BootsnAll Travel Network



Archive for May, 2007

« Home

1 out of 3 ain’t bad?

Monday, May 28th, 2007

We decided to head into the mountains this Memorial Day to hike our first 14ers of the year. Three 14ers main trails start at the same trailhead so we figured we’d backpack in, spend the night and go up at least two of the three the following day. Now, my co-workers mainly said I was crazy, there would be too much snow in the mountains and we’d never make it up but we were pretty anxious to get into the mountains. We hiked in, and got varying reports from the people hiking out. Some said it was too snowy, some said it wasn’t. Anyway, we went ahead and hiked up Mt. Belford no problem. There were a few snow patches but no big deal. Unfortunately, the traverse across to Oxford was pretty icy. Since we didn’t have ice axe or crampons and we had a geriatric dog with us, we elected not to cross. The third mountain, Mt. Missouri, was just way too snowy/icy for non-extreme folks like us.
Anyway, it was wonderful up there. The mountains look amazing all white and we were happy to finally have climbed a fourteener as residents of Colorado. This also made me realize that I am pretty mountain-crazy. Most people who live here will tell you they love the mountains, but there were very few people out on the trails yet. Maybe we are still ‘new’ so we are a little more anxious than others to get into the wilderness and hike up mountains.

belfordcamp.jpg
The view of Belford from our campsite

belford1.jpg
Views from the top

belfordprinceton.jpg
Mt. Princeton from on top of Belford

belfordmolly.jpg
Molly made it to the top! Extreme close-up

belfordme.jpg
Me on top

Good weather, fun weekends

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

We have finally had a few weekends with good weather, so we are taking advantage of it. For the first two weekends of good weather we started our hiking for the year, picking 2 small mountains to go up (small enough that most of the snow is melted). We first hiked up Windy Peak in Golden Gate Canyon State Park (it’s around 9,300 feet or so). I forgot my camera on that one, but I took my camera for our second hike of the year up Bergen Peak (around 9,800 feet). For our 3rd weekend of good weather Glen and Kelly were up from Houston so we went sightseeing and caught a Rockies game. We’ll be taking a weekend off to go to Missouri and get the rest of our stuff (including the cat) but hopefully when we return more snow will be melted. I’ve got a beautiful new pair of hiking boots and am ready to put them to good use.

ZZfirsthike.jpg
Views on the hike up Bergen Peak. The higher mountains are still very snowy!

ZZfirsthike2.jpg
Dave on Bergen Peak.

ZZkellyandglen.jpg
Kelly and Glen pose along the road to Blackhawk.

ZZdaveandglen.jpg
Dave and Glen, and the corner of my car.

ZZscenic.jpg
Beautiful views along the way.