For my 3rd and 4th 14ers I decided to do Grays and Torreys Peaks, a popular combo just west of Georgetown. For this hike my friends Chris and Cassie decided to tag a long. I also brought along Darwin, my 2 year old beagle, to see how he would do on these hikes. I was please when my friends said that they would be up for leaving whenever I was. G&T is a pretty popular hike because it is relatively close to Denver and you can do two peaks in one day, for this reason I wanted to be up there pretty early to beat the crowds and the heat, so we decided that a 4:00am departure time was appropriate.
I woke up around 3:00am and finished packing my water and snacks for me and Darwin. I sent a text to my friends around 3:30 to see how they were coming along. They said they would be ready at 4:00 so I packed up the truck and headed over. When I got to their place I noticed that they were both wearing their Vibram FiveFingers something I had been debating about doing the last two hikes. Their way of looking at it was they wear them everywhere else what makes a 14er any different, a sentiment I shared, so we made a quick trip back over to my place and I grabbed mine.
We arrived at the trail head around 5:30 am, just as I planned, to find quite a few people already there, at least a dozen cars in the parking lot. After getting our packs on and the dogs situated, they brought their dog too, we headed down the trail.
The trail head for G&T is just below tree line and nestled in a nice little valley to the north of the two peaks, which made the start of the hike shaded and cool, which was nice. We were making pretty good time when Athena, Chris and Cassie's dog, decided to roll in some very smelly, very wet, animal droppings which made her smell god awful. It was quite interesting trying to find ways to clean her without towels, soap, gloves, or a water source.
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| Our first view of Grays Peak |
Anyways we finally got her fairly clean and we headed on down the trail. At the base of the mountain we came across some springs that flowed out of the ground that had some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Cassie decided to use some rocks and the water to get Athena a little cleaner before we went any further.
By the time we got back to hiking the sun had come up over the ridge to our east and it started to warm considerably. We all stashed our top layers and started up the first real climb of the hike.
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| Torreys Peak |
Even though we started at about the same time as I started Bierstadt the week before, we were hiking with quite a few other hikers along the trail. We also came across sever groups of hikers that had apparently done the summit in the dark and were already heading down.
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| Kelso Mountain northeast of Torreys Peak |
I was quite impressed at our pace, I tend to get into a rhythm and forget to ask if anyone needs a break, and before I new it we were halfway up the switchback section just below the summit. We took maybe two short breaks on the switchbacks and were at the summit before we know it.
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| Rock Tower about half way up the switchbacks. |
When we arrived at the summit of Grays Peak we were not alone by any means. There were at least a dozen or more people spread out admiring the views. We found a pile of rocks that offered a great photo opportunity. Once up on the shaky rocks Cassie yelled out, "You should do a yoga pose, like tree..."
I had to get a photo with Darwin on the peak, seeing that the little guy summited before I did, I should offer proof that he was there. After a group shot of the three of us we decided to fuel up on some trail food. We also took this time to feed the dogs that were at this point scavenging through any open packs they could find.
Before leaving I suggested we take a photo with our Vibrams, so we found the best view we could find and pointed our toes in that direction.
After we had our fill or food, water and the views from Grays we decided to head down the saddle towards Torreys peak the second of the two peaks on our hike. It was becoming clear that Chris and Cassie were pretty worn out from our accent and they were talking about not doing the second summit. The trail split at the bottom of the summit and headed back towards the main trail so it wasn't a big deal if they wanted to wait at the bottom of Torreys while I summit solo, but I offered to wait till they got to the saddle so they had time to decide.
Half way down they were pretty sure they were not going to do the second peak and that I should go on ahead while they took their time down the saddle. With that being decided I quickened my pace and made it to the bottom of the saddle relatively quick and before long I was staring at a pretty steep scrabble slope with no switchbacks. The accent was only about 450 feet from the saddle but straight up. Darwin was consistently 20 yards above/ahead of me so I made really good time trying to keep up with him. It took about 20 min from when I left my friends to summit Torreys. At this point the wind was picking up considerably and I didn't want to leave them waiting too long so I asked someone to snap a picture and after a short break to take in the views I was quickly on my way back down.
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| View southwest of Torreys towards Keystone and Breckenridge. |
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| The valley we hike through up to the peaks. |
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| Grays Peak seen from Torreys. You can see the trail switchback up the face. |
I made it back down to the saddle where my friend were waiting and we started the decent. The trail was pretty crowded on the way down. I'm still surprised by some of the people I see on these hikes. Some of them look as if they woke up the day of and decided to hike a 14er without any forethought. We made it back down to the valley and saw a message that someone had wrote with the rocks.
The rest of the hike went smoothly, the temperature started to climb considerably but it didn't hinder our pace. We made it back to the car pretty tired our feet a little beat up from kicking rocks on the trail in our Vibrams, you notice the rocks more with "bare feet" when you start getting tired and forget to lift your feet... haha. When we got to the car we were all in agreement that Beau Jo's Pizza was going to be a necessary stop on our way back.
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