Distance - 9.25 miles
Elevation Gain - 4,500 feet
Our training for the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu has begun! My parents were thoughtful enough to watch the kids while Stacey and I began our training sessions for Peru in September.
We drove down to Buena Vista for dinner and then a little ways up Cottonwood Pass to the trail head Friday night. Typically I get up really early (e.g. 3 a.m.) for hikes, drive out, hike, then drive back. This trip was the first time I drove out the day before and car camped. The new 4Runner "camper" worked great. We just laid the seats down in the back and got all comfy on air mattresses and sleeping bags. Cleaner, warmer, no insects, and no setup/teardown required like you have with tent camping.
This was Stacey's second 14er and my 24th. However, I was the slow one on the day. It took longer than usual and was one of my harder days on the mountain for several reasons. First, I had received 4 immunizations for Peru two days prior, which made me a little bit off. Then, I was battling some dehydration on top of it being a really hot day. I've also been fighting a bad ankle (feels similar to a sprained ankle) for a couple of weeks. I went really slow in between painful steps and feeling a little nauseous until we made it to the top. At the top I reached for my miracle product, Red Bull. After drinking a little bit of that I felt amazing and back to normal. It's always been great hiking, but this time it REALLY worked.
The hike back down was long and hot. Towards the end I took of my shirt because I couldn't take it any longer. Thankfully we had a ice cold cooler with water waiting for us. The area was beautiful especially towards the bottom section near the river. This was good training. We did 9.25 miles but 9,000 total feet up and down. Although the Inca Trail is going to be about 26.0 miles over four days, we'll only gain/descend a total of about 12,000 vertical feet. We did 75% of that total today.
Distance - 11.0 miles
Elevation Gain - 5.800 feet
Time - 6.5 Hours
Today I climbed my 22nd and 23rd 14ers. This brings my total up to 43% of them in the state. August is the best time of the year to hike...still warm but not hot and no thunderstorms or snow to navigate.
Unfortunately, I woke up at 2 a.m. on my own, an hour before the alarm was set. I casually got ready and was out the door by 2:30. I don't think I've left for hiking this early on my own, so it's probably why the drive up was just as adventurous as the hike. A mountain lion ran right in front of me as he scampered across the highway near the entrance to the Pikes Peak Highway. I wasn't expecting to see a lion before 3 a.m. Around 4 a.m. I was getting tired. I did the math and realized that I would probably arrive about 30 - 45 minutes prior to daylight, so I pulled off the road in Hartsel and took a 45 minute cat nap in my truck.
The hike was harder than expected. Essentially I made three summits since the route goes over Belford to Oxford and then back the same way over Belford a second time. 5,800 feet in elevation gain is a good haul; more than a mile straight up. I have gotten to the point on these class 2 hikes where I don't need to stop for a break until I reach the top. I'm not going fast, but I'm still doing all the passing. Part of it is knowing my pace...but, more importantly, I've recently started hiking with as little weight as possible in my pack and I've fine tuned what I need to eat and drink along the way.
The summits of these two mountains weren't very pretty. I did lay down for a nice rest at the top of Oxford before heading back, since the weather was so nice. The best scenery was actually back below treeline where the water was flowing and the trees were changing color. The trail head is in Missouri Gulch, which is just west of Clear Creek Reservoir, both about 15 miles north of Buena Vista.
One final thing to note is that I feel pretty good today (the day after). I did a little experiment and took 800mg of ibuprofen as soon as I got home, ate around 75g of protein at dinner (after a day full of mostly simple carbs), drank enough water, and slept about 9 hours...exactly what my body needs to repair itself.
Distance - 8.5 miles
Elevation Gain - 4,100 feet
Time - 5 hours
Today I hiked up to the third highest point in the United States, the second highest in the Contiguous United States, and the highest point in Colorado. 14,433 feet to be precise. OK, enough with the numbers, it was actually a pretty easy hike. There is nothing special about the highest point in Colorado other than that fact that it is the highest point in Colorado. Still cool though.
I was supposed to hike Mt Elbert the prior weekend but delayed the trip since I wasn't feeling 100%. I woke up at 3 a.m. since thunderstorms looked likely for the afternoon. Looking back that was probably too early, since the 2.5 hour drive meant I started hiking at 6:00 and the easy hike meant I was on the summit by 8:40. It's cool to think that I was on the top of a mountain about the same time most people were finishing up their Frosted Krusty Os for breakfast. I packed light which meant I didn't really stop to take a break. The best part about getting an early start was that it allowed me to get above the fog and low clouds before they burned off, resulting in some great pictures.
A dense mist settles over the forest. The Sasquatch lurks:
Looking at the false summit, last patches of green, at the top:
You can see that the wet spring we've had in town means up in the mountains. I didn't run into too much snow, you could walk around most of it, but there were a few small snow fields to cross:
One guy's tradition. It's a good tradition to have since pretty much every summit has enough wind to fly a kite. Kite flyer and his female hiking partner hiked up to the top with a pair of skis. Although you can't tell the length at all (the depth perception is non-existent), the second photo shows the section I decided to glissade (i.e. slide on my rear) instead of hiking down. It was a great ride. The third photo is heading back to the the trail head with Twin Lakes in view:
It's easy (on the eyes) being green after a few hours of all brown and white:
Quintessential Colorado. At only about 30 minutes from "a little place called Aspen", you start seeing a lot more water and a lot more green. I didn't take any pictures of the beginning of the hike, but it was through a huge Aspen grove with broad leaf plants and wildflowers carpeting the ground. I parked at the top of the 4WD road, meaning that I had some fun driving through this stream crossing twice:
This hike pushed me to the 40% mark. I'm closing in on making it up half of the state's 53 tallest mountains.
