"Do you want to go hiking?"
"Sure," I replied, always game for a hiking adventure. "What do you have in mind?"
"I don't know," she said. "I was hoping you would know of somewhere."
I thought for a few minutes. Last time we went hiking, she got all uptight about the "WARNING! Mountain Lions!" sign at the trailhead. Despite the fact we had a 100+ pound Rotweiller with us, and despite the fact we passed a herd of deer calmly laying in the grass under trees, she was a little nervous about a big cat jumping out from behind a rock and getting us. She informed me that the dog was no help because she would just be dead after the lion attacked her. Then the lion would start in on us.
However, Danielle does like hiking, and she had already mentioned that she and Kelsey were planning on hiking the tallest 14,000 ft mountain in Colorado; Mt. Elbert. That gave me some inspiration.
"Let's do a 14'er," I told her.
When you're in Colorado, the first step is knowing the proper lingo for climbing tall mountains.
"Mt. Bierstadt is supposed to be the easiest one, and we can get there from Boulder the same day."
Hiking 14'ers is a bit like giving birth.
1) It's really not very fun when you're in the middle of it...and
2) it's easy to forget how exceedingly difficult is once some time goes by...
and
3) it gives you a great sense of accomplishment once you are successfully done.
So, we start off thinking we are all hot stuff. We get to hike DOWN for the first mile of the 7.2 mile hike, and that means it's pretty easy. We look at the pretty wildflowers, we laugh, and we're entertained by a truly Colorado sight; a group of 20 somethings drinking Bud-Lite and openly smoking weed before they start the real ascent.
Because you know, smoking weed is basically legal in Colorado, and who doesn't want to get their buzz on before they start up to 14,000 feet?
Then we start to seriously go up. See all those little people in the picture? The tiny dots on the right of the pic? They form a straight line because whoever originally went up this mountain decided that straight up was better than forming the trail with switchbacks, which although may be longer, is much easier on the legs.
And we continue to go seriously up.
Kelsey finds her inner hiking zone and marches forward at a steady pace; a pace faster than us!
I'm starting to remember that I'm now almost 50 years old and that I haven't done this in probably 10 years, and this is REALLY hard, and must be much harder now because I'm almost 50 years old, and what did I think I was doing?
And wait! Who is that woman who must be in her early 60's running down the mountain with only a fanny pack and a water bottle? We saw many people running down the mountain, making us believe that they must have also run up. However, we realized we never did see a single person running up. Except I firmly believe that this woman DID run up. She looked tougher than all of us, and I would bet sans alcohol and pot to boot.
Danielle the sprinter, who finishes her swimming races in usually one minute tops, is now forced to slog up this giant slope for a couple of hours. She wasn't chattering about mountain lions, but she sure was chattering about how hard it was!
After the really long, difficult straight up slope, this was the final ascent. People are always so little when they climb mountains. See them way up there?
Party at the top!
Obviously a lot of people and their dogs spend their Sundays climbing 14'ers.
Danielle and Kelsey got to sign their first logbook.
Danielle found some reserve energy.
She even found enough reserve energy to photobomb Kelsey.
We did what everyone does at the top of a 14'er in Colorado.
We enjoyed the lunches that we had packed, although the sandwiches were thoroughly smushed. But the water in our bottles was still cold. Another secret is that Coloradoans may not make sandwiches every day, but you've got to have a sandwich to eat at the top of a mountain.
The Bud-Lite drinking, pot smoking crew made it to the top after us, donned their birthday party hats, and invited everyone at the top to sing "Happy Birthday!" to one of their group who was celebrating her 22nd birthday by climbing a 14'er. I might be willing to guess that the cars at the top of the next 14,000 foot mountain over could hear us singing.
That would be Mt. Evans, and those people chose to drive to the top of their 14'er and eat their sandwiches, drink their water, ?smoke their pot?, out of the luxury of their back seat.
I'll bet they didn't share our same sense of accomplishment.
Congratulations, Danielle and Kelsey on your first 14,000 ft mountain! You guys were awesome!
Good luck on Mt. Elbert in a few weeks. Remember, that extra 400 feet or so will seem like an extra mile.
