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| the LONG trail leading to the bolder field - Longs Peak |
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| On the Burning Bear trail |
Ever since I traveled to Colorado last year for my sisters-in-law’s
wedding I have wanted to climb
Longs Peak, one of Colorado’s 53 14ers (a 14er is
referring to a 14,000ft+ mountain summit). At the time, everyone highly advised
against it so I caved and did another hike. I ended up on Mt. Audubon a 13er, 13,229FT
high to be exact. I had a great time, but from the top I could see Longs – and
I knew I’d be back to climb it.
I’m not sure when I started thinking about it, but at some point,
I decided I was going to do a
weekend trip to Colorado to climb Longs. I
researched the best time to climb it, and it was the month of August. I did some
more research and discovered you could camp at the base of the mountain in “the
bolder field”. This intrigued me, camping by the foot of a mountain, seeing the
stars, then hiking to the top to see the sun rise… Sounded good to me.
I went to the Colorado wilderness camping site
and searched the PDF for open dates for camping in the bolder field… no
weekends were available, and most of the other days were also booked. I settled
on Monday 8/28/17. After finding that date was available on the PDF I then
proceeded to request the back-country permit. The form asks you to put in a 1st
choice and a 2nd choice, I’m guessing because the PDF is not updated
more than once a day, so it’s a possibility that someone else could also
request the same date.
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| First hike of the trip! |
A couple days later I got a confirmation email that my spot
was reserved, I had a camp site reserved in the bolder field at the foot of
longs peak for $42.00. A little expensive for the lack of amenities and effort
to get to it, but I wanted the experience.
I booked that maybe in early July, and between then and my departure
date I booked my flight, leaving Saturday the 26
th returning Tuesday
the 29
th. I also booked a camp site near Mt. Bierstadt – Geneva Park
Camp Ground
for 2 Nights.
Geneva Park Camp Ground is located on Guanella Pass
Road, on one end of the road is a town called Grant, on the other side is a
town called Georgetown, and right around the middle of the road lies the trail
head for Mt. Bierstadt.
I had decided
originally to do an easier hike on Sunday in preparation for the Longs Peak
hike, but then, after looking to see what routs/mountains. Were available near
Denver I came across the Mt. Bierstadt , Saw Tooth, Evans Rout
https://www.14ers.com/route.php?route=bier4&peak=Mt.+Bierstadt
and decided that would be my Sunday.
That way I would have three 14ers in one trip – more is better right?
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| Goats around Mt. Evans |
I had a wedding to go to Friday night and left around 9:30pm,
packed up my things and set my alarm for 4:30am. In the previous weeks I had
purchased several camping/hiking items including hiking poles, a tinny gas
stove set, an emergency survival kit and a water filtration system. I hugged my
dog Matilda goodbye and was out the door and down the road by 4:45am. I headed
to my sister’s house to pick up an extra head lamp and a go-pro type of camera
she had left out for me the night before, then
off to Midway Park and Ride. For
$60 I stowed my car and got on the shuttle to the airport. I had checked in the
night before and was class C boarding. I checked my camping back pack and sleeping
bag and got through security with no issues. I had just enough time to grab
some coffee – when I arrived at my gate they were already boarding A and B and
I did not have to wait long. I boarded and decided to sit between 2 guys that
were in the very front row. I had never sat in the front row. Problem was no
overhead storage was available right at the front so I had to put my things back
several rows. The pleasant thing about being in the front is that you have more
leg room and in theory you get to get off first, you're also closer to the
restroom. The bad thing about being in the front is that you have no seat in
front of you to put your things under during take off/landing so you must put
them in the overhead storage compartments, you also have no fold out trey to
put your drink/book/whatever on during the flight.
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| Got the tent up! |
The flight went fairly quickly for me, and before I knew it
we were landing in Denver. I made the mistake of walking back several rows to
get my back pack, by the time I retrieved it the isles were full of people and
I was trapped losing me my front row exit position … I learned from this on the
return flight.
