Out of the caves, into Colorado and nature's knife edge a.k.a. the Rockies. Specifically, a small section of the vast range, Rocky Mountain National Park. One always hears about the Rockies and how gorgeous the area is but there is something about actually being there. With so many sights to see, peaks to gaze up at, lakes to reflect upon, trails to get "lost" on, etc. it is almost overwhelming. We do our best with a quick study (prior research) of the parks as we approach them, sometimes knowing exactly what we intend to do within the parks we visit. But with RMNP we kinda dropped the ball and just showed up with the intention to wing it. Thankfully, some friends local to the area gave us some tips on hikes to do and at one point even said "If you're real adventurous you could attempt Longs Peak".
Well, asking us if we want to be adventurous and put a big mountain in the mix (especially for Karl) you know we are sold. So, it was determined that we would attempt to summit our first 14ers in our 14th park (sounds so poetic, right?) but that is a story is to be continued…
When we arrived at Rocky Mountain National Park, the first thing we did was head towards our campsite. Usually we are "first come-first serve" kinda campers but this time we decided to utilize the NPS reservation system online to snag a site ahead of time, knowing that we would be arriving at the tail end of many people's labor day festivities. When reserving a site like that there is a lot of guess work… Sure you can look at a map to make sure you aren't the site right next to the smelly privy or dumpster but how nice your site is, how flat the text pad is, or who your neighbors might be are all a gamble… Well, luck was with us and we got a sweet campsite spot in the Moraine Park area of RMNP, on our own lil hill with a tent pad large enough for the Kingdom, and best of all… the best neighbors (shout out to @ashleybeatrice and fam)!
Once settled, we wanted to orient ourselves with the park and what better way than driving the famed Trail Ridge Road and the dirt Old Fall River Road? Once again, I am pretty sure taking the Old Fall River Road was just another test to Karl & Ele to see how well they could drive it!
Keep in mind that we went from South Dakota straight down (quickly breezing through Nebraska) to Colorado. But, even though we were heading "down" we were gaining elevation. Don't quote me on this but I believe the base elevation in the Black Hills area is only around 4,000ft with the highest point we may have been at being around 5,500 some feet above sea level… and our destination is RMNP where the base elevation is can range between 7,800ft and 12,183ft (Fun Fact: RMNP had the highest paved roads in any National Park in the US. Trail Ridge Road crests at that 12,183 ft I quoted). So, when we would get out of the car for a quick jaunt up a ridge for a view, it was literally breathtaking.
Knowing that we would need to get our legs and lungs ready for a challenge, we hiked to many a waterfalls and lakes. Excursion #1 in the Southeast corner of the park in Wild Basin, in which we hiked to Copeland Falls, Calypso Cascades, Ouzel Falls, and Ouzel Lake.
Total mileage was probably around 10 miles and included beautiful views and the boldest chipmunks I have ever encountered.
After, as if that wasn't enough, we took a small jaunt near our campsite on Cub Lake Trailhead in search of wildlife rather than water features. The rutting period was starting for the elk, so throughout the hikes, especially as the sun was setting you could hear the haunting, yet thrilling sound of the bugle the males were bellowing.
Excursion #2 led us to Bear Lake, where we (of course) took a stroll in the morning light around said Bear Lake and made friends with the tiny squirrels
and snowshoe hares alike.
Continuing the day's adventure we took a trail that would lead us to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake.
The mileage on this days walkabout was shorter (~7 miles), but the elevation gain more steep, which also gave us views of Long Peak that would be awaiting us the next day…
Continuing the day's adventure we took a trail that would lead us to Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake.
