The sky was clear and the ink black void was only broken up by a thin crescent moon and a scattershot of stars as we wound around I70 toward the heart of the mountains. A late start but we were making good progress toward the trailhead where we would camp for the night before attempting to summit two of the highest peaks in Colorado, a task that I was nervous for. This would be my first time above fourteen thousand feet and I knew that even though the route we had chosen wasn’t exactly technical it was still a feat that would test the limits of my abilities. Off the highway we turned left and headed south up a dirt track toward the trailhead through thick forest the surface of which was filled with small boulders and large craters. Halfway up there was a family sedan whose front left wheel had been broken free of the metal bonds that keep it in line with the right side, as well as having a shattered rear window who knows how long this car had been abandoned. Campers along the side of the road here and there, I don’t know if they were going to summit the mountain or not but either way they were enjoying an absolutely gorgeous night.
The morning came quickly after a few beers enjoyed with strangers perched round a small campfire chatting and carrying on into the wee hours. We shared the tent that night having figured it being a two man tent there would be room for two men and there was, only just. As the alarms started going off we reluctantly crawled from our cramped confines and disassembled our quarters. The views were stunning all around as we walked back down the path above the parking lot headed toward the car. We made some quick cups of coffee using a wonderful little device that rests atop the mug and holds a filter, perfect for a one shot cup of joe. The sun slowly started creeping over the wall of mountains at our backs and started illuminating the valley ahead of us. We finished our coffee, packed away our extra gear, changed into better hiking clothes and then I swapped back out of my hiking pants and into my shorts and headed up the path.
As we climbed up the first stages of the path and rounded a slight bend we were gifted with a wonderful sunlit view of the first beast which we would tackle. Gray’s Peak stood bathed in the early morning sun rising above the valley ahead sprinkled with snow and covered in scree. The mountain had an almost square looking top and you could barely make out the trail of switch backs up the side. Closest to us was a sheer cliff face the bottom of which featured a bowl of snow still not yet fully melted.
As the shrubs around us turned to an alpine meadow full of wild flowers the sun finally peaked above the eastern wall of the valley and provided some stunning lighting for the multitude of pictures that I took. This was the first moment where I began to feel in me something change, something began bubbling deep down and I was slowly becoming more and more cognizant of a feeling of peace.
The night before we had met two gentlemen who were going to summit by going the hard route, a class three scramble up a ridge to the sister peak and second one we would summit, Torrey’s. Called the Kelso ridge it runs from a smaller 13000 foot mountain dips down to a fork that has a path that leads to the main trail and a path straight up a ridge of boulders and small cliffs to the top of the other 14000 foot peak at the end of the valley. I don’t know if we saw the pair as we hiked the standard path but I know they successfully traversed the ridge as we met them between the two peaks heading the opposite direction as us.
The closer we got to the first summit the more and more rocks there were and the less mosses and grass. The grayish brown of the scree field was only broken up by pockets of yellow and white, wild flowers and snow. You could see small specks on the peak, those who had already summited Gray’s. It was slightly unnerving to see just how small they were compared to the beast we were about to climb.
Just before we reached the final stretch of switch backs we ran into some hairy horned friends. Bright white and shedding their thicker coats they grazed on the wild flowers and gave us no mind. I had never seen mountain goats in the flesh before and it felt amazing to see them so close. The idiot in me wanted to run up and try to pet them but luckily the idiot was also the one leading this expedition and was already too tired to act on such impulses. Our horned, hooved friends would have to be left alone, we had a mountain to climb.
Just before the summit of the first mountain we took a pause and looked back to behold the view and I have to say it was truly stunning. A narrow valley with a wall of rock and dirt on the right side and a large grass covered mountain on the other lay before us, with patches of darker green where shrubs grew and a dark blue stream running across the middle, you could follow the trail all the way back down to the tree line. It reminded me of pictures I have seen of Iceland, an almost moss like color to the tundra below a valley almost entirely untouched out of respect for the awesome beauty of it all.
Finally we made it to the first summit and I really felt a change coming. I hadn’t kept up with my hiking or outdoor pursuits very well in the preceding weeks and I wasn’t sure if I could really make it up the trail that day, especially after getting home later than I had planned the night before and getting very little sleep. I sat upon the peak gazing out over the mountains and valleys below, eating the remainder of a burrito purchased the night before and had a realization of what I had accomplished in what context. I realized that no matter what I try to do no matter how I feel beforehand and this goes for everyone, I can accomplish the goals I have. As the old cliche goes, if there is a will, there is a way. The crazy thing is there was still another mountain to summit and plenty of hike left.
We started down the next path heading toward the second mountain. What, rather worryingly had appeared to be an almost knife like edge from down below turned out to be a much bigger swath of rocks and dirt that was almost as wide as the two peaks and was a more gradual slope on the back side than it had appeared. All that said, it was still going to be a long process to get down the ridge and back up to the second peak. At the bottom of this path we met our friends from the night before, briefly stopped to enjoy their company one last time and then parted ways perhaps to meet again on another crag high above another valley.
A beautiful view of the other side of the continental divide featured a wall of peaks the stunning lake Dillon in the foreground and far in the distance another run of high mountains with pockets of snow. We were almost at the top.
We finally reached the top and from here the views all around were stunning including the look back at the other summit. You could see all the way to the plains in the east and to the Sawatch range in the west, you could see Long’s peak and James peak to the north and Pikes peak to the south, well the southwest. The view from atop a mountain gives you a true feeling of the scale of our world, the tiny little ants atop these enormous monoliths, these monuments to rock and earth. I was forever changed by it, I will never forget the thrill of summiting a mountain that large and I can’t help but hunger for more, more mountains, more summits, more majestic views, more awe inspiring moments of peace.
Just two sweaty dudes, atop the second of two 14000 foot mountains. The trip back down was long and arduous but the memories will last a lifetime and I won’t soon forget this experience in the hidden valley where you could feel the earth’s energy. The hidden valley where the wild flowers bloomed and the mountain goats grazed.
The hidden valley where my old life died and I was born anew.
The Wandering Toto
– 2019
The Wandering Toto 