After we couldn't find the main road from the trail head, the plan changed to: Hike all the way up and then either hitch hike down on the main road or see if we could catch the train down. If neither, we'd huff it down...
And so we started the trail at 0730 - Did I mention I got up at 0445 to pick up Rocio and make the drive down to the Springs? It was half a mile hike just to get to the trail head from where we had to park.
And so we started our hike. I felt unseasonably warm and hiked the entire time in a t-shirt, debating on stopping and putting on shorts...more on this later.
We hiked and hiked...and hiked - and passed some neat sights. (yes, I look like a goof).
We finally got to Barr Camp, which is about 7 miles from the beginning of the trail.
It took us 3.5 hours to get there from the start. When we got there, the nice lady informed us the weather was drastically changing from the weather report we had looked up the previous evening. While it was in the 50's - low 60's where we had been hiking with a 30% chance of rain, it has turned into 100% precipitation up top with high winds. Further, we were informed that the road is often closed down and the train stopped if the weather is bad - meaning, you are on your own to hike it down in the bad weather.
While this sounded like a great challenge and story later - we also weren't prepared for this. A TX girl and a CA girl, hiking in the elements with a sweatshirt and light jacket and no real plan for getting down before dark...we decided a great story wasn't worth our misery and possible MIA status.
So we stuck around the camp for about 45 minutes eating our nasty MRE's and discussing our options. Then we decided to go ahead and hike it back down. And so we did, 15 miles total (we jogged a lot of the way down just to go with the momentum/inertia/gravity - we were pretty tired and my eyes were on fire (still, more on this later.)
We got to the bottom and decided to jump on the next train to the top - might as well, right? Lucky for us because it was the last train for the day. As soon as we got to the top and inside the little shop, a park ranger came in and made a big announcement that anyone who drove up had to get in their cars and leave. They were closing down the road and if they did not leave with his escort, their cars would be sequestered up top - and if the train was full, they would "magically transform into hikers." They then announced our train would be heading down early due to the snow and we had 20 minutes to board before departure.
When we got back on the train, they made an announcement over the radio that the "lost hiker" was found - he got on the bus and slept the whole way down...enough said.
We got back down and Rocio told me she was going to go to the bathroom before we left - nothing normally significant, except that it was at this time I realized she had gone to the bathroom several times now and I had pretty much drank my 1 liter of water in my Camelback + another 16 oz of water on the train - and still didn't have to go to the bathroom...
So we headed back up to Denver and I just wanted to go to sleep. I dropped her off and went back to my hotel where I sat in the hot tub for about 15 minutes before deciding I should just go to bed. So I did - about 9pm. Then I started waking up every 1/2 hour starting around midnight until about 11am the next day... I was running 101.5 temperature (mine is usually about 96.8 - 97, not 98.6).
I think I had been sick the whole time - at least running a fever that made me very hot, tired, dehydrated, and my eyes burn... but at least I "kinda" marked it off my list of CO things to do. My mom would be sooooo mad...(lol) We made it a little more than halfway up/down; 14 miles of the full official 25 mile round trip trail (15 miles total from/to the parking spot).
1 comment:
I like the label at the bottom of the post. It says it all, "Life":)
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