Trip Report: First 14er

Just got back a couple of days ago from a whirlwind trip to Colorado that had been several months in the making. My brother, brother-in-law and I have been talking for years about doing something epic together and while they have done some previous epics, this was the first time I was able to join them (along with their former college x-country coach). We originally were thinking of doing a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim (also known as an 'R3') in the Grand Canyon, but mother nature and the National Parks Service forced a change to those plans...so instead, we picked a couple of '14ers' in Colorado. A 14er, if you don't know, is a mountain peak above 14,000ft. There are 58 of them in Colorado and the two we attempted were Uncompahgre (14,306ft) and Wetterhorn (14,021ft). The other guys had done a few 14ers previously and their experience provided some valuable insight for me as I prepared, but I started training in April for what would be long and strenuous day. The 'loop' is 18 miles and over 6,000ft of elevation gain. Coming in, I was feeling physically good, but still somewhat nervous, having never done anything like this before. I had a really good training season which prepared me well for a long day.

The first day and a half was all driving - the first day from the Chicago area to central Nebraska where I met up with the guys and then from there to Lake City, CO which is about 4 1/2 hours from Denver. We arrived mid-afternoon to an Airbnb right in the town of Lake City. After getting everything unloaded, we went and explored a little of what is a very beautiful mountain town.

Very nearby the place we stayed

After exploring we drove to the local grocery store to get some food supplies and ended up settling on tacos for dinner which ended up hitting the spot perfectly. After organizing our gear, we all attempted to get some rest, but when you have a 2am wake-up call and an adventure ahead of you, sleep can be evasive...and it was. I think I got about 4 hours of actual sleep. I felt pretty good once I was up - the adrenaline kicked in and we were out the door by 3am.

The drive to the trailhead was just under an hour and it ended up almost derailing the trip, for me anyway. The first 30 minutes or so were on a bumpy, but otherwise unremarkable, dirt road. As soon as we got off that road, the potholes got bigger, but then we came to the trailhead "road", which had a big sign that read, "High Clearance 4WD Vehicle Required". I had driven my truck to Colorado because we had read that most of the trailheads in the area required this kind of vehicle and so I started up the trailhead "road"...and immediately regretted it. I'm not sure a picture of it would do it justice. It was steeply uphill, with large rocks all over the place and deep ruts. At one point I bottomed the truck out (thankfully not very hard) and I don't think we even made it a quarter mile up the road before I had to pull over to the side and give up. As I got out of the truck, my legs were shaking and my heart rate was sky high. The thoughts swimming through my head were, "how are we going to get down?" and "oh crap, after however long we hike today, which is likely to be physically and mentally exhausting, I have to then drive back down that "road"!" I legitimately felt like a panic attack was coming on...and we hadn't even started yet. It was absolutely pitch black outside and I have a 25lb pack on my back, starting on something I've never done before...I felt myself becoming mentally undone. So, I prayed, took many deep breaths, and told myself, "we will deal with this later - do not worry or think about this now, everything is going to be ok." I had to repeat this several times to myself in the first few miles of hiking.

Fortunately, the trail and the darkness required focus - it was uphill for much of the first mile or two and it was the kind of path where you had to pay attention because it was somewhat narrow and littered with rocks. We could hear the sounds of nature around us, rushing water and that weird, indescribable 'sound' of wide-open spaces, but we couldn't yet see much. It was a moon-less morning and that sky was clear which made the stars absolutely incredible. I shut my headlamp off a couple of times just to look up and admire the beauty. After about 2 1/2 hours of hiking in the dark, the first bits of light appeared, which was a special treat in and of itself:

As the sun continued to come up, it was like a present being opened - we were finally able to see what was around us, and what was around us was stunning.

Up till that point, the trail had been fairly easy - a little up and down but nothing major in terms of elevation gain. We got our first glimpse of Uncompahgre and arrived at the base of it and from there on, for the next two hours, it was uphill. Even despite that - it was mostly straight-forward. There was one short section that required hands and feet, but even that didn't feel particularly precarious. The rocks were solid and the way up was fairly obvious.

We made it to the top around 8:45am - it was brisk up there (upper 20s and a little breezy) but mostly comfortable, especially since we were all warmed up from the uphill hiking. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the views and recovering. The top of the mountain was a pretty expansive area - not like a precipice at all.

Every mountain has a geocode at the top denoting the official elevation.

There was one spot on the top which overlooked a sheer drop off. I'm not afraid of heights (usually) but this was so high up, I could barely look at it.

Anyway - like I said, after about 30 minutes at the top, we started the journey back down. This section of the trail was essentially an out-and-back to a point where the trails for Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn nearly converge. The way back though, was almost like a new trail because the first 2 1/2 hours of the hike had been in complete darkness, so we hadn't seen many of the geological features on the way out. After getting back down to the valley, we all sat down for a little while and enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the beauty that surrounded us.

Uncompahgre in the background on the left

Uncompahgre Peak

At this point, I was feeling the downhills more than the uphills. I had seemingly prepared well for hiking up, but had not prepared at all for long stretches of downhill hiking. My ankles and knees were not happy. After a couple more hours of hiking we were back at the trail convergence and at that point, we'd hiked ~12 miles total. I think at least for me, I knew at that point that I didn't have another summit in me. I don't really know how the other guys felt, but the concern for me was that for all the up I did, I was going to have to come down, and I wasn't sure if my ankles and knees were going to cooperate. We started up the trail to the top of Wetterhorn, but I only made it about halfway up that trail. The mountain looked awesome and in retrospect, I wish that I'd given it more of a shot, but I also think we ended up making the right decision because as we climbed up Wetterhorn, some weather had started to roll in.

Wetterhorn Peak from a distance

Snow/rain coming in

My brother was nice enough to go with me in heading back to the trailhead while the other two continued up for a little while longer. There was a ridge they wanted to get up to which wasn't too much farther. By the time my brother and I got back to the trailhead, they had caught up with us. The views on the way back to the truck were awesome.

We made it back to the trailhead at about 3pm - I was able to get the truck turned around and my brother and brother-in-law guided me through every maneuver to get off that trailhead road and we did so successfully with only a few minor scratches from tree branches (which very well could have been from the way up also). I couldn't have done it without their help and was so glad to be done with that.

After getting back and showering, we headed out to the local Mexican restaurant (which was the only one open) - weirdly Mexican had become the theme of our time in Colorado, so it was fitting. After chit-chatting awhile, I went to bed and there are few times in my life that I can remember being as excited to go to bed as I was that night. Slept like a baby and the next day, we started the journey home.

All-in-all, and despite the business with the trailhead road, it was a great experience. I learned a lot just from hiking up one 14er and so if I end up doing more in the future, I will be even more prepared. On to the next adventure!

Final Stats: 11 hours and 20 minutes on the mountains including stops, ~17 miles total, my Garmin watch showed just over 5,500ft of elevation gain, 50,000+ steps, 5,000 calories burned