[cue the nuns] Climb Ev'ry Mountain (daytrip part 2)

When we had run out of geocaches, we headed toward Mount Evans. The weather was perfect--cloudy but warm, and we hoped it would hold. On the way up we passed several campgrounds that we considered staying at that night. The last one was actually at the base of Mount Evans, right across from the ranger station. We paid our $10 and headed up the road. The ranger station itself is at about 10,000 feet so we were already pretty darn high. It is 14 miles from the entrance station to the parking lot at the summit, and that's 14 miles of twisty, narrow road with no guardrails to keep you from plummeting off the sheer cliffs. Urp. Not for the vertiginous or faint of heart, indeed. About halfway up the rain began. And then the hail. Actually, it might have been sleet, but either way, it was wet and slushy and stuck to the road. As we climbed in altitude, we watched the temperature indicator on the rearview mirror steadily drop from the high 60s to the 50s, and then the 40s.

There was more traffic than I had expected, seeing as how it was a Tuesday afternoon and the sightseeing conditions were less than ideal. The already white-knuckle-inducing roads were made slippery by the rain and sleet. Most of our fellow travelers were taking it easy around the switchbacks, but we did have the misfortune of meeting up with a school bus (huh? what moron drives a school bus up roads like those?) on one of those hairpin turns. At least we were on the inside of the curve, but even still it was a little hairraising. Quin handled the car expertly, but I think we were both thankful for 4-wheel-drive!

We made it to the summit parking lot (elevation 14, 130 ft.) and it was still hailing. About an inch and a half of the slushy stuff had accumulated on the sidewalks and it was still coming down, so we just sat and waited. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait more than a few minutes before the storm stopped, the clouds cleared and the sun came out! Really, it was perfect timing. It was still really cold (we're talking 40 degrees) but the sun really helped. We got the dog and the baby out of the car and explored. You can hike the last 130 feet to the very top of the summit, so we headed up the path with a camera and tripod in tow to record for posterity our very first Fourteener.

I've lived at what the folks at Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker consider to be "high altitude" all my life, excluding the 2 years at sea level in Savannah. Heck, our house is actually higher than the 5280 feet above sea level that Denver is famous for, so I assumed that I could safely ignore all those warnings I saw posted about altitude sickness. Imagine my surprise when we started up the trail to the summit, a very easy walk with only a slight incline, and could not breathe after a few steps. The brochure we received at the ranger station said that there is only 40% as much oxygen in the air at 14,000 feet as there is at sea level, and boy, could our bodies feel it! In addition to being winded easily, I was lightheaded and felt like my vision was slightly out of focus. Consequently, we stopped about 40 feet short of the tippy-top and called it good. We took a few snaps, then headed back to the car, as we were worried about the effects of the cold and the altitude on Maren. If it bothered us so much it surely must have been as hard or harder on her little body.

The drive down the mountain was much easier. Though the air was still very cold, the sun managed to quickly melt the slush and the roads were just slightly wet. We stopped at Summit Lake, which was a beautiful glacial lake at an elevation of around 12,000 feet where the ground is alpine tundra. There were wildflowers everywhere and the sun sparkled off the small, clear lake. I left Quin & Co. in the car and took off with my camera. I hiked a very short distance and was rewarded with an incredible view down another glacial valley. You could clearly see where the glacier had begun and carved a channel out of the mountain, leaving 5 small lakes in its wake. We left at about 4:00 pm and continued down, stopping to look at yellow-bellied marmots, scraggly mountain goats and centuries-old bristlecone pines. As we drove, the sun disappeard and the clouds rolled in again. It was still pretty cold and we started to worry about what the temperatures might drop to that night since our next task was finding a campsite. Then the lightening began, and we made the disappointing decision to nix camping for the night and turn our journey into a daytrip instead. It's possible that the storm would have passed over and may not have even rained a drop, but we just weren't willing to take that risk. With a dog and a baby, we couldn't afford it.

We are going to try again tomorrow afternoon. We won't be doing Mount Evans--one trip up and down that slippery, breathless peak was enough for me! We will be looking for more geocaches and perhaps even some letterboxes this time. We hope to camp Friday night, so keep your fingers for us crossed that the weather will cooperate! It's supposed to be about 100 degrees and dry down here in the city, so maybe that will mean good things for the mountains as well.

Even with the weather, we had a fun adventure! Can't wait to see what the weekend brings!