After a bit of a disappointing run in the mountains we made up for it today. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post our goal for the day was to make the summit of Mt. Bierstadt, and I’m happy to say that although it wasn’t easy, we made it! There was an awesome feeling of accomplishment at the top for all of us. Through our travels we learned that summiting 14ers is a popular pastime in Colorado. With 54 possibilities there are many people here who work their way down the list to climb as many as they can. I thought it would be a pretty cool thing to join the club of people who have reached that height. As you may have read we made our first attempt a week or two ago at Mt. Elbert. While we fell a bit short of the summit there it seemed like a pretty solid attempt, topping out at 13,800 feet above sea level.
Today’s climb was a bit less ambitious since Bierstadt is just over 14,000. The hike also starts on a mile long downhill stretch which gave us a nice opportunity to warm up before starting the ascent. Everyone moved relatively well throughout the hike today. We moved first through a section of swampy shrubs, then a grassy section, next a rocky/grass mix, and then the final rocky scramble to the summit. We spent nearly an hour at the top taking pictures, having a snack, and enjoying a celebratory beer.
Our route to the top and some pictures are posted here.
The walk back down went pretty quickly, as usual. Since we started before six we were able to finish just after one. Our next stop was the Lewis Sweet Shop in Empire, CO. This was a stop we had made on impulse last year and were really hoping to be able to make again. In celebration of our hike we enjoyed giant malts and carnitas tacos, the perfect way to refuel after all the energy we’d spent that morning.
From there we moved on to our third Kimpton stop of the trip, the Monaco at Denver. As always, everything is awesome. We received an upgrade to a beautiful corner suite. We also had an array of goodies waiting for us. Most importantly, though, there was an awesome shower with plenty of hot water ready and waiting for us. We enjoyed wine hour and then decided that a low key evening in our awesome room was in order. We did venture out into Denver to pick up Chipotle and although we only walked about 10 blocks I feel confident in saying that this is the weirdest major city I’ve been in, and I feel like I’ve been to a lot of them.
Some of Denver’s weirdness in roughly the order we witnessed it: a 12 year old girl performing on the street alone, a homeless guy with a “Ukulele Wanted” poster, two guys with “I Hate Hillary” and “I Hate Trumnp” signs who were clearly together, the woman in Chipotle with a head and a half drunk jug of beer, the dead? dog, the slinky juggler, the guy with the “Magic Show” sign who didn’t appear to have any tricks to perform, and much more.
In any case, it was a fabulous end to the Colorado portion of our trip. Tomorrow we’ll begin heading back east with a big day of driving from here to Kansas City. Without a doubt today will be one of the most memorable days of #RTXVI. After all, now we’re in da club!
