Wednesday I bagged my first 14'er - the 14,267 foot Torrey's Peak. It's located just west of Idaho Springs, south of I-70. I was told that I could drive up the access road, but my poor little Kia Rondo had other ideas!! I made it up the first bit of the 'road' and discovered a huge gully in the middle of the track - not enough room on either side to put a tire, and no way I was going to drive in the ditch. I tried a few times, managed to bottom the car out entirely (insert screeching noises, large clangs, crashes, and finally burning smells) and decided that maybe walking the 3 miles to the trail head was a better idea!! I parked the car at the bottom of the road, and started to hoof it up the road. 10 minutes into the hike, a 4x4 truck came up behind me at a snail's pace and I stuck out my thumb - I figured anyone coming up that road was headed to the trailhead anyway. And sure enough, they were, so I caught a ride up. Yeah for friendly strangers!!
The trailhead was at 11,000 feet, with the trail heading straight up a glacial U-shaped valley. I slung a water bottle from my pack and started up. I managed to find a hiking rhythm fairly quickly, remembering my experiences in Nepal and knowing that going too quickly at the beginning was only going to destroy me at the end and leave me tired, sick, with a headache and needing to go back to lower altitude.
About 12,000 feet, I ran into two guys who were headed down because they decided that it was too cold on the upper reaches of the mountain and that they weren't dressed well enough. Huh. I had enough upper body clothing, but only shorts on below. These guys were in full fleece already, long pants, and they were cold?! Shit.
Past 12,000 feet, the going got rough, the switchbacks started, and thought "why am I here?" kept creeping into my head. Altitude digs hard into the quitter emotions. When you're moving so slowly, breathing in and out at each step, it's hard to imagine that the hike can be any more fun. But I took it slow and steady and all was good. I did actually wind up hiking the last 1/3 of the trail with someone - I ran into a lady, Joan, a retired Colorado resident, on a break at a switchback. We wound up hiking together, leap-frogging the entire way to the summit. That turned out to be a good idea as the wind at the summit ridge was brutal, freezing of the fingers started, and the oxygen deprivation near the summit was debilitating!! But actually not as bad as I thought it might be. Taken slow enough, it was actually fun!! I even ran into a mountain goat on the way up - it just stood right in front of me on the trail, not moving, eating lichen. Offered great photo ops, but it really had to move so I could get up the trail!!
Thursday and Friday I spent at the Colorado and Denver mineral shows. I think I am mineral'd out. 2 full days of browsing around over-priced samples and I'm exhausted!! I did wind up buying 2 samples for our collection, but not much new was on the market that interested me.
Thursday evening, I met Francois in the lobby at the Holiday Inn and we went into the bar for a drink, then out for supper. Amazingly, it was a good time. I really had fun - we talked about life, science, our jobs, our lives, etc. Like two normal friends who have not seen each other in a while. And he genuinely seemed interested in what I had to say, and vice versa. I didn't feel threatened or uncomfortable or insecure at all. I think we've both matured. We shared a bottle of wine and it helped to loosen us up a bit, which we really didn't need. It was nice to laugh and joke with him and I'm glad that we got together, to the point where I asked him to meet me for lunch today as well. When we said our goodbyes this afternoon, I was actually sad - it's been so many years since we've spent time together and then to have a great week and have to separate again? Hard to take. But part of me is still uncertain - can I let my defenses down this much and not get hurt? I don't know.
No comments:
Post a Comment