Tess, Mike, and I flew to CO from Monterey with our sites set on Elbert. After a Rockies game and a short visit with Tess' family, it was off to the mountains. We camped at Lakeside Campground near Twin Lakes and met up with Frank and Dan, two of Tess' friends, a former POCer Bryan Scott, his dog Menifee, and Bryan's friend Olie. At the trailhead the next morning we also joined up with 2 more former POCers, Mike Magan and Ari McKewon (and her dog Hank).
We decided to take the South Mt Elbert trail up and managed to drive up the 4-wheel drive road for a little bit and hoofed the rest of the way. We got to a trail junction that we thought was for South Mount Elbert and beared left. That took us up an old mining road that ended around ~12,500'. At this point we scattered out and just trudged up the ridge to reach the main ridge that leads around to the summit. After reaching the summit we took the true South Mt Elbert trail down. Though the "Tour de Elbert" was not what we'd planned for, it made for spectacular views from the main ridge that we would not have enjoyed much otherwise.