Getting High in Colorado

Since Cate and I left Salida, we have been adventuring as much as possible. We knew we had some time to spare, and we got it into our heads to climb some of Colorado's famous 14ers. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, both because we went to some beautiful places, but we also met a lot of interesting people. We spent only one day since leaving Salida on our route--we have spent the rest of our time biking to mountains to climb or avoiding closed roads.


We stayed with Linda and Bernie in Salida and had a very nice rest day.

Out of Salida, we spent a day up on a high, hilly, and competely treeless plateau. When we saw trees on some hillsides, we decided to head in that direction to camp. We ended up camping on someone's very sketchy and abandoned ranch, and we hope they didn't mind. Because if they did they would probably shoot us. There was a nice sunset up there!


North of Salida, in abandoned ranch land.

From here, we planned to go to Fairplay, and in the next day or two, climb Quandary Peak. We had heard at we needed snow shoes for the climb, so we planned on biking all the way to Breckenridge, biking back to the mountain and camping, climbing the mountain the next day, and then returning to Breckenridge to return the show shoes. It sounded like a complicated plan, and so when someone mentioned that he was climbing another 14er near Fairplay, we started grilling him about his equipment. We were sitting outside of the grocery store in Fairplay at the time, having finished our ride that day pretty early. Surprised by our interest, the man, Pastor Dan, offered that we could come with him the next day--he had a whole group of people from his church planning on hiking Mount Sherman, and no one was planning on bringing any special equipment. We though this sounded like a great plan, even though it involved us biking 10 extra miles uphill to camp with Pastor Dan near the trailhead that night. After buying some beer to take to the top of Mount Sherman, we hopped back on our bikes!


Biking to the campsite near the trailhead of Mount Sherman.


Early start the next morning--we were at the trailhead before 7am.


The early start meant we didn't need snow shoes--the snow was still frozen enough to walk over.

Up on the ridgeline, with the peak in the background.


Enjoying Dale's Pale Ale at the top of Mount Sherman, elevation 14,036'!


Demonstrating the "diaper technique"--raincoat around the waist, held up by one hand between the legs. For good form, other hand should be in the air for balance. Diaper technique enables superior glissading speed than butt technique or backpack technique.

After we got back down to the trailhead at 1pm, we were pooped and decided not to bike any more that day. The next day we biked about 28 miles over Hoosier Pass to the base of Quandary Peak, so that the next morning, early, we could hike this 14er as well.


At the top of Hoosier Pass, we met Nick Crumpton, who happened to be biking up from the other side and wearing his Princeton shorts. He also happened to be hiking Quandary the next day, and gave us some information about it. What a small world!


Cate and I have camped in some weird places. This strange concrete structure gave us an excellent patio to set up our kitchen, though the hollow tunnel coming out underneath made weird noises in the wind.

We woke up the next morning at 4:30, and after coffee and muffins, we set out on our bikes about a mile to the trailhead. This hike started down in the trees, and by the time we emerged, the brief sunrise had disappeared and it was snowing. As we followed the east ridgeline up, we scampered over the snow in our sneakers like lynxes, and the sun emerged at odd intervals as we hiked above the clouds.


As we emerged from the trees, it started snowing.


But eventually we climbed above the snow up on the ridgeline.


Right before the final ascent on the narrow ridge. The summit was shrouded in clouds.


Last stretch before the summit.


Enjoying Shlitz Tall Boys at the top of Quandary Peak, elevation 14,265'! Photo courtesy of Nick Crumpton, Breckenridge photographer, who we met again at the summit. You can check out his website here. We had to wait about 20 minutes for the clouds to break to take this photo.


On the way down, we almost walked into this mountain goat. He was shaggy and unafraid of people, and we named him Titus.


Me and Titus. Note jacket is in correct diaper technique position.

We summited by about 8:30am, and were back at the trailhead by 11:00. After a nap at our campsite, we rode the 9 miles down to Breckenridge, where we stayed with Kate Brewer, a friend of Linda and Bernie, who we stayed with in Salida. Her house was really nice, and we met her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson, who were all very interested in our trip. After dinner at the Brewery and dessert at the house, Cate and I were pooped.


Me and Kate in from of her house.

Sadly we had to leave Breckenridge the next day, because we got the ok to head to Aspen for the weekend! This meant we could detour off of our route even more, and spend even more time in Colorado, so we rode our bikes to Leadville the next day , spending almost 15 miles on a bike super-highway.


Our favorite sign. Cate almost died taking this photo. Note man with strange helmet.

Sadly we had to turn off the bike highway and get onto a real highway with no shoulder. This road brought us over Fremont Pass. A lot of mining activity and clean up was going on, which was very interesting, though there were too many trucks for our taste.


Lakes just shouldn't be this color.


Crazy big mine and lots of trucks at the top of the pass.


In Leadville, Cate's friend Tyler offered us lodging at the Outward Bound base camp. We joined their group dinner for everyone living on base, and didn't join them for body shots, but had a good time anyway. It was nice hanging out with a bunch of people our age!


We spent the next two days after Leadville biking to Aspen. Today we went over Independence Pass--the highest point of our entire trip, except for the bits we hiked.