Mt. Evans, CO

Today was an adventurous day.  After last night's late arrival, we were up early to meet some locals and check out the Lincoln Lake region of Mt. Evans.

I have to admit that I wasn't too keen on the whole idea for a few reasons.  First, I knew I would be tired, and I have heard horror stories about the hike out of Mt. Evans.  Despite my reservations, my adventurous side came through and I thought better of staying by the pool all day and joined the boys.

Everyone was to meet at Whole Foods at 7 am, but the store didn't open until 7:30.  Things move at a slower pace here, I guess.  I'm glad we waited it out because I purchased the best lunch I've ever eaten.  It was flat bread with avocado, turkey, bacon, provolone cheese and tomatoes.  A few onions made their way onto my sandwich, but I made sure to remove those nasty things right away!  And I enjoyed that sandwich the entire day.

The hike down to Lincoln Lake wasn't too terrible; it was all downhill, and I really enjoyed all the sunshine and fresh air. I also liked watching all the big boys climb.  Despite the fact that they climb circles around me, I think I learned a thing or two, and my coach says I'm climbing well and looking strong, so maybe some of their burly awesomeness wore off on me.

While I am usually pretty tolerant of Brian's ideas of adventure, which often include long hikes, today was rough.  The hike out was pretty heinous.  It's much harder to hike with a smile on your face when you're walking straight uphill at over 10,000 feet.  Once we were back at the car, we made the drive to the look-out point just below the summit of Mt. Evans.  We were greeted by some friendly goats; they seemed quite used to the attention and went about their business licking the lingering snow.  After I took plenty of goat pictures, Brian and I hiked the last bit of the trail to the top of Mt. Evans, which is one of Colorado's 14,000+ feet peaks.  It was officially our first 14'er, and though we didn't hike or climb the entire thing, I was still excited to stand atop the mountain with my adventure buddy.

This evening the fun continued when we met up with a few people for dinner.  It was fun listening to all the boys talk climbing.  Turns out that we all got a little sun today too.  Other than looking a bit red, we went through more water than the rest of the restaurant combined, I think.

All and all, I would say that today was a great start to our trip, and I'm excited to see what the next few days bring!


Hiking in 

Lincoln Lake,  Mt. Evans

Go! 

Mommies and their babies 

at the summit

my adventure buddy 

Comments

  1. wargy2June 16, 2011 at 10:31 PM

    I'm slightly inebriated, but your post has inspired me to publish my 8th grade Grand Canyon diary sitting on the shelf next to me. Yes, this will be golden.

    ReplyDelete

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