Denver airport was a little strange to me, you have to take
a train all the way down to the end of the trains rout to get your bags, then
go up to the main level. My back pack and sleeping bag were accounted for
fairly quickly and I packed everything up and headed out loaded down with a
purse, a book bag, a sleeping bag and a huge back pack. I boarded the shuttle
to the Advantage rental car center and got suckered into a car upgrade - $80
for a SUV instead of an intermediate 4 cylinder car. The lady said it would be
better in the mountains, hind site though, a car would have been fine, although
the extra room did prove useful, and I enjoyed the extra horse power from time
to time.
I headed out to
Arvada to go shopping. I purchased a Styrofoam cooler, ice, chocolate milk, pomegranate
juice, things for sandwiches, string cheese, granola, pretzels, 2 cans of soup,
a phone charger that I had forgotten in my car in Chicago, a 6 pack of adult
root beer claiming to be the “best adult root beer I would ever have” and a few
other things. Next stop was to find my campground, it was about 1 hour and 45 minutes
from the airport.
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| On the Burning Bear Trail head trils |
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| Burning Bear Trail Hike |
I arrived at the campground and wished I had stopped in Grant for fire wood, I also found that the camp site had no cell service. My
site had room for a car to park in the front, then housed a picnic table and a
fire ring, then a flat area between pine trees for tents. I set up my tent while
drinking one of the adult root beers that was NOT even close to the best I had
ever had, then headed back to Grant and purchased 2 bundles of fire wood for $5 each.
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| Dinner time... |
On the way back I stopped at Burning Bear Trail head for a 5 mile hike. I
wanted to try to acclimate a little more, I’m not sure where the trail led, but
it seemed to be long, I turned around at a bridge with a mountain view. Back at
my camp site I toasted a sandwich and heated up a can of soup then went to bed
around 7:30pm. I had ear
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| 7:30 bed time! |
plugs and slept pretty well for a while, but then woke
up very cold and with rocks digging into my bones… I discovered that I could
zip the sleeping bag all the way up and tighten the draw string so I was
completely incased in the sleeping bag, this was warmer… I was starting to
dread getting up in the morning for my hike till I had to get out of my tent to
“use the restroom”, my DR. per my request and the recommendation of fellow
flatlanders on the 14ers.com face book site prescribed me “Acetazolamide” It can treat glaucoma, epilepsy, mountain sickness, and fluid retention." It seems that elevation sickness can be from water retention in your face/eyes, and these pills help prevent that from happening. I had never taken them before and did not know what to expect. I did recall that the pharmacist had mentioned something about needing the bathroom more often and had called them "water pills". Turns out he was right. REALLY right, and it grew to be quite a nuance. I woke up at
least 3 times every night having to go, it was not fun…It was cold, and dark. Anyhow, when I got out
of my tent for the first time that night I looked up and saw the starts, and
they were brilliant!! Suddenly I was excited to get up for my climb the next
morning.
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| Heading out! |
My alarm went off at 3:15am and I was on the road by 3:25am.
I accidentally drove around the camp site maybe 3 times before I found my way
out – SORRY SLEEPING CAMPERS!! I could have sworn it was a left turn not a right turn… Finally I headed
about 10 miles down Guanella pass to the first parking lot after the “Guanella
pass summit” sign, I think It was 10,000ft or so. I geared up with my camel
back, granola, a gel and chugged some chocolate milk… I was off to find the
trail around 4:15am.
