy your videos, so please don't take this as criticism, but I wish you would also give the elevation gain from the TH to the summit. Every hike has it's up and downs that cancel it's self out, so for me, the total elevation gain isn't very meaningful.

[@MoodyPeaks]

No worries, we can agree to disagree. I beg to differ because to me, the total elevation gain is the most important stat of them all. Every time on a hike, even if on the main trail, you go down and back up, that adds to the total workout your body will have to complete for the day including all the way up to the summit. Just subtracting the summit elevation from the trailhead elevation is not the whole story of what you will have to put your body through. For example, for Chiefs Head Peak, the trailhead elevation is 8312 ft and the summit is 5267 ft. Subtracting the two you'd think you will only have to hike up 5267 feet, however, with the up and down of the trail and the terrain, we actually hiked up 5823 feet. To me, that extra 600 plus feet of elevation is significant to the experience as a whole.

[@johnconroy4002]

@@MoodyPeaks I guess I'm just trying to say I think it would give a better idea of the character of the trail if you gave the absolute and additional elevation gain along with the total elevation gain. A lot of us watch your videos for hiking ideas.