Birthday 14er!

People who know me well, know that I like love challenging myself. I'll try just about anything once, if only to see if my body can do it (cycling a double metric century - that's 124 miles y'all, UMCA year rounder, Olympic triathlon and the list goes on). Just ask my brother who has "dared" me to do things practically my whole life. Haha!! I also LOVE hiking. Ever since one of my best friends who I've known since college, mentioned a 14er to me, I've had the itch to accomplish one.

Last year, another one of my besties moved to Colorado. Color me so excited to visit her! Last year, when I visited her, we hiked and hiked. It was a blast, but I was not in the best shape because...Florida. So, no 14er in the cards for me, then. However, we talked about it then and throughout the year. We tossed out the idea of doing it on/around our birthdays. Well, her birthday is two days before mine (I tend to have a ton of friends born in August...maybe we just "get each other") and our birthdays fell on the weekend, this year! Enter the birthday weekend, including a 14er!

We settled on Grays Peak. I received a lot of good feedback about it and read articles that supported it being a good 1st 14er. The trail was well marked, relatively easy (as far as 14er's go) and it was pretty popular, so if something went wrong, there were people around who could help or go and get help.

I landed in Denver and we took off towards Grays. Our plan was to hike, early in the morning. In hindsight, it might not have been the best idea to fly from no elevation to elevation and immediately go on a hike like this. Oh, well. It actually wasn't that bad.

The 2 miles of road leading to the trailhead was bad. Scary, insanely rough, bad. My friend had a 4 wheel drive and it was still scary. To give you an idea of how bad it was, it took 20 minutes to drive 2 miles! The road was rocky, with big boulders sticking up and huge potholes to navigate. Once at the trailhead, though, I knew I would have a great time hiking!

The hike was about 8 miles round trip with about a 3,500 ft elevation gain and we made plenty of friends along the way...

About 2 miles in, I started getting queasy. One summer when I was in college, I worked in Colorado, taking horse back rides through Rocky Mountain National Park. It was an amazing experience. I fell in love with the area immediately. Anyway, during that time, I became familiar with recognizing altitude sickness and remedying it before it got too bad. When I started getting queasy on the hike, I knew I need to eat something. Then, boom, I was fine. I drank a ton of water, so never really had much issue in that department.

 

View of Grays to the left and Torreys to the right

This part of the hike had the only bushes on the trail. If nature called, you either had to find a bush or big rock to hide behind. Basically, if you had to go badly enough, you had to put your inhibitions aside and just go. People were going to see you. They were going to know what you were doing, but c'est la vie. When you gotta go, you gotta go.



trekking up the side of Grays Peak

Mountain Goats!!

Around this part of the hike, we had climbed to about 13,000ft elevation. At least that's what someone's GPS read...anyway, it was shortly thereafter that the climbs got much more steep. After a super steep stretch, I would find myself getting a little light headed. Not bad, but just enough to stop, have some water and let myself adjust for a minute. I didn't mind...it was the perfect opportunity to enjoy the majestic scenery!

Almost there and still all smiles!

 Made it to the top! It was hot the day we hiked, so I was in my sleeveless top at the summit. After lunch though, it got a little cloudy, so I put my fleece and gloves on...basically, almost all of the clothes I brought!

 

Made it!

With the sign, to make it official. It's not official without the sign! :-)



view from the back side of Grays Peak

 

View of Torreys Peak from the top of Grays

 

View from the front side atop Grays Peak

The last view from the Grays Peak Summit, before heading back down

 

It took us about 8 hours, round trip, but to me, it didn't seem that long at all. We took our time going up - about 4 1/2 hours. At the summit, we had lunch, enjoyed the views and took pictures - there were SO many people climbing that day that we had to wait for people to clear out a bit, in order to get good views from all sides. So, we probably stayed at the summit for about an hour. Some people do Grays and Torreys in the same day, which is really doable. It's right there, as you can see...it makes sense to knock out two 14ers in one big hike, but we weren't trying to be heroes!

The hike was tough, but it really wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. I enjoyed every minute of it and absolutely can't wait to tackle another 14er. I'm so awed by what my body and mind can accomplish and am endlessly thankful that I have adventurous friends who are willing to accept these challenging journeys with me!! I've said it a million times and I'll say it again...I'm such a lucky girl!!