Mt. Bierstadt

I've been slacking lately on the blog posts so I'm a tad behind on the hikes that we've done. But I'm determined to get one of them out of the way today! Last weekend, 10/22/16, Ali and I decided to take advantage of Colorado's super warm weather for late October and hike our first 14ker. Since it's getting pretty chilling deeper into the mountains, we decided to shoot for Mount Bierstadt, which is one of the more easily accessible 14kers from Denver. It's a little over an hour from the west side of Denver and is 100% paved roads which is a nice change from some of the other 4x4 trails you have to go on to get to the trail heads.

Even though it was warm in Denver, it was a brisk 32 when we started our hike at around 7:30 am. Here is a picture from the parking lot with a wonderful Microsoft Paint graphic of where we are headed. According to AllTrails.com, it's 7.3 miles down and back with 2,767 feet elevation gain.

The first 30 - 40 minutes are fairly low key. It's a lot of walking through the bushes and past a little lake. There is a pretty little creek that you have to cross. On a side note, in the morning it's a tad icy and it may not be very smart if you decide to jump on a boulder in the middle of the stream. :( I didn't fall in the water but I did bite it pretty good and got some nice bruises on my knees for the next few days which made the rest of the hike an absolute blast! Anyway, beyond that you start your gradual climb upwards. I thought the picture below was pretty cool as the sun was coming up on the other side of the mountain and there was a clear dividing line of sun and shade.

As we got higher and higher it got pretty windy. I'd say there were gusts of around 30 mph which made it pretty chilly on your hands and face. However the views were definitely worth it. The picture below is about 50 feet from the summit looking on the other side of the mountain.

Last and definitely not least, the top of the mountain.Even though the bottom portion of the trail was fairly moderate with just winding uphill slopes, the last .5 miles or so had some class 3 scrambling involved which was a fun change of pace after a while.

Overall I really enjoyed the hike. It didn't have the trees/streams that a lot of other hikes do, but when you do 14kers and only have an elevation gain around 2,700, you basically start out above the tree level. I think it's a great hike first time 14kers as you can pace yourself and get used to the lack of oxygen.

My First Real Hike

So I've been in Colorado for about 14 months or so and have really enjoyed "hiking". However most of my hikes so far have been pretty long but not very strenuous and they have all been fairly well marked out. This weekend I convinced my friend Nick, who I will refer to as the mountain guru, to take me off the trail and away from the crowds.

After some discussions, we decided to head towards Outpost Peak, which is just north of Vail. To start out the hike, you use Pitkin Lake Trail. This trail is 8.5 miles out and back with 2,864 feet of elevation gain. One thing the trail map doesn't tell you is that the first mile sucks. Most trails ease into the elevation gain but this one starts up with a lot of steps very quickly. After the initial mile or so of uphill, you then have some fairly level spots where you can regain your breath before the next uphill slope starts.

So we followed this trail until we got about .5 miles or so from the lake. At that point it was time to start heading upwards. The picture below shows the view from the bottom to our destination, the red little square.

It's at this point in time that I felt like I had never worked out a day in my life and Nick absolutely destroyed me scrambling up the mountain. However after quite a few breaks, I finally made it to the top. The next picture definitely doesn't do it justice because I feel like it was a lot steeper than what it shows but either way it was a beautiful view.

After a quick snack, it was time to hit the ridge and make it to the summit. The next picture shows the final destination. This part was a lot of fun for me since I haven't done much scrambling and it was nice having views on both sides the entire time. The only downfall was that the snow made it a little slick and hid some much needed footholds for me.

Here's another picture looking back the opposite way of where we came from and also has a nice view of the lake. (Thanks Nick for sending me an updated pic with the names on there.)

After my spirits were up from making it to the top, I then got to experience the fun downhill portion of scrambling over loose rocks and bushwhacking through the trees. While it was definitely not as physically tiring, it was brutal on the ankles zig zagging back and forth trying to keep a foot hold. It was also nice getting to see another viewpoint from the mountain and we got to go past a nice little creek and a lake on the way back to the trail.

All in all it was a wonderful day. The weather couldn't of been any nicer and I got to experience a lot of new things. Even though I was exhausted at the end of the day, I can't wait until the next hike. So thanks again Nick. 

On a side note, I recently purchased a Garmin Fenix 2 for hiking/trail running and this was my first time using it. Overall I was fairly impressed with the watch Below is a quick overview of the hike and the various items it tracked. The elevation was within 100-200 feet the majority of the time which was pretty good in my opinion. Obviously the temperature is not very accurate as to the real weather conditions since it was the temperature of the watch on my wrist. The only statistic that jumped out at me as being quite a bit off is the distance. I believe our total mileage was more around 10.5 vs. 11.93, so I'll need to do some tuning to try to dial that in more. I also think the 1,303 calories is completely insane because I felt like I burned well over 2,000!