Every bit of our time in Lake City was filled with seeing the beautiful outdoors, majestic mountains, blue skies & the continual opportunity to explore. Robby, having traveled to Lake City on multiple occasions had the desire to climb to a substantial peak. Scott & Kyle were on board first & after some convincing, I committed to join them. I was nervous since I can't even run a mile without feeling like I am going to throw up. We set off for our grand adventure before 7am & arrived at the trailhead. We were looking good & full of energy. There was a chill in the air, we smiled for a photo & were off! I had no idea that there was such a thing as the Colorado 14ers until after our big adventure. There are 53 peaks in Colorado that are 14,000 feet or higher & we climbed #6, Mt. Uncompahgre, which happens to be the highest peak in the San Juan mountain range. Had I know this ahead of time, I might have backed out, so it worked out well!
The three of them gave me a hard time for stopping to tie my shoes & apply sunscreen about 100 feet down the path THEN stop to grab a snack about 100 feet later. After that, I felt prepared to press onward & upward. I was surprised that it wasn't quite onward & upward. There were a lot of hills as we made our way through the woods & we came out the other side above the tree line. We could see that peak in the trailhead picture & believed it to be our destination.....boy were we wrong. After a bit longer, Mt. Uncompahgre came into view & I am pretty sure our jaws dropped. It looked massive & WAY too far away! The couple that took our photo, Colorado residents, & their cute little puppy jaunted past & we smiled & continued.
I am not a worker-outer & could tell fairly quickly that it was going to be intense. We had never experienced anything like that before. All said & done, it was just under 8 miles & the equivalent of climbing 266 flights of stairs. 14,309 ft. starting at 11,430 ft. A 2,879 ft climb to the summit. It took somewhere between 5-6 hours of nearly constant movement. Once we made it above tree line, we spotted a large canvas tent out in the middle of a field. We passed by as I commented that I would like to plop down in one of the chairs. At that point, another young couple speedily moved past us. The higher we got, the harder it was, we were breathing hard. & not spending too much time chit chatting. Scott captured a quick video of me saying "I wish Dad were here. He'd take me home!" Funny though, no one ever said they wanted to abort mission.
After making it up to the next attainable goal, we hit the switchbacks. It looked impossible, really impossible. At that point, Kyle the Eagle Scout began saying "10 more steps." He counted for us & we would stop for a quick breather. Both of those couples we started ahead of saw us on their way down, assured us it was worth it & when we asked about the peak told us that there was a little scramble at the end.
After much huffing & puffing, we arrived at the base of the scramble. It was far from little! Scott was the first one there & took off at full speed. I think he was so tired that he just wanted to get it over with. It might not have been the best idea but we weren't going to quit when we were so close to the peak! Here is a picture from the top looking down. The way up was a challenge but going down was terrifying. Rocks were falling & we felt so unsteady.
Back to the summit....
While incredibly magnificent, it was terrifying! Kyle won the award for being the bravest. He stood up on the peak while we were sitting just feet below & took a panoramic shot. I figured it would be scary to be 6 foot 3 instead of my height! After our photo shoot & a snack, we braved the scooting carefully down the falling rocks.
I could not have made it without my camel who offered to carry my pack!
While I imagined that the trip down would be incredibly easy compared to the opposite. Again, SO wrong! We had noodle knees & were just plain tired. My feet hurt terribly & I began to run down the path. I figured the more quickly the torture was over the better! We were really excited we made it. I think we each kept in mind, "Don't be THE quitter." After it was over, we all admitted that if someone had said they would like to turn back, someone would have joined them, haha!
All smiles again!
That tent we passed was unable to be seen at the start of the descent but once it was in view, we again had an attainable goal. Finally we passed it, made it another million steps down the mountain and arrived at the jeep. A few days later, while a storm rolled in, I had a beautiful view of what we climbed. It was slightly hidden but is the pointy peak on the far right.
I am beyond glad that we didn't give up & I could not have asked for better hiking buddies. I would do it again! Maybe we will try another 14er now that I know they exist : )
Another big adventure was for the girlies to join Robby & his dad on an all day trek around the Alpine Loop in the jeeper beeper as Arlo calls it. They took a detour to Silverton for lunch & shopping...of course!
We did some "hiking" with the kiddies too.
Eloise, our nature lover found everything beautiful. She marvels when I do not. I am convicted. at how quickly I move (except for when I am climbing Mt. Uncompahgre) & how often I miss the beauty of something God made for us to enjoy. Robby found the perfect shirt for that sweet & spunky girl. It says "Blazer of Trails, Buster of Moves, Force of Nature" SO her! Ah, those dimples : )
All the rest of the crew enjoyed their fair share of exploring as well!
We saw lots of chipmunks, some marmots & even some moose!
From start to finish it was a wonderful thing to enjoy as a family & we felt especially blessed to have both sets of grandparents & two uncles with us. We look forward to many more adventures with these five.
