Last Friday we started a backpack into the Cochetopa Hills Roadless Area. We started at a trailhead west of the Village of Sargents and hiked through a low valley full of Lupine and other flowers. As we started to climb, the temperature rose. After a hot climb, we reached a saddle with views of the Collegiates and other mountain ranges. After lunch on the saddle we climbed steeply up a wooded ridge towards the Continental Divide.