Yesterday I officially became a member of the "Mountain Men."
After work I met up with three of the original mountain men, Randy, Doug and Micheal at a K-Mart in Loveland, CO. After everyone arrived, we headed toward the mountains. It was about a 15 minute drive to Round Mountain.
We were the only ones in the parking lot at the trailhead, and that was very nice because there was no one else on the trail! The weather was perfect. It had been a warm day, but we had cloud cover for the hike, so it was not hot at all.
Randy, Nolan and Michael at the Round Mountain TrailheadThis being my first hike, they let me set the pace. Which was a good thing, because I was not in nearly as good of shape as the rest of the mountian men, and I am not used to the altitude either. I talked with Micheal a lot about his new job and his consulting work. All very interesting stuff. At the 1 mile marker, I decided it was time to let the group go ahead of me.
I kept hiking until 7:00. There was a beautiful meadow, and some nice views of the river valley below. At 7:00 I started heading back down, and about 15 minutes later the advanced group caught up to me. It ends up that they stopped at 7:00pm too. At that point we talked Doug into getting out the portable tri-pod and took a group shot.
Michael, Nolan, Randy and Doug on Round Mountain
We made it down the mountain without any trouble, and then we headed home. On the way back we stopped at a park along the river that was destroyed (since restored) by the 1976 flood in the canyon that killed over 100 people.
Randy comparing his height to the flood level
It was a challenging hike for me, but it was a good hike, and I look forward to many more, and to getting in better shape. Colorado will be a great place for that!
