A Fourteener

I wish I could load these photos in chronological order...but blogger is not very user-friendly that way, apparently. So I will share these photos with you of my recent fourteener hike with my sister in the order BLOGGER allows me. It seems to skip around a bit...sorry for the confusion it might cause.

My sister and I decided we needed a little more time together. We decided to hike in the mountains...but we didn't just decide to hike ANY mountain! We decided we wanted to hike a fourteener. For our first hike, we chose Mount Bierstadt. It's elevation reaches 14,060 feet above sea level!

Mount Evans is behind my sister on the left-hand side of this photo. The sawtooth that connects Mount Evans to Mount Bierstadt looks mean and unfriendly! Doesn't it?

This is my sister near the summit. I shot this photo to show the massive boulders we scrambled over to reach the very top.

Very early into our hike, we spied a moose. It was truly a thrill as neither of has ever seen a moose in Colorado.
Near the end of the day; after six hours of hiking, we made it back to the car. We were tired....very tired and really ready to fall into our beds.

At the summit, the air was very thin and made it difficult to breathe and think clearly. In fact, we'd encountered a man who really was in trouble. He was struggling with dizziness and disorientation. He'd hiked up the side of Mount Evans, then over the sawtooth and met us at the summit of Mount Bierstadt. Living in Colorado, we often hear warnings and are cautioned about signs of altitude sickness. After living here for so long and hearing about altitude sickness so much, a person tends to tune it out and maybe even blow it off. I have to admit, I was a little worried when I saw this guy was very clearly confused and I didn't even know him. We encountered another couple. She was a nurse and he was a very experienced hiker. She helped keep the confused hiker from getting into any more possible medical trouble.

Looking over to my right upon reaching the summit, I will admit: I felt a bit squeamish. I was feeling a sense of urgency to get back onto more level ground, for sure!

Once we had gotten to a certain elevation my legs felt so heavy. Each step was small and felt like it took so much effort. Well, because it did! Every hiker huffed and puffed their way up the rocky trail. Some even joked with us as they hiked near us about how we all trudged along.

My sister and I stopped long the way to eat lunch and take in the views. She packed healthy turkey sandwiches to fuel our hungry bellies.

Hey, SissyPoo! I am ready to go again. Are you?