I was fortunate enough to discover a younger couple who was
going to do the same rout as me to
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| Traveling to Mt. Evans |
Saw-Tooth and then Evans so I started out
again after a snack. It was not a trail like I had been on, more of a rout. I
had read through the 14ers.com rout for this and had also printed it out
for review in case I felt lost or misguided at any point. Turns out the guy,
Adam knew the rout pretty
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| Climbing Saw Tooth |
well, he was either a natural, or had studied harder than me, but it was convenient. He
was a much faster climber than Raina (the girl) and I were, he went to climbing walls often and it
had paid off. I noticed right away the difference from class 2 to class 3
climbing, more deliberate moves were required and much more caution. It was a
really fun climb though as we made our way down the peak to the left of Saw
Tooth. We tried to choose the safest rout with the largest rocks that had the
best hand/foot holds. It was a lot like bouldering, but more rock climbing
because the boulders were larger and required multiple moves to reach one
bolder to the next. At one point I could not find a foot hold on a point of
exposure and I had to climb back to where I had been, then try again in a
different position, that was probably my most nervous moment. For the most part
it looked harder than it was. We crossed over to the left side of saw tooth
after climbing up as far as we felt safe, and then continued on a narrow ledge to
the other
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| Heading back down.. |
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| The Saw Tooth |
side, then on to another rock area all together. We were not 100%
sure where Mt. Evans was, but followed the Carins till we found a trail, and
figured out where we were gong. It was a long way from saw tooth to Evans, lots
of switch backs and boulders, but we were back to class 2, so it
was quite a
lot easier and faster moving. We reached to peak which was quite a bit more crowded
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14er #2 Mt. Evans
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then the other trails/peaks we had been on. We stopped at the shelter where
restrooms were available and saw some mountain goats. It was maybe around 10am,
and clouds were coming our way. We decided to head back to the car. We ended up
getting off the trails and probably added a mile or 2 and had to cross a lot of
shrubbery and mud… I ran out of water at probably 4 miles before we got back to
the car, and started getting a head ache.
By the time we
finally got back to the car I was thirsty, muddy, tired and had a head ache. I
headed to
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| Awesome Bagel Sandwiches!!! |
my car, cleaned up a little and then went over to where my fellow
climbers were, at the parking lot across the street. We made toasted bagel
sandwiches with egg and lunch meat in the parking lot over a tinny stove, and then
it
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| Mt. Evans |
started to rain so I said thanks, and good bye and headed out. They were
going to stop by my camp site, but ended up not being able to find it, I found
that out the next day. It was probably for the better though because I ended up
taking pain
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| Sleeping in the SUV ... headache |
meds, drinking lots of water "using the restroom" many times, and sleeping till the next day. It hailed
and was cold, so I slept in the SUV… Probably got in around 4:30pm and slept on
and off till 8am or so… My head ache finally went away around midnight, it had
gotten REALLY bad for a while, perhaps migraine status, it was cold, and I woke
up a few times, finally around 5am I turned the car on for the heat, and fell
asleep for an hour waking up somewhat rested, warm, and hungry.
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| Sawtooth and Bierstdt - the long decent |
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| Views from climbing the previous day |
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| Views from climbing the previous day |
My tent and gear were wet and muddy… I folded everything up
in the back of the SUV trying to contain the mud and water as best I could and
headed to find breakfast. I didn’t have service so I headed in the direction I thought
I remembered the map saying I should go. Back past the trail head on to
Georgetown, I started getting service in about 10 minutes after leaving the
camp ground and started getting text messages, emails and voice mails – LOTS of
them. It turns out my dad had discovered I was gone and was upset I had not
told him. I had not told him because I didn’t want him to worry, and also because I didn't want to get constant phone calls from him. I had several
missed calls from him, texts and calls from my sister, mom and husband all
telling me to call him because he wouldn’t stop calling them till he talked to
me… I was in no mood for this and assured them I would call him after
breakfast. NEEDED COFFEE. I had a few work things to deal with and finally was on my way to
breakfast again. (I had pulled over where I had service by a reservoir) I found a little breakfast place at the end Georgetown
and I ordered coffee (I had not had
coffee in a couple days, which could have contributed to my head ache) it was WONDERFUL. Eggs, sausage, potatoes that were supposed to be extra crispy, but were not, and a English muffin.
