14,265 Feet

Wednesday: All of the F kids, except for AJ, plus me and C leave the house at 6:30 to go to the trailhead for Mount Quandry, the 13th highest mountain in Colorado at 14, 265 feet. We spend the day hiking to the summit and back to the car. We make it home by 2:30. It’s a long day, and we spend the most time scrambling up rocks.


I am the slowest by far, but am relieved to summit before the others decide to turn around and come back. I turn on
my iPod to listen to some of my Amy Tan book to keep my mind occupied. When that runs out, I start counting my steps, forcing myself to put one foot in front of another. By the time I finally make it to the top, I have counted 1,134 steps. I figure that a big part of the reason for my laggardness is that I live in a city that is 300 feet above sea level, but CC and Em are far ahead of me too. I call AJ from the summit. Awesome reception!


On the way down, the rocks seem to go forever. It isn’t a pretty hike since we are above the treeline for most of the time, but I’m glad we were able to all do it together. The picture to the right isn't me or anyone I know. The pictures from our trip are on Em's camera and I haven't gotten them yet. I didn't bring mine because I thought AJ would want to take pics of the kids up on Copper Mountain. Too bad that he totally forgot to take it. But, it gives a sense of the rock fields. At this point, the summit looks so close. It took me so long to get to the top of that thing from this same point!


An aside from the trip report: E has climbed quite a few of the 50+ fourteeners in Colorado. As it turns out, Colorado is the highest state and has more mountains reaching 14,000 feet than any other state. I think it's an awesome goal to summit all of them. Perhaps if we lived in Colorado, I would climb a few more of them. This got me thinking about the individuality of place and geography. Each of our residences has had unique features--in some places more than others, I've embraced the uniqueness and tried to appreciate it.

I decided a few things based on this hike and the other mountain walking we did:

1. I need to take my kids on more nature walks/hikes around our area

2. In general, we need to do more outside. (I am resistant to embracing the outdoor winter activities in Minnesota. Maybe we can work on that a bit.)

3. I want to find the fourteener equivalent (or its slightly less arduous counterpart) in Minnesota. Maybe this means we should start canoeing and eventually do the boundary waters. Certainly, it suggests that I should start researching the state geography and unique environmental features.


Back to the trip report: After the hike, I enjoy a refreshing diet coke and sandwich and then take a relaxing steam shower in the steam room. K and C make delicious bruschetta and spaghetti for dinner. I think this is the night that we watch The Recruit.