Sooooo a dream of mine came true a few weeks ago- we took families from Oxford to Trail West (Young Life's only family camp in Buena Vista, CO) and during the week we had amazing fun with each other and our sweet children- we rode horses, hiked, fished, ate, sang, laughed, climbed ropes, zip-lined, danced, ate, talked, drove jeeps, fed chipmunks, swam, ate, laughed some more, napped in hammocks, frisbee golfed, caught flying french toast, white water rafted, ate and on top of all that i took my besties up mt.huron....now dolly had hiked 14ers before and knew what it entailed but my sweet Mississippi-born and bred Brooke had no idea what i was talking about, (she thought it was 14 miles long or wide or??) but being a good bestie she said Sure! ( she runs like a marathon per month so i wasn't worried).
So on Friday morning we woke up at 3:15 am and drove to the Trailhead (ok we had to hike in the last 1.8 miles or so b/c old "tammy" couldn't make it the last couple miles due to her non 4x4 build) but we reached the trailhead around 6am and started UP. We shared a backpack and a camelback and did a rotation so one of us could take a break. The first part was in treeline and it was switchbacks for miles...it was hard. In Colorado there is no oxygen, we couldn't breathe, our legs ached, we were humbled but we pressed forward. ( i mean hello- we do Crossfit) During this process we saw a few hikers that easily passed us, but this didn't bother me since i was leading this adventure, and i had never really done a 14er on my own before it helped me know we were on the correct trail. But i never let the girls know i was a bit nervous - looking confident is key to leading people to do what you want them to do! So once we broke treeline we had to cross a bowl of snow. I don't know the technical terms but thats what it looked like and felt like. There was snow thigh high, and a sort of river was running , no sprinting under us (seemed dangerous but we pressed on) so we made post holes (cool hiking terms i heard once) with our legs, into the snow and made it through. Then we got to a cool place ill never forget. Someone had made steps out of flat rocks that went up and up and made it so much easier to climb that section-thank you to whoever that was. We continued to climb and saw marmonts (little beaver like animals that live on the mountains.) It was amazing to see them running about, ducking in and out of burrows. I mean wow- Jesus made these animals to live at thousands of feet above everyone else in such harsh conditions-crazy! It was also amazing to see butterflies and tiny flowers that grow at such hight elevations. It was like we got to experience a world that was untouched by man, pure and raw and free. It was surreal for me.
The last part of the climb was difficult - it was a boulder field that went straight up and the rocks slipped at times and i felt unstable mosts of the climb but we pushed through and made it to the top at 10:10am and WOW! You could see ranges upon ranges of snow topped peaks 360 degrees around us. It was a holy moment for me. For one- I led this little adventure, and 2. it was difficult and c. i got to share it with 2 women who i live this life with at home on a normal routine, we work out, take care of our kids and husbands, do laundry, cook... but this was a break from all that "normal" and we were on top of the world! So we ate our feast of pb&honey and some ginger cookies i saved from lunch the day before, then we met a couple who peaked 20 minutes after us and they took our pic, and we started down. This took equally as long as the hike up -which still puzzles me. My whole body hurt, if up is hard on your lungs the going down is harder on your body. But we made it and had a long silent ride back to town and we decided to eat a real meal and each decided on a cheeseburger-best meal i've ever eaten, we each ate the ENTIRE burger. So at 4:30ish (we told our husbands we'd be back by 1) we rolled into camp, got back to reality, (sort of) to our husbands and kids and the best week of our lives...
