not sure what to say about this other than i finally did it

august 19/20 2011

the first time i got onto the summit of longs peak was seven years ago. it was the first 14'r i ever hiked. ever since then i've wondered what it would take/be like to ride from fort collins to the longs peak trailhead (50 miles, maybe 3k feet of vertical gain), summit/return to the trailhead (16 miles round trip), and then ride home - all in one effort. no stopping.

a general rule of hiking longs peak is that you have to start early. like 2 or 3 in the morning early. in my experience it is good to abide by that rule. understanding this, it becomes pretty obvious that if you are going to ride a bicycle and be at the trailhead by that hour ... you gotta leave pretty much in the middle of the night. so that is what i did. after getting up at 5 on friday, commuting to denver and back for a full work day, and eating a big ass meal i set out from fort collins at about 9h30 on friday night. i got home about 20 hours later, exhausted, no real sleep for a day and half. here are some pictures and words.

this is the bike i rode. it worked great. i carried all my hiking gear up there and back. no support.

on the way up i stopped in drake to eat an apple. the moon was peeking out into the canyon. its a poor shot but representative of being there. dark huh? believe it or not i had no issues with cars at all. not sketchy in the least. but the coyotes kind of freaked me out. never trust a coyote.

this was still a good 8 miles and 1k feet of climbing from the trailhead. that proved to be the toughest part of the ride up.

shortly after getting up to the th at about 2h15, my buddy george (so awesome that he committed to meeting me there for the hike) and i set off. we walked up and up and up for a couple hours in the dark. this is sunrise just below the boulder field.

the other diamond in the light from sunrise. oh pretty good.

george at the keyhole. oh purdy good.

we got to the summit. this is looking back towards the estes valley.

george at the summit with about 100 of our closest friends ...

some snow!

george walking back down, just past the boulder field. i'm not sure i would've pulled this off without him accompanying me for the hike, to be honest. solid.

a marmot. not sure if you can trust them or not.

getting back down, we can see some trees now.

almost back to the trailhead.

......................................................................

that is where the pictures end. i didn't want to quit moving (soo sooo tired) when we got back to the trailhead so i changed clothes and hustled out of there. stopped in estes for a bag of cashews and a coke then cruised down the big t back to the damn store. i kinda had the notion of going into loveland and coming back up taft to my house, to skip the hills coming into down via the masonville route. but i felt pretty good when i got to the decision point and went for it. i like that decision. i kind of hit the wall just as i got past the reservoir, but it was all downhill from there.

i made it.