I talked to a few local people while there, one of which was from Texas, he has
purchase property and rented it on the Vacation by owner site. He said he got
on average $200/night and always had people interested in renting it anytime he
was not using it. He said sometimes he had bidding wars over it, and that he
rented it more than 200 days a year. He also said in the past 4 years he only
had 1 bad experience, and that was when the town hosted some rock concert event
and an agency rented his house. The group of people who stayed in it trashed
it. They thought it was a great idea to jump from the loft to the couch below
in the living room, breaking the couch, they left a large dog locked in the
bathroom who was not pleased about the arrangement and in retaliation proceeded
to chew, and scratch everything between him and the door, they also punched
holes in the walls and that sort of thing. He says the town does not host that
event anymore… I talked to another man who moved to CO for the legal marijuana –
he was on disability form a position at a major automotive manufacturing
company. Because of the modern age of computers his job, that once required
great skill, was now obsolete. He worked on repairing some sort of really crazy
strong glass basically… He has major back problems now he said, causing him a
lot of pain that a certain legal plant lessons.
After Breakfast as promised I called my dad, but he didn’t answer,
so I left a message. I assured him I was fine and just doing some hiking in Colorado
and a little house shopping. I said that I was sorry I had not told him but
that I had not wanted him to worry…
After stretching my legs a little I headed off to Rocky
Mountain National Park visitor center. I arrived around noon maybe a little earlier
at the park office where I was to pick up my back-country permit. It was nice
and warm and sunny there around 80 degrees, so after I washed my hair in the
sink, picked up my permit, I took my tent and other wet things out of the SUV
and hung them on the SUV to dry…. It did not take long. I packed everything up
in their small containers, tent, sleeping bag, bed mat, pillow etc. (this did
take some time) and packed my back pack to prepare for the 5 mile hike to the
bolder field. It turns out I went to the wrong park office, and had to drive
another 1:45 on top of the 1:45 I had just drove to get to the trail head.
After hearing this news, I started to hurry up a little. It worked out alright
though, I enjoyed the drive through the park even though it got me to the trail
head later than I had wanted.
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| Hiking UP the LONG trail |
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| At the trail Head - 3:30ish |
I arrived at the trail head maybe around 3pm and hit the
trail by around 3:30. My back pack was not very comfortable, the park ranger
had told me that water was running through the bolder field so I only carried
(3) 16 0z water bottles with me. The 5-mile hike ended up being more than I had
bargained for – it was 5.7 miles, and all up. Around 2000ft up. It was a LOT
harder than I thought it would be. It was the longest hardest 5.7 miles I had
ever climbed, partly due to my 35lb pack that was not fitted to carry the
weight around my hips because it could not get tight enough to
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| Longs Peak Trail to bolder field |
do so and partly
because I was sore and tired from the day before. Up and up I climbed, slowly
but surely. I was a snail. I tried adjusting my pack in all ways possible, it
still hurt, it was still
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| The LONG trail to the bolders |
heavy. I tried walking with my back and shoulders
tall, I tried walking slumped over, I tried walking with my back straight and
just my shoulders slumped, and with my shoulders straight and just my back bent…
it was still hard and it still hurt. I gave up and trodden slowly on. It was
starting to get dark, the sun was starting to set, and I still didn’t see the
bolder field. I heard thunder. Thankfully an experienced hiker happened upon me
and told me that he had hiked this area a lot and he thought the storm was
going around us to the south, and that from the sound of it was 10 miles away
at least…He told me that if I started hearing lightning and then thunder right
away I should get worried and find a low area with an overhanging bolder to use
as shelter, put my rain shield up and I’d be fine… I didn’t tell him that I had
no rain shield and I had left my rain coat in my car because the weather had
looked great about 3+ hours ago… I just thanked him and continued up.
