Long's Peak - Our first 14er

Dad decided to come and join us for Labor Day. When he last came over the 4th of July we wanted to hike Long's Peak, but didn't have the time or energy for a 15 mile hike. On Saturday 8/30 (I know it took me a long time to get around to this) we left the house at 3 am with hopes of getting to the trailhead by 4:30. I ended up getting pulled over in Estes Park when I made an abrupt lane change in an attempt to make it to McDonald's for breakfast. Fortunately, the cop realized I was not drunk and allowed us to continue on, but McDonald's was closed - no breakfast.

We ended up starting up the trailhead at 5 am using a little flashlight to follow the trail with 3 L of water each and several snacks. As usual, Dad got in his mandatory minimum of 1 trip and fall before daylight. We made it just above the tree line to the tundra for a beautiful sunrise. We know Mom loved sunsets the best, but this made us think of her also. The hike through the tundra was about 2.5 miles of beautiful scenery as far as the eye could see - small flowers, grasses, tiny creeks and pools of water from snow melt off and awesome lakes below.
After the tundra came what is known as the Boulderfield. Why? Because the trail disappears leaving you to pick your way along from where you are to the visible destination above called the keyhole, climbing over one large boulder after another. No signs of plant life anywhere. You can see the gap called the keyhole in the range over my left shoulder - separating one side of the mountain from the other. Unfortunately, this was a fairly steep climb and we were now at 12,500 ft and running out of O2.














Once passing through the keyhole we made our way along the part called the "ledges" - named because just to the side there is a 1000 foot drop - but it made for a really nice view.















After that flat portion came another kick in the pants called the trough - a long, steep hill with more climbing of boulders. I had to set little goals for us - "lets just get to that next bulls-eye and then you can rest" or bribe dad by saying "when you get to that bulls-eye you can have your Baby Ruth." Seriously though, our heads were pounding from the lack of oxygen and we could only go so far before passing out.






After getting up the trough we entered what is known as the Narrows - another area where if you slipped you would stop about 1500 ft below - not good odds for survival. Again, fortunately it was rather flat to allow for some resting.











The last portion is known as the summit. Sadly enough, you could see the top of the mountain - probably some 300 yards away, but knew it would take at least 30 minutes to cover that distance. All joking aside, this part was probably about a 60 degree incline requiring a lot of movement on all fours.



But we finally did make it - arriving at 14,455 ft in altitude shortly before 12. Here we are on what seemed like the top of the world - everywhere we looked there was nothing higher than we were - quite a site.

We thought the way back down would be easy, but we were exhausted and crawling down boulders and over rocks takes more energy that I could have imagined. What's worse is that we both ran out of water with 4 miles to go. We were so glad when we finally made it back to the truck - 12 hours after we started at the trailhead. It was great bonding time and made for some amazing memories, but I don't know if I want to do it again any time soon.