I can't seem to get my head out of the clouds

An update on the mine I explored: After getting lost in the Denver Public Library for a while, I believe I may have discovered the name of the mine. It may or may not be correct, but I believe it is called the King Solomon mine. I'm not sure why. I then researched that name on the Internet trying to find out when it was active, and for how long. It turns out that there is not much documentation on mines that I could find. I only found one small note on a King Solomon mine in Colorado, which said it was a Uranium mine. I think this is unlikely to be the same one.

Here is an overview of my many trips into the mountains.

The mountains offered a much greater experience than the original trail I took in IL. While on the Hennepin Canal I was very bored, seeing the same thing all the time with little challenge after the first few days. The mountain paths always offer amazing scenery and a challenging hike going up or down. I felt like I could hike the mountains for weeks without getting bored.

I still can't decide whether hiking up or down a mountain is more difficult. While going up, you just wish it were over. Gazing on a seemingly endless trail up, you continually think you can see the top, but it always turns out to be a slight turn in the trail, or some trees that made the trail look shorter. All you can do it pull your legs up one at a time and focus on each step rather than the whole trail.

If you eat breakfast after you head out, things are quite a bit easier. Lesson learned.

That was my first mountain hike, where my intention was to take a short trail (3 miles round trip) with a minor elevation change (about 1000 ft). I ate a very small breakfast and thought I would take that trail in a couple of hours with no problem.

Using my awesome navigation skills I managed to take the wrong path. This lead me to a 7 mile, one way hike with about 2500 feet of elevation increase. How fun. Luckily I found a trail head at the seven mile mark that lead me out to a shuttle buss back to my car. Otherwise it would have been probably about a 15 or 16 mile hike back to the car. I wouldn't have had time in the day for that as I started about noon.

Rocky Mountain National Park has an awesome trail system with rangers at most of the trail heads to answer questions and also to make sure aren't being too much of an idiot. There are shuttle buses all around the park to that you can leave your car at a central lot and just ride to your trail head.

Driving around the park will inevitably lead you to the Trail Ridge Road, which carries you to some of the most amazing views that I have ever seen.

Along that highway is when I discovered that the temperature in those high altitude areas can drop from 60 degrees to the 30s in a matter of a half hour. I was in shorts taking a short hike in the tundra when this happened, with ominous black clouds forming in the distance and bearing down on me.

Traveling around anywhere in the mountains will lead you through some very strange weather. At one point it is sunny and clear. A few minutes later the sky goes dark. You would swear that hell itself is going to rain down on you. Then it drizzles a bit. In a short time it is clear and sunny again, until more clouds come a pour buckets on you, but only for 30 seconds or so. You definitely don't get bored with the weather, but it's terribly difficult to have a barbecue.

I had my sights set on Longs Peak as soon as I saw it. It towers over the other mountains nearby as it is the only one over 14000 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park. After a bit of research I discovered that my time in in the mountains would not allow me to scale that peak. You have to do it during the warmest periods of the year unless you have technical climbing gear and experience, which I have neither of... yet.

My first 14er turned out to be Mount Evans. This is the main peak you see in the distance when you are in Denver. It is just about due west of the mile high city.

There were 5 people and a dog in the team that hiked up to the top. There is a road to up this mountain, but we were gluttons for punishment and walked it. It actually turned out to be rather easy with only a 6 M hike to the top with 2000 feet of elevation gain. Of course the trail I wanted to walk would have been 16 miles round trip with 5800 total feet of elevation gain, but then I like to do things that should kill me. I'm not sure I would have made it through that hike, but I would have tried.

We made it to the parking lot at the top and then ate a bit and finished the climb to the true summit, a bit higher by a couple hundred feet. The view from up there is incredible. You can see where the Denver metro area is, though I couldn't really make out the buildings. Longs peak laughs at you in the distance, mocking your easy hike, and to the south you can see Pikes Peak, wishing it was as tall as Evans.

I was the only one wearing my pack up at the summit (I had my tripod in it), making it a little challenging to get up and down do to my higher center of gravity. On the way down, I managed to slip and fall, sliding down a bit and bending a hiking pole in the process, laughing the whole time.