Colvin and Blake were rather odd peaks for me. This is the only hike that took me three attempts to complete and it is not nearly the hardest hike I've done. The first attempt saw thunderstorms pop up that were not in the forecast, so I turned back an eighth of a mile from the summit of Colvin. On the second attempt the conditions were challenging due to early spring conditions after a major snowfall. Both times I ended up taking in the views at Indian Head instead, and there are certainly no complaints there. 

Despite the earlier challenges, I was actually very happy to have an easier hike to do after all of the body wrecking hikes I had been tackling lately. I started at 7:00 AM instead of 3:30 like the hikes before and after this one. I flew through the mileage up to the intersection with the trail to FishHawk Cliffs where things start getting steep. I continued up to the summit of Colvin and was very happy to finally get there after two failed attempts. I took in the fall colors that were just starting to pop in before continuing on to Blake. 

The route down from Colvin to the col is not too bad, but the climb up to Blake from there is admittedly quite challenging. I'm very glad that I did not attempt this climb under the poor conditions of my previous hikes. Things were slow going but I did eventually make it to the top. The hike back down was easier than I was expecting it to be and I made it back to Colvin about an hour before sunset. 

From there I moved quickly with the little daylight I had left then stopped to eat dinner and filter some water once the sun had fully set. I made it back to Lake Rd. pretty quickly and from there just had an easy four mile walk back to the car. On this final segment of the hike I was happy to be joined by another hiker on his way back to the lot. He was on his second round of the 46 and we had great fun swapping hiking stories for a few miles. Getting back to the car, it felt great to be off the trail early so I could get a warm shower and still get to bed at a decent hour.