After 21 years I returned to this beautiful state to make my way up another 14er.
I spent the night at the trailhead which sits at 10,890' and slept in the back of my car. I hit the trail just before 7am after breakfast and a few aspirin to ward off a minor headache. The trail basically follows the ridge the whole way up and breaks out of the trees near 12,000'.
Just at the last few trees on the ridge I made a new friend.
We shot the breeze for a few moments before he dissed me and I pressed further up the ridge. I made my way slowly and drank lots of water in the hopes of avoiding the almost required altitude sickness.
As I headed further up the winds started to pick up as well as the clouds to the west.
Most of the ridge above the trees was covered with rocks about 6" in diameter, but there was a well worn path all the way.
I finally reached the summit at 10am and I had it all to myself
The clouds were moving in but the lowland views were still really good.
Quandary Summit
Summit Pano
A couple finally showed up as the winds picked up even more and a few flakes started falling down on us. Oh, almost forgot to mention that even the "tamest" of 14ers can still take a life or two.
We started to descend the ridge and they told me about a girl they met on their way up who was also from Seattle. As we got further down we came across her and she introduced herself to me as Karen and told me that she lives in Columbia City. I told her about this site, so hopefully she found her way over hear.
I continued my way down gradually as my head started to hurt and saw a bit more wildlife too.
As I neared the treeline I glanced back to see the skies starting to clear to the west. Looked as though Karen and her hiking partners got a great summit after all
I made it back down to the car and my headache was reaching a level that was not comfortable anymore and I just wanted to go to bed.
I was not able to hike up anymore of the remaining 8 peaks that I had hoped for. The altitude sickness and headache were too much to bear, so I left Colorado in search of a place to enjoy the remainder of my vacation.
I did make a video from this one hike although I don't consider it to be anywhere near as good as I'd like to think that my previous hiking videos have been, but here it is anyway, enjoy.
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