We're back from Longs Peak and the soreness in our legs has receded. Mad props to Jeff for planning a kick-ass adventure vacation. Last Wednesday Zach and I met up with Doug, another member of the Kimley-Horn (or Killme-Horn, if you prefer) alumni association at the Denver airport and drove up to Estes Park. We stayed at a nice little place called Mary's Lake Lodge, and shared two condos between ten of us. Scott (the only one still at KHA), his wife Irene, their baby Evan, his parents, and her brother were in one condo and Jeff (KHA alumnus and the trip planner), Leslie (his wife), Doug (KHA alumnus), Zach, and I were in another. It was great to see everyone again, and it reminded me of the good points of living in Tucson (namely, the cool friends I made).
We all ate dinner together at a pizza place the first night. Scott said something along the lines of "Cool! Pizza and beer!", at which point for the first time ever in my life, I exerted peer pressure on a friend to NOT drink! We were all "No! You'll dehydrate! You won't acclimate to the elevation as well!!!11!1" Speaking of hydration, we all took hydrating very, very seriously. So seriously that I think one of us peed at least every half hour for the next two days. After dinner we went to the grocery to stock up on food for the hike. We were so obsessed with making sure we were properly nourished, it looked like we were going to be back-packing for a week instead of 12 hours!
On Thursday we did a little sight-seeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. I have my pictures from that day
here. There are a LOT of pictures of Mountains, mountains whose names I don't even know, but I felt the need to put them all on Flickr. Needless to say, there was scenery and nature everywhere. I managed to run into another Aggie (class of '87, living in Boston now) who recognized my ring. We also visited every rest stop in the park, due to our hardcore hydrating. Thursday night we went to an Italian restaurant where we ate carbs like it was going out of style. Then we went home, packed up and tried to go to sleep while it was still light out.
On Friday, we got up at 2:30AM. We got to the trailhead (elevation ~9,500 feet) at 3:00AM and were on the trail by 3:10. The first part of the hike through the forest was in the dark, so we couldn't see much. I was already stressing out about the effort it was taking to breathe, but I think this was more due to nervousness than altitude! We continued hydrating, meaning we stopped for someone to hop off the trail and pee every half hour. Girls are at a real disadvantage here. At least when it was dark, you didn't have to go very far for privacy. The other times I went, I was able to wait until we got to the trail's privies. They're gross, but I'll take that over peeing in the open (and risking peeing ON your pants/boots...um, not that I did this or anything)! We had planned to take in 100 calories every hour, but I think we all got snacky every time we stopped. I tried Gu for the first time. It's better if you think of it as pudding. I do love saying "Gu", though.
As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, especially if they have captions, so you can get most of the story from
my pictures and also
Jeff's. The hike was really, really taxing. By the time we got through the boulder field, I was pretty spent. I had to stop and catch my breath after just about every move. The view through the Keyhole, at the top of the boulder field, was fabulous. So fabulous that I lost my footing, ended up with both feet stuck in a crevice and fell backwards. For a second I thought I was in for a serious fall, but having both feet caught prevented that, and instead I landed squarely on my tailbone. Ouch. About 30 minutes later, when we were about 1/4 of the way through the Ledges, I realized I was done. Actually, I realized I was done at the moment I was about to climb up on some rock and looked down to see that if I slipped I'd fall a thousand feet or so to my death. I decided that even if I had the strength at that moment (which was actually questionable), I wouldn't later and might yet fall to my death. So I said "I'm done" and Zach and I turned around and headed back for the camp sites in the boulder field to wait for the rest of the group. We actually waited there, lying on a rock in the sun like lizards, trying to stop the shivering, for about 4 hours. I had brought an "US Weekly" to read for just such an eventuality, so it could have been worse; plus, the views were still great. So, we skipped the last mile (and 1,000 feet), but still made a good effort by doing the first 6 miles and and 4,000 feet of climb (reaching 13,200 feet). I'm totally okay with being a coward. At least I'm alive to be called one.
Jeff and Leslie summitted about 2.5 hours after we parted ways. The others got to the Trough or the Homestretch, but ran out of gas before the top. After looking at Jeff's picture of the
Homestretch, I'm even more impressed that he and Leslie made it up, and back down, it. We all had headaches from the altitude, but they went away later in the day when we descended further. I also experienced some nausea up near the Keyhole, but that also might have been fear!
The hike back to the ranger station and our cars felt way longer than on the way up, but I suppose that's the case with all hikes. We finished nearly 15 hours after we started! Jeff is thinking of planning another adventure vacation for 2010. In his words "without something to plan, I'm just some guy working out of his house." What will it be? Via Ferrata? Whitewater rafting? Cliff diving? Bushkazi? Whatever it is, as long as it isn't biking (don't own a bike, don't plan to buy one), I'm in! And just in case, I'm going to get a membership at a climbing gym.