The mileage on this days walkabout was shorter (~7 miles), but the elevation gain more steep, which also gave us views of Long Peak that would be awaiting us the next day…
And now the story you have been waiting for… Longs Peak. A quick lesson on 14ers, Longs Peak, and our experience with them… A 14er (of I guess the proper spelling would be fourteener), in the mountaineering parlance of the Western United States, a fourteener is a peak with an elevation of atlas 14,000ft. and they are some of the most photographed, sought out excursions, and are among the most difficult to summit in Colorado. Longs Peak, is like the roof of the park, being the highest point in RMNP. It is very prominent along the skyline with its flat top slicing across the sky, and if you have never witnessed RMNP skyline for yourself, you might also just check out a Colorado State quarter, as Longs is featured there as well. Funny enough, when you research Long Peak via Keyhole route, there are many warnings that "this is NOT a hike" it is a lot of class 3 and 4 scrambling (exact words from NPS: It is a climb that crosses enormous sheer vertical rock faces, often with falling rocks, requiring scrambling, where an unroped fall would likely be fatal. The route has narrow ledges, loose rock, and steep cliffs.). So add 15+ miles of hiking/scrambling with over 5,000ft of elevation gain all to be attempted in a single day's outing, I can see why this website I found (http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/usrpeaksrall.php), listed Longs as the 14th hardest (by difficulty) of the 14ers… and like I said before we were doing it on our 14th National Park visit. *We should have played the #14 in the lottery of something, huh?* Now, OUR experience with 14ers in Colorado was nonexistent. This would be our FIRST and to be honest, after my experience on the hike… it will probably be my LAST.
To summit, it is recommended that you start before sunup which requires waking in the middle on the night in the cold and hiking in the dark. I have now determined that I am NOT a fan of night hikes, especially when there isn't even sufficient moonlight to help light your way. There is nothing to see but shadows and the small spot your source of light illuminates and small flickers of light blinking from other hikers on their way up the trail ahead of you. Plus, with my whole eye/forehead issue, using a headlamp for an extended period of time is just a debacle, so awkward attempts at a "neck"light or holding the headlamp with my trekking poles often occurred. So, imagine if you will, we are up at 2am and on dark trail by 3am and hiking continuously steep and rocky switchbacks in the blackness until SUNRISE.
The colors of sunrise were such a welcome sight and moral boost, so we found a nook in the rocks protected from the worse of the wind and hunkered down for a break to watch the rest of the orb of light come into view (and 2nd breakfast). What was supposed to be a respite, turned out to be the first time I considered turning back… Already tired from the early start (a.k.a. lack of a full night's sleep) and feeling a bit queasy with the altitude gain, we were sitting in our wind protected notch and Karl rips one. Yes, a fart. This passing of gas is far from uncommon when living out of a car with Karl but this one was of biblical proportions, so much so that I started gagging and nearly brought up everything in my stomach. It was that bad. Karl, uber entertained, just laughed…
Rather than sit longer in the stench, we started moving on. And the colors were beautiful in that early light.
By 6am we were within the boulder field that is under the Keyhole Route. This is the second time I considered turning around.
Sitting on a rock as large as a car, looking up at where we still needed to scramble over all the talus to, I felt spent. It was here that many of the people that were hiking ahead of us, were coming back DOWN. At first, I thought it was people that already summited and were descending, but no… a few of the groups stopped to chat with us and told us that they felt the winds were way too strong to cross over the Keyhole. One couple, who have done Longs Peak before, said they have never experienced winds that strong and did not want to attempt it. Honestly, it did sound like a huge waterfall was cascading down upon us combined with a train rumbling by at the same time, but it was all the wind beating against the rocks.
Somehow Karl convinced me to continue into the battling breezes that were apparently sustained 25 mph with over 40 mph gusts to contend with. Interestingly enough, we weren't even at the "hardest" part of the hike yet, that would come after we crossed over the formation on the ridge line known as the Keyhole.
On the most exposed part (with the highest wind gusts), Karl and I tied ourselves together with a length of our bright yellow webbing. My thought was that if I was going to get blown off a mountain, I was damn sure going to take Karl with me. While Karl was joking with other hikers that if we did get blown off or fall down at least the bright neon yellow would be easy to spot us for rescue purposes.
