Hike Long's Peak

On Sunday August 26th, in 12 hours, I hiked Longs Peak. It was a little scary (on the Ledges) but not like I thought it would be. It was as exhausting as I thought it would be, really tough in the Trough and then the last stretch from the Boulderfield down. That last 3 miles took FOREVER. I got a little altitude sickness and went to bed as soon as we were home because of the splitting headache. In spite of that, I am sooo glad I did it. I faced my fear and did it anyway. And in an “average” time, which feels great!

The Keyhole route on Long’s will be rated “technical” for the entire summer, which means we (as hikers, not technical climbers) will not be able to manage the top two miles of the hike. So there is a question as to whether we will even bother to make it to the Boulderfield.

But it’s ok – there are lots of 15 mile-ish hikes around here with lots of neat stuff to see along the way. I’m going to come up with another hiking goal. Maybe, hike 100 miles from May 1 until July 31? That could be a fun one, although a debatable goal (turns out the length measures of many trails, at least the measures we’ve found so far, are approximate/inaccurate).

Did the long loop – can’t find a good map of it yet, but I’m guessing based on our pace and some poor maps I have to work with, that it’s around 2.5 miles. We did it in an hour! I kept us up at quick pace, and roommate/boyfriend kept up pretty well. Took one or two very short (1 minute or less) breaks. Roommate got a little frustrated and pissed, but she kept going. It’s the hills that get her – dangerous, because Long’s will be ALL HILL (mostly, anyhow).

I’m not going to let her internal struggles bother me – I did my best to be encouraging, but most of this is her own issue. I’ve done what I can. I feel really good about my own conditioning, though. I powered through the hills and though my heart rate went up high, I was far less winded than I’ve been in the past. I can feel increased strength in my lower body already. I ran down the whole last hill, which felt wonderful. Not that winded at the end, either.

The trail was not a hard one – one of my favorites, with not a lot of extreme inclines, but plenty of interest (it follows a stream the whole way). However, it was a LOONG long hike – 8.8 miles altogether.

My roommate did very well, and I’m going back and forth all the time about how into this she is. Yesterday, she seemed very into it. Something that has helped: I got her some mullein tincture, which she has been taking to help the chest tightness she gets from exercising. I suggested it because I had great success with it when I had a chest cold this past winter.

She said that she could really notice a difference. Either it’s the mullein, or the psychological boost from feeling like the chest tightness is being addressed. Maybe it was just doing an easier hike. Either way, she was enthusiastic yesterday – I kept us at a pretty good clip, and she kept right up, even leading for portions of the hike. We figured that overall, we had an average speed of 2 miles an hour the whole time.

Even if we don’t end up doing Long’s, the boyfriend has come up with a list of a bunch of other 10 mileish trails that are worth doing, which we’d like to try out in prep for the summit.

Roommate did not come with, although we discussed it the previous evening. I’m still concerned. Thankfully, I didn’t let that stop me from going out and hiking for at least 30 min. I didn’t work too hard, but my heart rate was up a lot of the time

It was a useful hike – I used it to work out and deal constructively with the frustration I felt towards my roommmate (it didn’t take long – I can’t really blame her, can I? – I almost didn’t go myself), and I used it to bond with nature again. I think one thing that will keep me exercising is staying interested in the outdoors, especially identifying plants, trees, fungi, and animals. After awhile, I feel like they’re my friends (trite, huh?), and I don’t mind having to go outside and work hard to see them.

I feel pretty great, which is surprising considering how not great I felt an hour or so ago. Exercise is amazing.

I could not get my roomie to come with me on Friday, so I did the hour-long loop by myself. Ran into 3 women who looked to be about my age who were running it. I’m confident that I can do that, too. I really need some cardio conditioning, and doing long hikes with the roomie won’t provide that because I’m more in shape than she is right now.

We went on another 7-miler yesterday, and got lost(!), which we were not expecting – we’ve hiked that trail several times before successfully, but there is one very confusing part that’s not well marked. Thankfully, we did not go too far off course, and were able to backtrack and return the way we came.

She got kind of upset after getting lost, and was a bit pissy for awhile, but seemed happy to have done it afterwards. It’s a mental lesson for both of us – she is learning to manage her frustration, and I am learning to be patient. I tried not to get too far ahead this time, and to be more encouraging than critical. There will be no place for criticism on the mountain. Anyway, I think both of our attitudes were pretty good considering the frustration.

She was using some hiking poles and they really seemed to help her. I tried them for awhile, and can’t decide if I like them or not. They’re great on a wide trail, but not as helpful in close quarters.

Went well, but I’m a bit worried. Every time we get out on the trail, my roommate starts talking about hiking LESS. I think she’s going to try to back out of the Friday short hike. This baffles me, because she is willing to do the longer ones. She says that she doesn’t want to burn herself out. I guess that’s valid, but I’m still confused that she would avoid the easy parts and still do the hard parts – weird.

I’m worried because I don’t think she has a clue that what we’re doing now is many, many times easier than the Long’s Peak hike will be. I guess I’m a little miffed too, because it was her idea to do 3 hikes a week, and I was all for it, and now she’s waffling – and because 2 hikes into a program is pretty early to be worrying about burning one’s self out. I sort of feel she’s not giving it a chance, and wonder how serious she is about actually hiking the mountain. Or whether she WANTS to want to do it, rather than really wanting to do it.

I’m going to try hard not to let this bother me, and to encourage her to hike. I know she has said she doesn’t want to do Friday’s hike, but I’m going to do it anyway, and I’m going to call her and invite her to come along. Maybe I can cajole her into keeping with the schedule she came up with. I really think it’s important to do so.

My roommate, her boyfriend, and I have decided on a training schedule. Plan is to do short hikes on nearby trails Wednesdays and Fridays after work – thank god for daylight savings! – with a long (7 mile plus) hike on Sundays. We need to find a 14 mile plus hike (or several), as well as some higher altitude routes to practice with low oxygen.

Roughly 1/2 hour. We moved at a good clip, not too many rests. I have to admit, I’m a little skeptical as to whether my roommate will do this or not. I think she is capable, but she complained a lot on yesterday’s hike – and it was a short one.

I know that part of it is that she is out of shape, just quit smoking recently, and is just not used to that kind of physical activity. I’m not really IN shape, but I tend to be more active every day than she is, so I’m probably in slightly better shape. However, I really think she’s got a mental block similar to one I had growing up – a block on mental exhertion. I hated the feeling of breathing hard – it felt very uncomfortable to me. I had to learn that feeling some muscle burn and breathing hard are GOOD things, and not interpret them as discomfort.

I also had to learn to believe that I could get to the top.

Thankfully, although she was a titch whiney during the hike, she realized after it was done that it was no big deal. And talked about working more seriously on this goal, developing a hiking schedule to do 3 hikes a week (two short weekday, 1 long weekend). That’s more like it. I hope she can keep that positive outlook.

Somewhat. I’m already acclimated to 5,000+ feet.

The plan (aside from my regular exercise program, which I really need to commit to, dammit) is to do longer hikes weekly (or twice weekly as weather conditions improve).

Right now, I’m planning to hike this with my roommate and her boyfriend. I’m a tad worried because I’m not sure they know what they’re getting into. They’ve never hiked something this steep before. Not that I have either, but I did most of a 14er when I was much younger, and the elevation is definitely challenging.

There are a couple of semi-challenging trails nearby. Not at a high enough altitude, but the terrain and incline is decent. We did one of these this past weekend.