Thankfully the storm did go around me. Finally, as the colors of the sunset
were starting to come out I rounded a bend and there was the key hole, I
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| THE KEY HOLE, finally - AND tents - the end is near! |
smiled
for the first time in a couple hours and headed on wards. I did not see the camp
site for a while still, but finally I saw tinny specks that were tents, and eventually
tinny people. I was concerned that there would not be water in the bolder
field, because I had finished all my water about a mile before and I was
getting thirsty, if the bolder field had no water, I would not make the summit
the next day, I was done. I wondered down the winding bolder field trail following
carins where the trail was not present. I had not climbed boulders before with
a 35lb pack, and it was a little challenging to balance. I did notice a stream
here and there and heard water running under the bolders, if nothing else I
could hike back after dropping my things off and fill up my water. Finally, I
reached the bolder field camp site. I was so happy. I knew I would make it, but
for the last 2 miles I was not sure how. I was welcomed by fellow campers who
said they had kept the lights on for me (the sun was still barley lighting the
bolder field) I went to a little circle of rocks and dropped all my items. What
a relief. I set my tent up right before it got dark in the tiny circle of
rocks. It was challenging because tent poles need room to spread out, the rock
circle did not allow for this… I did eventually get it up though, however I discovered
had to put rocks on it to hold the poles down because tent spikes do not work
well when you only have rocks to stick them in. I put my head lamp on, set up
the things inside my tent, and by the time I came out again it was dark. One of
the other campers had told me approximately where to find water, so I went out
looking, and sure enough, I heard water and quickly found an area where I could
lower myself down and collect it between the boulders. I filled up my (3)
bottles and headed back to my tent to eat and filter the water. Finally, I had
water, and had eaten, most everyone else was already snoring in their tents,
the campsite was not a quite place. I put my bear container outside and wiggled
into my sleeping bag with extra socks, shirts and tights. I put my ear plugs in
and slept about the same as I had slept the previous nights (poorly) and up
about (3) times to “use the restroom” thanks to the water pills. My alarm woke
me up around 4:30am, no one else was up at the campsite, I went to the latrine or
whatever it was, basically an elevated (3) walled structure with a swinging
door that didn’t stay shut or completely conceal you with a toilet seat and a
lid covering a pit… It had a solar panel on it, and 1.5” PVC piping leading from it, I think
it was supposed to self-compost or something, I’m not sure.
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| Following the bulls eyes |
Around 5am I saw head lights coming and I went out to see
who was
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| The sun starting to come up before the ascent to the summit |
coming. It was a group of (4) girls. Turns out (2) of them were very
experienced climbers who had almost climbed all of Colorado’s 14ers so I asked
if they would mind if I climbed with them. They did not, so that’s what I did.
We hung out at the key hole and waited till it got light. We then crossed
through the key hole and took a left to the ledges. They looked worse than they
were and we carefully made our way along the path following bulls eyes and rock
towers. It was certainly a class 3 feel, but not as hard as Saw Tooth, at least
I did not think so. After we completed the ledges we climbed up the trough
7-800FT., and took some time, some areas
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| Going up... |
were a little complex, took more
climbing than bouldering, but it was more boulders than anything else. Areas of
loose rock were prevalent also. We crossed up the trough and took a left to the
narrows. These were supposed to be really scary, but actually were not that
bad. I learned a lot by watching my new climber friends, how to limit exposure,
how to choose the safest rout, how to move slowly and deliberately. We reached
the home stretch fairly quickly, and I will admit, it did look intimidating. Turns out it was not
bad, keep the same principles and
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| Home Stretch |
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| Home Stretch cont. |
methods used in the other areas for safer
climbing and it felt pretty safe/easy. We reached the summit with only a hand
full of other people on the top ahead of us, enjoyed the views, took pictures,
ate… Then headed back down. I was concerned about going down, it looked a
little rough, but once again, use caution, 3 points of contact, and on some of
the areas a good old controlled butt slide, and it was all good. I ended up
leaving my climber friends because I knew I needed to pack up all my
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| Made it! |
things,
and I had a flight to catch. I got back down to my tent, packed up, and headed
down. It was still a long way down, my shoulders still hurt, but down was MUCH easier
than up. I had realized on the way down that my flight was at 5:15pm, not
6:15pm like I had been thinking (MST vs PCT), my chances of having time for a
food stop had gotten slimmer and I was starting to get a little concerned that
I would even make it on time.
