Hey Colorado

The water tastes better when you're far from home, or is it only the thirsty that hunger to roam?  I know coffee on the porch tastes better when it's 41 and frosty outside in late July.

I had hired a MTB guide along with rented bikes for The Kid and I on Monday.  It was my first time doing something like this, plus it was a little expensive, so I had my doubts.  But it all turned out great. We rode single track from downtown Breckenridge and by the time we hit 3 hours my legs were done.  I did wish for magic legs, or 19 year old legs, because I would to have done it all over again.

Tuesday

We walked out to the car to find this guy eating the grass off the back deck.  We did not disturb him.

Today was 14'r day.  Mt. Quandary, just outside of Breck was the mountain.  We got to the trail head at 6:30 and the parking lot was already half full.  The hike below tree line was like a computer generated landscape.  I hummed all the John Denver songs I knew.

Once we got above tree line things got a little tougher.  All scree and talus, which to start with had a trail through it.  That soon disappeared.

They say there are no easy 14'rs.  I now believe them.

The hike started around 11,000', I started to get tired around 13,000.  We hit the snow patch at 13,500, and the summit at 14,265.

I have to say it was an awesome view.  Very windy and 50 degrees.  Then we started down.

I feel like the guy in Avatar who gets the alien body for the first time when I'm up here. 

It was 3.5 miles to the top according to Strava, we averaged 1 mph (The Kid would want it know that he had to wait on us all the time).  The trip down would prove to be twice as difficult as the trip up.

Funny, it doesn't look steep in this picture, but we were crawling here.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how the trip down went.