Well, we are back from our trip to Colorado and it was a blast. We had such a great time. Joel wanted to "fish" the whole time - I put this in quotes because he has a pole with a fake fish on the end and this is what his daddy casts for him - so he always manages to catch one!! :) He also enjoyed hiking with us and running around outside throwing pinecones and rocks.
Kent managed to talk me into climbing my first 14er (or Mountain over 14,000 feet). We decided to do Uncompahgre Peak in the Southwest corner. We got up early around 4:30 and drove up there on a very rough 4 wheel drive road. We started the hike around 7:45 - according to the register there were 10 other people on the trail ahead of us. We made it in about 2.5 hours and it was quite a climb - I am posting pictures below. I should mention at this point that I have a HUGE fear of heights, so this was no small feat for me (especially the scree field we ran into).
Here is the peak from the trail:
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Here we are at the top:
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Here is the view from the top - pretty amazing:
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Kent wanted us to make a sign...here it is...the exact elevation was 14,309 feet - the sixth highest in Colorado. The lack of oxygen at this point made me think the people who do Everest are CRAZY!
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Finally - I had to include a picture of the scree field (basically rocks that aren't so stable). The picture does not really do it justice as it was STEEP and did I mention I was afraid of heights. I wanted to quit right after going up this and asked Kent if we were above 14,000 feet so I could say I did it (he had a GPS watch on). He said no - he told me later we were at 13,997 - nice.
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So - who wants to go climb mountains with us next time?!
Kent managed to talk me into climbing my first 14er (or Mountain over 14,000 feet). We decided to do Uncompahgre Peak in the Southwest corner. We got up early around 4:30 and drove up there on a very rough 4 wheel drive road. We started the hike around 7:45 - according to the register there were 10 other people on the trail ahead of us. We made it in about 2.5 hours and it was quite a climb - I am posting pictures below. I should mention at this point that I have a HUGE fear of heights, so this was no small feat for me (especially the scree field we ran into).
Here is the peak from the trail:
Here we are at the top:
Here is the view from the top - pretty amazing:
Kent wanted us to make a sign...here it is...the exact elevation was 14,309 feet - the sixth highest in Colorado. The lack of oxygen at this point made me think the people who do Everest are CRAZY!
Finally - I had to include a picture of the scree field (basically rocks that aren't so stable). The picture does not really do it justice as it was STEEP and did I mention I was afraid of heights. I wanted to quit right after going up this and asked Kent if we were above 14,000 feet so I could say I did it (he had a GPS watch on). He said no - he told me later we were at 13,997 - nice.
So - who wants to go climb mountains with us next time?!