Mountain Lungs and Legs

It's not secret that the Colorado Mountains have totally captivated my heart. It's also no secret that my eyes are bigger than my ability, and that I need to whip myself into shape if I want to keep going higher.

Sunday, I went to church then in the afternoon I went for a hike at Green Mountain Open Space.

It was a nice long hike with beautiful views. 

My hope was that this hike would be useful in preparing me for today, when I hiked Mt Yale, one of Colorado's 14ers, with my co-worker Hannah.

We left town at 350am, with a 2.5ish hr drive to the trail head.

Mt Princeton

We arrived with the sun and started the hike at 630am.

This is where I need Mountain Lungs. I don't have them yet.  The ascent was only 4.25 miles, but we gained almost 5000 ft in elevation, i.e. I couldn't catch my breath. You can see a distinct difference in the exhaustion between those who are acclimated to the climb, and those of us who aren't quite there yet.


Oh hey, there's a marmot!

The hike was grueling, definitely challenging.

About the last 200 yards was a boulder field where we had to scramble to the summit. 

But we made it from bottom to top in under 4 hours!

14,196'

A lot of summits have a laminated sign available with the name of the peak and the elevation that we can all use. This particular sign was kept in a Jack Daniels bottle.

So we had lunch, enjoyed the view, chatted with other hikers, then started down.

Soon thick, dark, menacing clouds rolled in. 

We decided to take the descent at a slight jog to escape the rain. It seemed easier in a way, to use gravity to keep our speed up when we took the steep trail down.  This is where I could use some mountain legs, cause boy did I feel it burn. 

Well we made it, 6hrs and 10mins total. It was so great and so rewarding.  At one point during the climb when I was really hurting I thought, "Why do I think this is fun?!" But once you reach the summit, the view and the accomplishment is incredible.  Sure there is other stuff to do that is not as challenging, but I'm here now, I have the time, I have the ability (though not without great effort).  It's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Why not do it?