Three weeks ago, two of my best friends from college moved to Denver from Detroit. Since I had yet to visit them, Sarah and I took Friday off and drove up there to spend the weekend with them. We took off early in the morning and reached their new place around 3pm. We were slowed by a traffic accident and someone trying to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass. I'm not sure how that guy did but we made it to Denver in spite of him.
After packing up Christina's car, the four of us jumped in and headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park. Doug left his home in Fort Collins and met us at our campsite. After setting up our shelters, we began grilling and talking around the fire.
The next morning we all got up early, packed up camp, and drove up to the Chapin Pass Trail head. We chose this hike because Greg and Christina are not yet fully adjusted to the altitude, and Doug heard this one was easy. We ended up leaving the trail head around 10am and began the slow journey up to Chiquita Mountain.
The weather was perfect... Lots of sun, little breeze, and in the mid 80's. We took our time heading up the hill so that Christina wouldn't get too tired, and we ended up making Chapin Pass within a hour.
After snapping some pictures, we began the climb up to the peak of Chiquita Mountain. The path was well worn and easy to follow until we reached the summit. The summit is covered in loose jagged rocks so we had to watch our steps carefully.
On the peak we were greeted by quite a few Yellow Bellied Marmots. Doug tried to befriend one but it didn't seam to work until we fed them grapes and granola.
After relaxing and eating our lunches we headed back down the mountain, trying to reach the cars before the afternoon showers rolled in.
About 30 minutes into the decent, Christina decides she HAS to poop. Sarah, being the trooper she is, helped her find a secluded spot to drop her load.
After waiting 30 minutes, she's finally done and we continue on our way.
So for Christina and Greg's first time out into the wild since moving to Colorado they bagged their first 13er at 13,069ft. At the end of the day we did around 6 miles and 2069ft of elevation gain which isn't bad for an easy day hike.
No comments:
Post a Comment