Bagged another 14'er

On June 25th and 26th, a couple girlfriends and I hiked Pikes Peak up and down, which sits at 14,115 feet in elevation. It is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners (mountains that are more than 14,000 feet above sea level), and was the 5th one I have hiked. It had been 7 years since I've hiked a 14'er, so it was definitely a good kick in the butt! My friends who I did it with, Mel & Lauren, were definitely the super troopers and we kept each other going, although I'm sure more often than not, we all wanted to turn back.

On Saturday, June 25th at 2pm, we started at the trailhead for Barr Trail and hiked 6.5 miles to Barr Camp. Barr Camp is a remote camp made up of the caretakers and their main "house" (which is a small A-frame cabin), a small creek, some lean-to's, tent sites, and a small toilet building. We got to Barr Camp about 5:30pm and were greeted with a spaghetti and garlic bread dinner which was amazing after such a grueling hike with heavy packs on our backs! We pitched our tent, ate some dinner, talked a bit with each other and other campers/hikers, and then the 3 of us girls crashed out in our tent before 9pm. We were exhausted! We woke up about 6:30am the next morning (Sunday, June 26th) and had an equally as amazing breakfast of buckwheat and apple pancakes. After breakfast, we continued our hike for another grueling 6 miles to the summit of Pikes Peak, which also happened to be the same day as the famous Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. We checked out some of the race car drivers and their entourages, then proceeded to hike the 13.5 miles all the way down to the trailhead. So in total, we hiked 6.5 miles on Saturday and 18.5 miles on Sunday.

We did have one casuality to note: Mel lost her camera somewhere along the trail and we never did find it again. That was a wicked bummer! Besides that, it was such an awesome weekend with two fabulous women! I can't imagine having done it with anyone else, as those ladies made it such a memorable experience and we'll always have that together. Side note: It was only the second night I've ever slept away from Lochlan since he was born.

Here are some photos from our hike!