I pushed down the mountain only stopping once or twice to
rest my sore shoulders. I had discovered that if I put the pack on as tight as
it would go around my hips and if I held one of the shoulder supports a little to take some of the weight off the strap
around my waste, then used the other had to steady the sleeping bag that was
tied to the bottom of my pack, and without something to steady it, it would obnoxiously
bounce off my back side with ever stride I took,
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| 14er #3 Longs Peak! |
I could hike a little more comfortably, but a
little more awkwardly. I made it below tree line and figure I had about 2.5
miles left, over the log bridge with the water fall, and down all the switch
backs supported with logs. The pine trees got larger for about a half a mile
and finally it was a full-blown pine forest. I was out of water, but I didn’t
want to take the time to stop and filter more so I continued. I made it to the
bottom around 1:30pm and threw everything into my very messy SUV then headed to
Estes Park to a gas station. I gassed up
and was happy to find a very large single restroom inside to change and clean
up in as best I could. I washed my hair in the sink, and did everything else I
could to be more presentable and smell better, then headed out to clean the
car.
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| My tent set up in the boulders |
On previous trips I had seen signs saying “no washing hair
in sinks” and I had wondered who would
do such a thing… now I knew… Thankfully
I did not see any such signs on this trip.
I re-packed, threw
away garbage, and put everything usable that I could not take with me including
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| Top of Longs Peak |
the little gas tank that I would have used for my cook stove in the Styrofoam
cooler, and wrote “free” on it, leaving it by the gas pump. It was around 2pm maybe a little later – my next stop was to drop the car off. It took maybe an
hour and a half I think to get to the car rental drop off – when I arrived I
was promptly checked out, and told I could get on the shuttle bus that had just
pulled up. I attached all my items to myself, hiking pack, back pack, purse and
sleeping bag and headed to the shuttle. It left fairly quickly and off to the
air port I went. I arrived and got in line to check my bags in the line outside
the airport, only to realize that I had not checked in, after a quick search in
my emails I found the confirmation information, and right as I pressed the
enter button after putting all the correct information in the proper fields the
clock turned to 4:16pm, 59 minutes before my flight, and your supposed to check
in 1 hour before your flight. I was not sure what to do, but decided to stay in
line, I explained what had happened to the check in guys, and they kindly
printed me a boarding pass and checked my bags, I usually don’t tip these guys,
but I made an axcption this time for the extra help that I think maybe they
didn’t have to give me..
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| Little friend on the trail down Longs |
It was nice to only have my back pack and purse now, and I
headed to security, then I attempted to purchase a beer to go, un sucesfully, apparently
they don’t do that in Colorado, no plastic cups to bring on your flight
allowed, so I settled for filling up my water bottle, and purchasing a slice of
pizza and a piece of garlic bread to go and off to my gate I went. They were
already boarding, so I did not have to wait long. I selected a seat inbetween a
man and a younger girl 3 rows behind the front, and again, had to put my bag
back a few rows, I was holding my water bottle and trying to get my back pack
in the over head container, and an older gentleman asked me if he could help,
and offered to hold my water bottle for me, I thanked him, and handed over the
bottle, and much more easily got my bag in. I headed back to row 3 and situated
my other items realizing that my books were in my back pack, and I now had
nothing to read, I was not going to go through the trouble to get them however,
I also realized head phones would have been nice because they offer free movies
during flight, and I could have watched with my phone… Oh well… A man 1 row up
in the next isle over looked at me and the guy next to me and asked if either
of us drank because he had a free drink ticket, Their was a moment of silence that
I was the first to break, therefore the reviever of the drink ticket. I thanked
the man and was pleased with the kindness I had received on the flight… This
was a good flight, and everything that day had gone so well. Meeting
experienced climbers, my decent, and travels to the air port. I talked to the
girl next to me for quite some time. She was an inspiration and made me realize
just how thankful for my health I should be on a daily basis. I don’t know how
old she was but I think probably 26-30, she had a pretty face, brown hair and
eyes too I think. 3-4 years previously she had been living on her own in
Chicago and supporting herself as a paraleagle and running marathons. She said
