Quandary Peak - the summit

I just want to give credit where credit is due.

Duff, Cookie, Urska, and Dizzy made it to the top of Quandary Peak at 14,265 feet.

Plus, I got lots of pictures from Dizzy's camera that are totally cool. So in no particular order, here are some fun photos.

Urska and Cookie are, um....close.

Ignoring the hole in Cookie's butt...her crazy shorts did actually blend into nature...the moss!

I'm pretty sure Dizzy is thinking about the great haircut I gave him.

It's starting to get cold!

Heck! It's SNOWING!

Cookie displays the sign found at the top.

Apparently there were more goats up at the top, so my theory on following the other one down was wishful thinking.

Celebrate the top with a brewski!

On top of the world!

Still snow in August.

Duff meditating on the mountain top. Not sure I would go to him as my guru....

Cookie always dresses crazy, but doesn't she look like a magazine commercial?

Getting nourishment before racing to the bottom in an hour and a half (3 hours up!).

Quandary Peak - the hike

So, I left off with the beginning of the hike.

Within moments, the truth came out. I am out of shape.

This whole time I thought I was doing pretty well. I'm not huffing and puffing to walk from the barn to the lodge anymore, but that's purely getting used to the elevation.

I'm pretty sure I was the weakest link, although Urska was always happy to take a break when I did.

Duff kept asking me the whole way up, "You doing ok? How's it going?" Ugh.

That being said, I'll just do some pictures and then continue the story at the bottom, because there's really not much more to be said until we get hiking!

This is while we're still in the trees.

The crew (Cookie is taking the picture) as the trees are thinning out.

Sandra, Dizzy, Urska, Me, and Duffer.

Dizzy! Stop taking a picture of Urska's butt!

He tried to say he wasn't taking a picture of her butt, but I didn't believe him.

I guess he wasn't lying...he's got proof.

Here was my view the whole way. Harumph!

Anyone else feel like singing "The Sound of Music?"

We got to a point where I started to feel really good, so I got to look down on everyone else.

And you know the whole "Tortoise and Hare" story? Well, I decided I'm the tortoise while Cookie is the hare. I just did a whole lot better plodding slowly along, instead of racing up, resting, racing, resting. Then again, I do have the build of a distance runner not a sprinter!

This is the base of the actual summit looking to the top. We are at the top of the false summit here. And this is where everything changed.

As I was hiking this narrow-way, the view on the south started moving a lot faster than the stuff in front of me. I guess it's like being carsick. Or what people in the biz call, "vertigo".

So, I was at a decision point. I was starting to feel the pressure in my neck and ears, which usually leads to an elevation headache for me. The weather had changed; it was starting to spit rain/snow stuff and the wind had picked up considerably.

Note that there are no trees for protection from the elements.

Note that you are supposed to be down from 14ers by 12 or 1 (it was about 12 at this point) to beat the afternoon storms.

I asked someone who was heading back down if the weather had been like that at the top for a while or if it had just come up. It had just come up.

And then I saw this purty lady heading back down from the summit.

It didn't seem like that much farther to the top...until I realized how small the people were.

And here's what I told myself:

Self, you are starting to get an elevation headache. You got 5 hours of sleep last night. While everyone crashes on the way home, you're going to be driving 3 hours, exhausted and with a headache. The weather isn't good and people die because of afternoon storms on 14ers. And above all, the mountain goat is heading back down!

As I was trying to decide up or down, I pulled out my Clif bar for nourishment and read the back while I was eating. Gary, the founder and owner of Clif Bar & Co, is talking about climbing Dhaligiri in Nepal, one of the world's highest peaks. Here's a line from it:

I don't believe in reaching the top at any cost.

I decided that was my sign and with Sandra, I turned back down the mountain.

Yep, you heard me. I quit. I turned back around and went down.

This whole stinkin' hike was my idea and I didn't even finish it.

And you know what? I don't regret it one bit.

We followed Missy down the hill.

And I couldn't have been happier to see this sight.