Of course, we were fine (well Karl was, I needed some coaxing) and once we were over the edge of the Keyhole we reached the true scrambling part and what they call "The Ledges". Here is where you start following the red & yellow "bull's eyes" (some hikers were calling them fried eggs) onto some of the rocks, like an odd connect the dots trail marker. These sprayed markers lead you through a series of narrow ledges along a cliff edge, all while looking down into the valley below. Along the Ledges, I experienced the 3rd (and last) and most terrifying possible turn around point… I, paying more attention to my foot placement at one point, cracked my forehead really hard against a beautifully jutting out rock ledge. Oh, the goose egg that started to emerge right away was impressive, swelling enough to make my left eye harder to open. Yea, there were tears, a lot of them, at that point. So bumped, bruised, and blurred eyed, the ultimate question was posed: do we just go down now? When Karl asked that, I actually started to cry harder… There was a part of me (probably the throbbing of my forehead) that wanted to turn around and find comfort again, but the majority of me was determined. I didn't want to have to "go through all of that" just to stop now!
I tell people all the time, I never claimed that I was good at all this "outdoorsy" stuff, I only claimed to love it, and what I lack in skill, I make up with will power. So, we pushed on (now an even slower Stacy-pacy) going at a snail's pace, due to my lack of confidence after the head vs. rock encounter. Plus, my balance felt off after the knock to the noggin.
But, we make it to the "Trough", which is basically an avalanche chute of a bunch of loose rock that you have to claw one's way up and over another ridge (which winds to contend with again) to start the the "Narrows". Appropriately named, this section is just a narrow and sheer vertical rock face along a narrow ledge where you climb over boulders and slide along feeling for hand holds along this constricted ledge. But, at the end is what they call the "Homestretch". Oh, HOMESTRETCH sounds so promising and welcoming and reassuring, but damn it tests the last of your nerves and drains what energy you have remaining. It is a polished granite slab, that guards the last mile and a half to the summit, and feels like is just straight up. That last stretch is a big push of elevation gain and all that keeps you on the rock are your hands and feet and grit.
I tell people all the time, I never claimed that I was good at all this "outdoorsy" stuff, I only claimed to love it, and what I lack in skill, I make up with will power. So, we pushed on (now an even slower Stacy-pacy) going at a snail's pace, due to my lack of confidence after the head vs. rock encounter. Plus, my balance felt off after the knock to the noggin.
But, we make it to the "Trough", which is basically an avalanche chute of a bunch of loose rock that you have to claw one's way up and over another ridge (which winds to contend with again) to start the the "Narrows". Appropriately named, this section is just a narrow and sheer vertical rock face along a narrow ledge where you climb over boulders and slide along feeling for hand holds along this constricted ledge. But, at the end is what they call the "Homestretch". Oh, HOMESTRETCH sounds so promising and welcoming and reassuring, but damn it tests the last of your nerves and drains what energy you have remaining. It is a polished granite slab, that guards the last mile and a half to the summit, and feels like is just straight up. That last stretch is a big push of elevation gain and all that keeps you on the rock are your hands and feet and grit.
Yea, after all of that, you realize you pretty much have to do it ALL over again to get back down. Now, the only difference is that you are exhausted and, especially on the "homestretch" section, you have to look DOWN rather than up (And as any climber knows, down climbing takes a whole new set of nerves).
But, on the way down, there doesn't feel like there is as much of a time restriction, as long as the weather is nice and we had a perfect blue skied day. All you have to worry about is going slow and find good footing and handholds as you crawl from boulder to boulder. We made friends with some guys from Jersey (representing east coast lung capacity with us) and together we all took our time huffing and puffing our way back down the route.
But, on the way down, there doesn't feel like there is as much of a time restriction, as long as the weather is nice and we had a perfect blue skied day. All you have to worry about is going slow and find good footing and handholds as you crawl from boulder to boulder. We made friends with some guys from Jersey (representing east coast lung capacity with us) and together we all took our time huffing and puffing our way back down the route.