that she is the one who started running marathons in her group of friends, and
many of them also started to run them after her. Suddenly she started getting
sick with all sorts of things, the doctors treated her for this and that
depending on what she happened to have, her immune system was so weak she just
kept getting sick, one thing would turn into another and eventually she could not
work and had to move in with family members. I don’t know when they finally
discovered that she had lime disease, but it was not soon enough because by the
time they figured out what she had it had developed into chronic lime disease
which is not curable. She was bed and wheel chair ridden for 2 years living
with a family member, unable to work or socialize. She said that she felt her
marathon training helped her mentally, she was determined to get well no matter
what it took. She tried all sorts of treatments, treatments from traditional medicine
and non traditional, she started to re-gain her strength and started water therapy
along with other treatments, she did not elaborate as to what these treatments
were, but she had done it, she had re-clamed her life. It sounded like she
still had medical needs, and was still needing treatment, and probably always
would, but she had decided to move to Colorado and start over. She had traveled
there months before she happened on the same flight as me, and had decided that
the climate helped her chronic pain and fatigue. She said she had a lot of pain
in her legs, that since she had been a marathon runner the disease attached
those muscles and caused a lot of pain. This trip that she was returning from
was a trip to find an apartment, and she had. She was moving the next week, her
dad was going to drive her things out, and her mom was going to fly with her.
They were concerned for her, worried that she will have problems living alone,
etc, but she said that they understood why she wanted to, and that they
supported her decision as well as they could. How cool is that? I think it’s
pretty awesome, and I wish her the best. She wants to climb 14ers too, and I
hope that she continues to recover and will be able to. I wish I had gotten her
contact information…
I got a glass of wine for my free drink, and eventually fell
asleep for a while after eating my pizza and bread stick. I had not eaten much
besides that all day, just a snack on top of the mountain, and some string
cheese while packing up… My granola had been ruined by the ice that melted on
top of it, I had hoped to bring that with me, but was sad to see it was no
longer appealing…
I arrived back in Chicago on schedule around 8:45pm. I
learned from my previous front area luggage mistake, and asked some people that
were standing by the overhead storage where my bag was stored, to pass it up to
me, this way I did not lose my place in the line and get trapped back farther
from the front. I retrieved my bags and
got a shuttle to my car, then headed to a hotel in river woods where I had a
meeting the next day. I had no desire to drive over an hour just to sleep for a
few hours, then to drive 1.5 hours back to a meeting. It was so nice to have a
bed and a shower.
4 days and 3 14ers was a lot of activity, but I’d say I got
my 14ers out of my 1
st trip, and would not have done anything
differently on this trip (for the most part) I do think that perhaps in the
future if there is a nice confortable hotel or lodging of some sort available
near the attracting that I am going to see I will select this option over
camping as long as the same general experiences can be obtained.
The major thing this year is that we will be moving to Colorado. I'm really excited for the adventure, but also sad to leave my family. Not counting moving to Chicago for school for 1 years, I've never moved far from my home town before. I know we're doing it, we're making preparations - it's real, but it does not feel real yet. I suppose it will not feel real till we're pulling out of the drive way, or maybe when I tell my bosses and turn in my notice, maybe when I get a offer for a new job, maybe when our primary house sells and no longer belongs to us, maybe when I say goodbye to our friends and family before we leave. I'm sure it will feel real soon enough. One really cool think i'm looking forward to is that, before we head to Colorado to start jobs and such we're going to take a tour of America, go down through Southern Illinois, to MO, AK, MISS, TEX, NM, AZ, NE, UT, ID, OR, WA, ID (again), MO, WY, ND, SD and finally to Colorado Springs. We're going to live in our camper trailer till we find a house, not sure how long that will take. I'm not sure what Judah will do... He does not want to paint anymore - and wants to do something else as soon as possible. We'd like to open a campground - that was the original plan, maybe run a hunting business in the winter, or rent our RVs. We have a few ideas. I have interviews in January - 2 of them, i'm pretty excited about them. I'm also going to see if my bosses want to keep me and let me get my own work in CO to run... Does not hurt to ask...
