On the 4th of July, I climbed my very first 14er!
In Colorado, 14ers are the mountains over 14,000 feet elevation. There are 52 of them. I was so excited to get the opportunity and the motivation to climb my first. It was really hard. I'm actually glad I didn't know beforehand how hard it was or I may have been more anxious about it. But it was for a good reason, so we got a sitter for Bubs and headed out at 2:45am for the 2+ hour drive up past Breckenridge to the trail of Mt. Democrat. There are actually four 14ers that start at the same trailhead, and lots of people (including Mike, friends of ours and my brother Charlie) have actually bagged all four in one day. Not me. One was enough, but it was awesome! And I'm so proud of myself for finally getting out there this year, just eight years later :)
Being up so early has its advantages. We were on the trail a little after 6am and saw the sun rise over the mountain. So beautiful!
Even in July, there is still lots of snow up there! We got the most beautiful weather for our hike.
I had a great hiking partner. Seriously, Mike was so patient with me. I did fine with the altitude (on the actual climb...afterwards I had altitude sickness for about 36 hours, blah.) but at some places the hiking was a little dicey. Loose rock, climbing over boulders bigger than me, worrying endlessly about a twisted ankle or a laceration if I fell...and he was just incredibly patient with me. He talked me through some spots where my fear of heights threatened to paralyze me. He took my hand when I needed that confidence. He carried 90% of the weight of our gear. I'm really grateful we had this experience together.
Wild succulents - my fave!! So so pretty growing out of the rock.
So the motivation for this hike at this time was that we were in on a surprise! Kate's boyfriend Tanner asked us way back in March if one, he could have our blessing in marrying her, and two, if we would be there for her engagement. On the top of a 14er!! So the plan was for us to climb up an hour before them and wait for them at the top. Mike took his binocs so he could watch for them on the trail below us. The hike up took about 3.5 hours so we rested plenty and watched out for them until we saw them get on the trail and then knew they were behind us. It was really fun to be part of the big surprise!!
The final part of the climb - looking up towards the summit.
The couple in the middle of the snowfield is actually Kate & Tanner as they made their final approach to the summit. Basically looking down from the photo above. We were giddy with excitement!
The views from the summit were AMAZING. Absolutely the prettiest mountain views I've ever seen and the photo doesn't even begin to do it justice. It looked like this for 360 degrees around us. If it wasn't 30 degrees and so windy at the top I could have stayed up there for days.
The big moment when Kate realized what was happening.
She turned towards me, behind the camera, and I took this pic - and she still didn't realize yet that it was ME photographing the whole thing. She said later she thought it was just someone with a camera who caught their engagement (which I would totally do if I happened to randomly witness a proposal). When I took the camera away from my face and she realized it was US at the top with them, there was a whole additional round of excitement and squealing and "what are you doing??" - us being there was so out of context for her that it took a few minutes for it to all soak in. So awesome.
Love this pic! So much excitement!
Mike carried up champagne to celebrate at the top - Kate's fave.
The bling!!!
Finally back down the mountain.
Happy, tired, proud, excited, sore and grateful.
Happy 4th of July and Happy Engagement Day!!
