Epic Weekend

Two days of my three day weekend were absolutely fantastic. After getting out of work at 3:30, I headed home, packed up for camping. Morgan picked me up and we were on our way. We had plans to hike Mt. Sherman on Saturday AM, so we camped alongside the road in Pike National Forest.


Our friends Nick, Adam, and Diana showed up shortly thereafter and we set up our tents and went about cooking dinner. There was a county-wide fire ban, so we weren't allowed to have a campfire, but we made do with cooking stoves on the back of Morgan's tailgate. Then we hit the hay, ready for our 6 am wake up call.

Nick is training for the Pike's Peak half marathon, so while all of us piled in the pickup in the morning to drive to the trailhead, he decided to run the 4 miles there. People in Colorado are crazy sometimes. We slathered on the sunscreen as we waited for him (I still got burnt) and we were on our way.

Mt. Sherman is one of the easier 14'ers. We started at about 11,700 feet, although you can park as close up as 12,000. The mountain was full of old mining buildings and equipment and it was a lot of fun to explore those along the way.


I was definitely the slowest in the group, but I just kept plodding along at my own pace, happy to be avoiding altitude sickness. It was absolutely gorgeous and I didn't need snowshoes. Overall, I enjoyed the hike up so much more than I had Quandary.

The last 100 yards or so were pretty much horizontal from the summit, and Morgan waited for me along the way so we could summit together.



We hung around up top for about half an hour then began our downward climb. There had been snow patches along the way and from up top we saw people glacading down - essentially sledding down the snowpatches on your butt.


It was so much fun and a real highlight of the hike. Nick and Adam had so much fun on the first one that they hiked back up to do it again. Overall, it took us about 4 hours to go up and down and we were back at the campsite by around 1. We hung around then drove into Fairplay for some foods - the local pub specialized in all things fried which didn't really sit well in our stomachs. After that, Morgan and I headed back to Denver for an early bedtime while everyone else went back to camp.

Sunday morning, after the best nights sleep ever, I woke up ready to knock out my 8 mile run. I was a little nervous about the distance, but had a planned break at 4 miles to feed my friend's cat and refill my water bottles. The planned break really helped me mentally break up the run and overall I was happy with it. Nothing hurt and my pace was a little slow, but still substantially faster than the 7-miler the previous week. I didn't walk at all and didn't stop with the exception of the cat feeding break. I'm feeling more and more ready for the half marathon.

Sunday night I went to a bar crawl for a friend's birthday and have come to the conclusion that I really haven't missed going out at all. I left my phone in the cab (again) and was hungover for all of Monday. The day was a complete waste and I didn't care for it at all. I had planned to do a 45 mile bike ride down to Chatfield (although my legs appreciated the rest day) and there are so many other more productive things I could have done with my day. I had enjoyed my hiatus from going out and I think I will return to that hiatus.

Overall it was a fantastically active and productive weekend, mostly. I am excited that it is already Tuesday and another weekend will soon be upon us.