Matilda is also coming with us, She's been on a diet for a month or so and is losing weight somewhat slowly. I'm trying to get her into condition so that she can hike 5ish miles with us with out being sore after.. it's a little difficult now because it's really cold right now and I'm having trouble being motivated to take her out... We did go out yesterday with my sister and her dogs for a 4.5 mile run/hike. Tails was really sore after, but seems fine today. I don't get it. I wonder if it's just like me after a long run... she just recovers faster... I just want to make sure i'm not hurting her, I want everything I do with her to help her live a better life, I don't want to take her out for too long and over do it and cause any problems down the road... It's tricky.
The major thing this year is that we will be moving to Colorado. I'm really excited for the adventure, but also sad to leave my family. Not counting moving to Chicago for school for 1 years, I've never moved far from my home town before. I know we're doing it, we're making preparations - it's real, but it does not feel real yet. I suppose it will not feel real till we're pulling out of the drive way, or maybe when I tell my bosses and turn in my notice, maybe when I get a offer for a new job, maybe when our primary house sells and no longer belongs to us, maybe when I say goodbye to our friends and family before we leave. I'm sure it will feel real soon enough. One really cool think i'm looking forward to is that, before we head to Colorado to start jobs and such we're going to take a tour of America, go down through Southern Illinois, to MO, AK, MISS, TEX, NM, AZ, NE, UT, ID, OR, WA, ID (again), MO, WY, ND, SD and finally to Colorado Springs. We're going to live in our camper trailer till we find a house, not sure how long that will take. I'm not sure what Judah will do... He does not want to paint anymore - and wants to do something else as soon as possible. We'd like to open a campground - that was the original plan, maybe run a hunting business in the winter, or rent our RVs. We have a few ideas. I have interviews in January - 2 of them, i'm pretty excited about them. I'm also going to see if my bosses want to keep me and let me get my own work in CO to run... Does not hurt to ask...
Matilda is also coming with us, She's been on a diet for a month or so and is losing weight somewhat slowly. I'm trying to get her into condition so that she can hike 5ish miles with us with out being sore after.. it's a little difficult now because it's really cold right now and I'm having trouble being motivated to take her out... We did go out yesterday with my sister and her dogs for a 4.5 mile run/hike. Tails was really sore after, but seems fine today. I don't get it. I wonder if it's just like me after a long run... she just recovers faster... I just want to make sure i'm not hurting her, I want everything I do with her to help her live a better life, I don't want to take her out for too long and over do it and cause any problems down the road... It's tricky.
The trail was across the road and was easy to follow. The
stars were amazing, but it was a long walk. I was walking towards a black mass
of something… It could have been forest, but I figured it was the mountain…
Eventually pre-dawn light helped to guide my way and the dark mass was indeed
the mountain. I started feeling… well...not well…after a mile or so and I was worried
I was getting elevation sickness…Just kind of queasy, tired, clammy. I took it easy, stopped when I felt out of
breath and kept drinking water… Thankfully I did eventually feel better. I
reached the summit of my first 14er just before peak sunrise. It was beautiful.
I hung out on the top with the people that were there and we took turns taking each
other’s pictures with the sign someone had left under a rock…These signs really bother some people, but I appreciated it....
After stretching my legs a little I headed off to Rocky
Mountain National Park visitor center. I arrived around noon maybe a little earlier
at the park office where I was to pick up my back-country permit. It was nice
and warm and sunny there around 80 degrees, so after I washed my hair in the
sink, picked up my permit, I took my tent and other wet things out of the SUV
and hung them on the SUV to dry…. It did not take long. I packed everything up
in their small containers, tent, sleeping bag, bed mat, pillow etc. (this did
take some time) and packed my back pack to prepare for the 5 mile hike to the
bolder field. It turns out I went to the wrong park office, and had to drive
another 1:45 on top of the 1:45 I had just drove to get to the trail head.
After hearing this news, I started to hurry up a little. It worked out alright
though, I enjoyed the drive through the park even though it got me to the trail
head later than I had wanted.
