The fun I had hiking with the reddit group that went up Bear Mountain had me eagerly volunteering to go on the second scheduled hike, which was to be down near Colorado Springs (because of weather, supposedly). It was to be a long hike up Mount Rosa, which supposedly was the peak the Zebulon Pike actually climbed instead of the one named after him.
The trek would be even more daunting than the week before, at higher altitude, and with a greater vertical rise, but a little voice kept telling me to follow through and commit to going ,which I did. I've learned to follow that little voice as much as possible.
For the half the week, I wasn't sure I could make it physically, however, because it took that long for my thigh muscles to recover from the flexing they took the week before. But by Friday I was all psyched to go. I went out to REI and bought a bunch of trail goodies, and went to the Mountain Shop in downtown Fort Collins and got the National Georgraphic Trails Illustrated map for the Colo. Springs area. I was even so motivated as to go to Office Depot and make color copies of both sides of the map, to splice them together to get an impromptu map of the entire trail.
I spent Friday afternoon getting my little REI flash pack prepared, using my new twist ties to fasten my microspikes and trekking poles to back. I looked like a real alpinist.
Then on Friday evening I got a message via reddit from the group organizer saying that almost everyone had canceled except for two people, so he was calling the trip off for this week. Part of me was disappointed, of course, but in reality I was quite relieved. I knew the physical challenge might be beyond me right now, until I get in better shape. Yet I felt I'd earned "cred" among the group for having stuck my guns until it was canceled.
But I couldn't just stay at home on Saturday. I was all geared up, literally, and needed something to do. So I kept my alarm on, and in the morning I left around sunrise and drove by myself up to Estes Park, one of my favorite places.
I drove up to the Lumpy Ridge trailhead just north of town. From there you can walk right into Rocky Mountain National Park (for free!). It's a popular place to access the park, as one can imagine, but on this morning, there were only two other cars in the large parking lot.
I spent the next six hours hiking up the canyon along the ridge into the park, passing the curious towering rock formations that are popular with rock climbers in the summer, including the famous "Twin Owls" that are visible from Estes Park proper. There are some amazing views of Long's Peak and Mount Meeker along the way (like this one).
The vertical rise over four miles was less than two thousand feet, yet I was quite winded along the way (partly because it is at a higher altitude than I'm used to lately). I was glad that the other hike was canceled. I probably would have embarrassed myself, or wound up torturing myself to death. A light easy week was in order.
I turned around and headed back just in time to get chased by a snowstorm coming down off the continental divide.
It was a great solo day. Just a little over nine miles total. I had to (or should I say, got to) use my microspikes for the top part of the trail as I got to the crest of the ridge.
I even saved most of my trail goodies for the next week. The only thing I wound up eating was my Toblerone bar, a staple of mine on the trail since I bought a huge one in Switzerland in 1985 with virtually the last money I had while heading home. Good memories always make a good hike too.
And my thighs feel great. All ready for the next one.
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