I moved stuff around in the back of Duff's truck, got all curled up in our sleeping bags, and had one of the best naps, EVER!

I drove back to the ranch, fully refreshed and headache-free.

We got back around 10 pm...10 hours later than planned. So nothing went as we thought! But what's it matter? Life's about the journey, not the destination, right?

However, for those of you who want to know what it looks like from the peak...

You can see it the same way I did...in a picture.

Quandary Peak - the start

I don't know how this happens. I do SO well...and then this. It's been almost a full week since I blogged.

Ok, so I'm going back to last Wednesday and Thursday.

A few weeks ago, I put up a sign-up sheet for us to hike a 14er (a 14er is a peak in Colorado that is at least 14,000 feet high). I was supposed to orchestrate the whole thing, since this was my idea. Originally, we were going to climb Longs Peak, which is the closest to us, but also a hard one. And also a 14 mile round trip hike.

The last time I traveled 14 miles by foot was the half-marathon (and that's only 13.1 miles, but at that point, what's another mile?) I did in February. Granted, I ran it, but I had trained, I was at sea-level, and it was almost completely flat, except for the bridge.

I decided that 14 miles was a bit much considering the first 7 miles is ALL uphill and the second 7 miles is ALL downhill. Not to mention that at 14,000 feet there is only 60% of the oxygen at sea level. So I found a 6 mile roundtrip mountain. South of Breckenridge. 3 hours away.

So here's the plan I created for us:

1. Duff and I will leave the ranch around 5:30 or 6. We'll go into Ft. Collins to the library to pick up some books on 14ers and then to Wal-Mart to get water and food for the trip.
2. We'll drive to Quandary Peak, find a place to camp, and set up. The others will get there and will get there and we'll sleep.
3. We'll leave around 6 am to get a start on the mountain before the afternoon storms roll in and we're left above tree line without any protection from lightning.
4. We should be back down around noon (6 hours of hiking) and back to the ranch by supper time.

Here's how it actually played out. (Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men...)

1. Duff got back from his ride around 6:30. He still had to get all camping gear gathered up in his truck. I didn't have time to do this because I was on maintenance all day and didn't really take any breaks. While he did that, I packed my stuff as well as got all the hiking stuff we needed and made sure Cookie got everything we needed as far as food was concerned.

Duff and I left the ranch at 8 pm. With just enough time to pick up the books I *thankfully* put on reserve. We went to Wal-Mart and left Ft. Collins at 10 with 2 and a half hours left to drive.

2.

Well here's the thing. As I mentioned last week, Gordon, usually comes on Thursday, but he had mentioned wanting to go with us and we only had a few horses that needed him. So, I called to let him know we didn't need him and that we were going to be in his part of the state. (Yes, Gordon drives 2.5 hours to us every week!)

While he didn't want to join the hike (it was a bit last minute), he said we should stop by. Except it was 10pm before we left. As luck would have it, Gordon works for a guy on Wednesdays and is out late. He ended up being 5 minutes behind us by the time we got to Denver. He invited us to stay at his house that night rather than camping on the side of the road.

All 6 of us. Without asking his wife first.

I don't think she was too happy when she was awoken from a dead sleep at midnight, "Honey, some of my friends are staying here tonight."

3.

Since Duff and I got there at midnight and waited until 1 am for the others to get there (they had to stay for music night with Lars and Amy -- oh my gosh! I was going to put a link to my post about them...but I've never posted about them!!! I'll hopefully get on that soon!), we decided to start a little later. We had only an hour to drive, so we got up at 6 am.

Except everyone took a long time to get ready. Not the 15 minutes I expected.

And we got bad internet directions. By we, I mean I.

We took Hwy 285 South instead of getting on I-70 West to Hwy 9. And it probably only took us an extra half hour, but still, we got to the mountain at 9 am. A pretty late start for any 14er regardless of length.

By the time we were ready, it was 9:30 am.

Stay tuned for the pictures installment and the actual hike.