In Her Shoes

Tackling my bucket list, one half marathon at a time.

Adventures of Hiking My First 14er

7 Comments

I’m blogging about this 2 weeks late so, my apologies. Let me preface this post by saying I LOVE COLORADO.

My sister (Tayler) and my best friend (Emily) live in Denver so I am fortunate to visit the beautiful state quite often. In addition to those 2 lovely people, I have a big handful of friends from high school and college who live out there, too.

I flew out to Denver 2 weeks ago for a weekend with friends. Beforehand, I told Tayler and Emily the ONLY thing I wanted to do was hike a 14er because it’s on my bucket list. I flew in Thursday morning and the plan for Friday was to do this hike. We woke up at 5:30am, were out the door by 6am and hiking Mount Bierstadt by 7:30am.

It doesn’t look that far, but ohhh baby, it was. We started off and I thought it was easy as pie. About half-way up my lungs could definitely feel the thin air. Our resting trips became more frequent and my face started to feel like it was going to fall off because it was so cold. 

Cross it off the bucket list!!!!!

Emily’s husband has hiked over 30 14er’s and thought it would take us about 3.5 hours. We made it up in 2.5 hours, so I was pretty satisfied. It was absolutely FREEZING at the top. It was so windy I felt like I was going to blow over and fall down the mountain. We stayed for about 3 pictures and then booked it back down to warmth.

This could be my favorite shot of the hike. Absolutely gorgeous!

We got back to our car and this is what we saw on the drive back down the mountain:

We named this guy Pam the Ram

We celebrated our 14er with a quick nap followed by some brews with great friends.

Spent some quality time with some friends from college. Ahh, love being back with fellow Hawkeyes

3 of my favorite Middleton (where I’m from in WI) people live in Denver. Pictured: Emily, Sarah, Tayler, myself.

This trip to Denver = success. Now I just need to get the courage to move there!

Enjoy this Death Cab wonderfulness:

7 thoughts on “Adventures of Hiking My First 14er

  1. Such pretty pictures! They remind me of hiking in Switzerland. Looks like a fun trip 🙂

  2. That’s crazy high yo! It does look pretty awesome, might have to add hiking or climbing into my list…maybe I will just go straight to Kilamanjaro and one up you. Denver looks pretty awesome, I am hoping to finally make it there this winter at some point…Great Divide and the slopes are calling to me! Looks like you had a fun, action packed trip filled with friends and family.

    PS – I LOVE Death Cab but this remix…not so much! I really need to do a Sounds, Suds and Cinema again. Did you get your tickets to see the Walkmen yet?????????

    • You don’t LOVE this remix?! What’s wrong with you? Anything by Death Cab is amazing. But I’ll admit, it’s a little different from their usual. Haven’t gotten my tickets yet but I am for sure going. Problem is, I have friends who are no where near a musically obsessed as I am and they have no idea who the Walkmen are (what’s wrong with them?) You should definitely get out to Denver…that city is the best. It’s screaming my name to move there.

  3. What an adventure! So neat!! This is something I’d like to do some day too! Congrats on crossing an item off of your bucket list!

    • You should definitely do it! It’d be hard for someone who doesn’t really work out much but since you’re a runner, it’d be great. Just don’t do it in the winter…it was freeeeeezing at the top!

  4. Pingback: Take Me Down to the Paradise City | In Her Shoes

Leave a reply to Megan Cabalka Cancel reply