#2 Mt. Bierstadt (14,060') June 17, 2012

 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.

Sawtooth and Bierstadt

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.

Me at the Summit of Mt. Bierstadt (14,060')

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.

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.

#1 Mt. Sherman (14,036') June 9, 2012

For my first 14er of the season I was talked into doing the one that I had done the year before with the Rocky Mountain Texas Exes. Mt. Sherman is considered one of the easiest with a short 5 1/4 mile round trip, and a trail head that starts at 12,000 ft. Mt. Sherman is about 10 miles outside of Fairplay Co. which is about a 2 hour drive from Denver.

Two friends from my apartment complex, Erin and Ian, decided to join and because the night before consisted of a trip to the newly opened Lowry Beer Gardens it was decided that a 5:30am departure time was the most realistic. I probably would have left at 3:30am but that would most likely mean I would be hiking alone.

We arrived at the trail head at about 7:30 am after a pretty bumpy ride up the dirt road outside of Fairplay. We piled out of the truck and wasted no time heading up the trail. Even though Sherman is considered the easiest of the 14ers it starts off with a pretty steep climb that gets the lungs working. We took our time getting used to the altitude and elevation gain and after a while we started making pretty good progress. We made it up to the old mining buildings in the valley below the summit only to find that the 100+ year old structures had blown down in the last year.

We took the standard route up and after a short snow field we made it up to the saddle just before the ridge to the summit, where we encountered some pretty nasty winds. The temperature also started to drop as we climbed. I had brought along a couple of layers that I wasn't wearing at the time and offered to share with Erin who had a light hoody on.

The ridge was a little sketchy, at times we felt like we might blow away. So we decided to take shelter for a while on the back side of the ridge to gather ourselves before making a push for the summit. A man and his two sons, probably 8 and 10, were trying to summit and it was clear that the kids were not having it. We had them sit with us out of the wind for a while to help calm them down. After our short break we got back to it and made short work of remaining portion of the ridge. At the top there were a couple groups that had summited before we did so we had them take a few pictures for us. We took a little time at thesummit and got out of the wind as best we could while we snacked on trail mix and wheat thins, before watching two guys shotgun a couple beers.

 After a short break at the summit we decided to make our way down. the wind was still pretty strong so I finally put on my rain coat which was pretty warm, probably because waterproof means wind proof. I probably should have put it on a little sooner, but I was warm now so I wasn't worried about hind sight. On the way down I think the cold and wind finally got to Ian, because he decided to try laying on the rocks to soak up their warmth, not sure if it helped or not.

Once we got down the the valley it started to warm up considerably, we started shedding layers and the others took some time looking at the old mining buildings. We took a shortcut down a rocky hill that cut off a little distance. The last downhill portion of the hike to the trail head wasn't as bad as going up so we made good time.

When we made it back to the truck and after shedding the hiking boots we piled in and took off for home. Ian and Erin dozed off a couple of times, something I was quite jealous about. We tried to stop for hotdogs at this place Erin knew about along 285 but there was a pretty long line and it was way to hot to be standing in line for a hotdog, plus we were all pretty exhausted so we left.

I enjoyed getting back up Mt. Sherman for the second time. It was a nice way to warm up for my hiking season. I plan on hiking quite a few more 14ers in the coming weeks.