For a few years now I've been an avid mountain biker with each season having at least one will breaking, reality inducing rendezvous with gravity. This year being no different. After a small bout of depression related to lack of adrenaline, my frequent riding partner Ron invited me along on a day hike. Initially I wasn't very optimistic about the joys of hiking as I had always considered such an activity to be a little tame for my taste. For most of life I've bounced from activity to activity, immersing myself with what has been described to me as a compulsion. Hiking had always seemed to be what people do with kids on Sunday before stopping for ice cream and after taking pictures of the buffalo. As I came to realize, hiking can be a very general term for everything from a two mile loop in the local county open space to a mountaineering expedition covering an eight hour approach followed by a class five WI ascent. Though the latter being a little more on the winter mountaineering side, but I digress. What I found during this initial hike was that the rush I achieved by falling down a mountain while sitting on bike seat, or I guess the feeling of opposing my personal prowess on the rigors of such an activity, was perfectly interchangeable with the exhilaration of pressing onward to reach a point where many but with increasing difficulty fewer have reached. And so my latest obsession begins.
The morning of Sept. 27 with much anticipation and a little nervousness I set out to "climb" (in the case of Mt Bierstadt, hike) my first of Colorado's 58 14,000 Ft. peaks. At first fight the mountain was awe inspiring, enormous and isolated enough to appreciate its true size.
Though Bierstadt is considered one of the easier of the Colorado 14'ers the ascent was by no means an easy outing. Regardless and as with many of the other peaks company was not in short supply.
The weather was perfect and as the day rolled on and the hike became increasingly more difficult. Approaching the summit the ascent turned more towards a low class three scramble and gave way to a great view of Grays and Torrey's peaks, on the list for next summer.
From the summit the views were spectacular including Mt. Evans and the path of a future endeavor.
After a short break for lunch a some good conversation with some of the others on the summit we headed back down, notice to left the of the green, above the shadows is where we started. I had definitely found a new activity.
Additional Photos
No comments:
Post a Comment