Gray's Peak

Jeff (a coworker), Kelly, Heath, and I were planning on going for a hike on Sunday morning up to Cataract Lake. It was going to be a 10 mile round trip with 2300 feet or so of elevation gain. Saturday night, Jeff copped out to do homework, so I thought hmmm...why not do something a little easier...like climb a 14er? Somehow I talked Heath and Kelly into going, and we got up early Sunday morning and headed west to Gray's Peak. Gray's is just a few miles south of I-70, just west of Georgetown, CO, so it's a pretty popular trail. It's also supposed to be one of the easiest, and most people cross the saddle and summit Torrey's Peak also. We figured since this was our first one and we weren't sure how we'd feel, we'd start with just Gray's. We got there about 7:30 to an almost full parking lot and headed up. The first two miles of the four mile trail (you start at around 11,000 feet altitude) have a fairly gentle upward slope, which really helped me get acclimated to the altitude. At about the halfway point, the trail starts getting steeper. There were still a lot of snow patches, which were a little tricky to traverse. We (or at least me) had to stop at first every 100 feet or so, then every 50 feet, then about every 20 feet to catch our breaths and rest our legs. It wasn't so much that we were out of breath from exertion, it was just the simple lack of air. After we stopped, about five seconds later I was breathing normally. We finally reached the summit around 10:20, so it took just under 3 hours to go the four miles (and, more importantly, the 3040 feet in elevation gain). At the top, we ate, rested (behind some rocks, out of the cold wind), and took pictures. There were two people there when we got there, and soon after about 5 more showed up. That group decided to go on to Torrey's, which is about a half mile away but a 500 foot elevation drop then a 500 foot elevation gain. By then, it was starting to get really cloudy and windy, and we weren't too prepared for a snowstorm, so we took off. Going down was MUCH faster, although much harder on the knees. We passed many more people going up, even one that Kelly and I worked with, and ran into some sleet. Closer to the bottom the sun came out again, and I was able to take off my hoody and get some sun on my arms. We got back to the parking lot about 12:30. On the way back to Denver, we stopped at a really slow Starbucks to reward ourselves. I think I might be up for doing a 14er again, now that I know I can. There's nothing like the feeling of success when you finally summit. :)

So that was another first. That weekend was just full of firsts for me! Now, if I had worn the bikini on the 14er hike....lol.