The Mount Toll trip began at 4 am outside Scott's house. We piled up four bikes, 3 snowboards, 2 skis, and 4 packs in the back of my Tacoma and headed out for Indian Peaks.
We got to the parking area at around 5 am just as the sun was starting to come up. Everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed b/c we were looking forward to starting the trip on bikes. It seemed easy enough. Since the road to Mitchell lake trail head was still closed we thought biking would be much easier than hiking in. Of course, no one thought about inflating the tires before we left and with the weight of our packs, riding the bikes turned out to be much more difficult than we planned. My bike tires could not handle the weight and even when I was riding downhill I didn't move unless I was pedalling. Needless to say, going uphill was unbearable and I ultimately got off my bike and just walked it up hill. On the way back, we were smarter and everyone inflated their tires making the return much, much easier.
A few miles later we arrived at a beautiful lake that was partly frozen. Here you can see the continental divide in the background. By 5:30 the sun was really starting to cook things up. This picture shows Mount Toll in the center. We hiked up the left shoulder. It looks really far; and in the snow with heavy packs on, it is.
We strapped on our snowshoes at the Mitchell Lake trailhead and began our hike to Mount Toll. The entire time we were snowshoeing I kept looking up at Mt. Toll thinking to myself, holy shi$!, that looks really, really, far, and really, really steep. I wasn't worried about riding down it, I was thinking about the ascnet. It turned out to be just as tough as I thought it would be. The first few hours of snowshoeing did not seem to bring us any closer to Mount Toll. For most of the trip, we never seemed to get closer to it.
But neverthess, we were still all smiles. After all, it was a beautiful day in the Colorado Rockies. What more could you ask for? A snowmobile maybe...
John Justus decided to blaze his own trail and look for that snowmobile we were talking about. 
The final ascent was the toughest. We had to hike into bowl and up over the rocks and then over to the right which was approximately 45 degree slope angle. When we got to the rocks that you see in the pictures we took off our snowshoes and booted it the rest of the way.
When I took off my snowshoes, I snapped a shot of the valley below us. It was nice to see how far we had come.
The final ascent was steep as all get out.
The view from the top was breathtaking.
When we got to the top we rehydrated, ate some food and rested our legs for the steep ride down. It was every bit of fun that we had hoped. The snow was soft, but not too soft. Unlike other backcountry spots, the snow here did not turn into corn, but rather a corn-like powder. It was unique among the places I've ridden in the spring and summer.
When we got to the bottom we celebrated our triumphant run down Mt. Toll next to a beautiful pond.
The hike back was nice, mostly because I wasn't staring up at Mt. Toll the whole time.