If you measure leaving the car to getting back to the car (not including breaks, etc) the whole thing took us 16 hours! INSANE!
Many people did it much faster, but Stacy-pacy works for me. I'm not here to win any races, but at least I can say for 14ers' that I have "been there, done that, not intending to ever do it again"! Check off the bucket list, Thanks RMNP.
Oh, and the awesome neighbors I mentioned earlier in this post… they win the award for most appreciated act of kindness. Even though they were leaving that morning, they knew we had a long day on Longs the day before and they left us a surprise on our picnic table...breakfast! How sweet is that????
With the accomplishment of surviving our first 14ers, we figured we earned a beer. What a better place to have a cold one than at an Oktoberfest? It just so happened that a friend mentioned that they were going to head to Breckenridge, CO for the annual Oktoberfest AND, to make it even better, another friend told us that he would be playing some hard-core polka music at the event. We were sold.
Beer, friends, and seeing Dustin blowing a trumpet in lederhosen… how could one pass that up?
Some reluctant polka dancing happened (it was that or the chicken dance, so we took the lesser of the evils) and then the night continued with much drinking, flipping, an arcade (including a claw game win of a Pion!), and a nice hangover the next day (I blame the altitude again/and Dustin).
Beer, friends, and seeing Dustin blowing a trumpet in lederhosen… how could one pass that up?
Some reluctant polka dancing happened (it was that or the chicken dance, so we took the lesser of the evils) and then the night continued with much drinking, flipping, an arcade (including a claw game win of a Pion!), and a nice hangover the next day (I blame the altitude again/and Dustin).
Hanging out with people we already knew felt so good, we decided we wanted more and therefore drove to Aspen to visit Karl's college snowboarding buddy, Jon and his girl, Catherine. Interestingly enough (as you might have read in our last blog post about Ele) exactly 2 years ago on another visit to see Jon is where this whole trip started becoming a plan…
Once in Aspen, Jon and Catherine immediately welcomed us into their network of friends and invited us to brush off our anti-social wanderings ways by going to a picnic in a park that included all the fun things like sand volleyball, slacklining, and skateboarding.
To make the night even more memorable, the gathering got busted by the cops for "noise violations". Oops.
The following days included catching up with friends, making new ones, hiking, climbing rocks, and riding bikes. It was pretty awesome, as usual with that crew.
While in the area, we did revert back to our reclusive ways by taking a "rest day" for ourselves (and our sore muscles/hungover heads) at Avalanche Ranch, a hot spring near Aspen. Even though Karl & I were soaking and getting clean in the waters of the hot spring, Ele was still covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt and we found a note written in the grime from a fellow PAer .
While in the area, we did revert back to our reclusive ways by taking a "rest day" for ourselves (and our sore muscles/hungover heads) at Avalanche Ranch, a hot spring near Aspen. Even though Karl & I were soaking and getting clean in the waters of the hot spring, Ele was still covered in a thick layer of dust and dirt and we found a note written in the grime from a fellow PAer .
We ended up meeting the gentleman who wrote the note, an adorable 80 some year old who was there with his whole extended family for a granddaughters wedding. The whole experience was pretty smile-worthy.
Oh, and we visited the ghost town of Ashcroft too. Getting to wander around the old buildings all by ourselves with the colors of fall just starting was eerily stunning.
<3 S
A few weeks after we left our friends in Aspen, we got the sad new that one of the crew suddenly passed away. I am grateful that we got the chance to meet you, hang out with you, and even get a few coveted ear scratches in, Hitch. You were adorably awesome.
To Jon & Catherine & those who loved Hitch… although it is difficult today to see beyond the sorrow, may looking back in memory help comfort you tomorrow.
"You think dogs with not be in heaven?
I tell you, they will be there long before any of us."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
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