Mt. Bierstadt was my first solo 14er trip and because of that I got to leave when I wanted to, which meant an early start. I woke up about 3:00 am and was out the door by 4:00 am. It was a pretty quiet hour drive to Georgetown where I turned off for Guanella Pass. I made it to the trail head about 5:20. When I arrived there were three guys from Kansas getting ready for their hike. Turns out they were going to hike the Bierstadt and take the Sawtooth over to Evans and get both in one day, something I had played around with myself but was not planning on doing solo because of the difficulty of the Sawtooth. I debated for a couple minutes about taking them up on the offer, but realized that they were going to take a while before they left (they were cooking breakfast at the time). So I decided to take off and start Bierstadt and if they caught up with me I would decided at that time if I wanted to do both.
I started down the trail at a pretty good pace seeing that the first mile or so is pretty flat and I couldn't see other hikers in front of me. I made it through the willows and crossed Scott Gomer Creek pretty quickly and started the first uphill section up to the plateau below the summit. Halfway up this I passed a group of three hikers with dogs that looked to be taking their time.
Once I made it up to the plateau I decided to take a short break to fuel up on a granola bar and snap a few pictures. I was feeling pretty good and the weather was still pretty cool so I quickly started back down the trail. I could see another solo hiker with a couple of dogs ahead of me and decided to try and catch up with him, a little motivation to keep moving.
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| Sawtooth and Bierstadt |
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| Square Top Mountain and Grays & Torreys to the South of Me |
I caught up with the solo hiker at the last little scramble before the summit and we chatted for a while before making our way up to the summit. Once we reached the top there were 4 guys from boulder that said they left the trail head around 4:30 and were debating whether or not they wanted to hike the sawtooth ridge over to Evans or not. I was pretty clear that they were not prepared for it, or Bierstadt for that matter, a couple of them had shorts and a running shoes on. They quickly decided against it and took off back down the mountain.
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| Me at the Summit of Mt. Bierstadt (14,060') |
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| Southwest of Bierstadt |
From the summit I could see Mt. Evans to the north and was really tempted to try the Sawtooth and get both in the same day. But with the four guys from Boulder already heading back and the solo hiker I met starting to head back to, and with the three guys from Kansas no where in sight I decided I should save it for another day (I already had tentative plans to hike it in two weeks anyways). Better safe than sorry.
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| Mt. Evans to the North |
I had brought along some Camembert cheese and half a baguette that I had left over from the night before so I decided to sit down and enjoy the views in solitude while I could and refuel for the trip back.
As I started heading down I quickly realized why Bierstadt has a reputation of being on of the busier mountains. In the distance I could see lines of people making their way up the trail. I was feeling pretty energetic and with the temperature warming up I decided start jogging down the mountain. I quickly caught up with the solo hiker I had met earlier and we started chatting about hikes we had done. We both were practically running down the mountain at this point passing people left and right. I would like to add that a lot of people hike these things with what I assume is no forethought at all. Some people were wearing shorts and t-shirts carrying no water or carrying small kids that gave up walking. I don't understand it, I saw the same stuff on Sherman.
Anyways after practically sprinting down the mountain with Cole (the solo hiker I was now hiking with and finally asked his name) we finally made it to where he said he had camped the night before along the trail. His tent was still set up behind some willows out of sight so we parted ways. I quickly made it the half mile or so back to the trail head to find dozens of cars and bikers making there way up the pass for a bike race that I had no idea about. I walked over to the road as the first of the finishers were making their way up. After chatting with one of the race volunteers about the event I decided to head out.
I quite enjoyed my first solo hike. I made pretty good time, doing the 3.5 summit in just over 2 hours and after a 30 min break at the summit made it back in just over 1 hour.
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