Since this Southern lass moved out west, I’ve really had to adapt my thinking about mountains. Even having spent a few years growing up near the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, all the mountains before Colorado can really be referred to as “cute.” Always beautiful but in scope, the Rockies are breathtaking. They are also unforgiving and often underestimated.
Recently an Air Force Academy prep student has gone missing on Long’s Peak. He went out as weather was already turning ugly and from the sounds of it, was not carrying or wearing heavy duty gear. I’m not an experienced mountain climber but after moving here, I have learned that even well hiked foothills can be treacherous. Sadly, the young man has not been recovered and because the late autumn weather on a 14er is so powerful, RMNPS has called off the search until conditions improve, which will likely be springtime. A sad story and one I had on my mind when I set out Wednesday to hike Mt. Falcon up to the ruins of the Summer White House.
In 1911, a white marble cornerstone was set on the face of a cliff but fundraising fell through. The developer had hoped to build a magnificent home not far from the Colorado capitol for presidents to use as a vacation residence.
Though it was never built, the ruins left reveal the awe inspiring views the presidents and their guests would have enjoyed, including a clear view of Mt. Evans. Mt. Evans is a 14er near Idaho Springs and has the highest driveable road in the country, taking you up to 14,130 feet, leaving you with a short but oxygen-deprived walk up another 135 feet to the summit. I conquered that bit back in July 2013, and as you can see from my attire, even in July it is fairly cool up that high. Did I mention lack of oxygen?
Comparatively, Mt. Falcon is only 1,753 feet tall, with the hike gaining 1,500 or so in altitude. The view of Mt. Evans is still worth it.
The funny part of this story is that, despite the great respect I have for the mountains, I didn’t see that from the west lot, this was a brief 3 mile or so round trip hike. From the east lot, it’s comes in at 6.14 miles. Also, there was still ice and snow on the north side (this becomes important later in the story) of the mountain. I ended up parking in the east lot with my friend, Bri, and my puppy, Satchmo, for his first ever mountain hike. He was a real champ at only 5 months old, despite the cold and double the distance Bri and I had anticipated. Oops. This is likely why I’ll double and triple check my first 14er climb with an experienced climber for those heights.
I mean, look at that face! Hard to believe 3 months ago he almost died of parvovirus! He’s all healed up and growing like crazy!
Since I hadn’t planned on being out for 3 hours on this particular adventure, I didn’t realize we would also be racing the sun on our descent. We definitely wanted to get off the mountain before dark. While we always had cell reception and were only twenty minutes from help, mountains and darkness should still only be combined by skilled hikers.
The hike itself is really lovely. You get great views of the Rockies at the top but on the ascent and descent, you also get great views of Denver, Red Rocks, and the surrounding areas.
The puppy also hadn’t mentally planned on walking over 6 miles, so while I had water for him, neither he nor I had food on us and on the way down the mountain, he needed to be carried a bit.
Oh, the things we do for love of dogs! He really enjoyed this part though (and here’s where the aforementioned ice and snow comes into play) I enjoyed it less so since I had already fallen hard twice on the ice and ripped these great CW-X tights. Thankfully the holes don’t show in these pictures. I’ve been having a fun time with sitting over the last 5 days but at least the damage was only some cuts and bruises on my backside.
This is what we had to walk down and while it may look innocent enough, it was pretty much an ice rink 1,300 or so feet up on a mountain. Satchmo really didn’t like it when I fell, as a bit of “service dog” behavior came out in him. He was very solicitous of my health and well being, though he was equally concerned with carrying every pine cone and stick he could carry too.
All in all, it was a grand adventure with a huge payoff. I’m so glad my puppy has grown big and strong enough to also become my hiking buddy. Bri is always great company on a hike but we failed to get a picture of us together! I’m terrible about that. She did get this great picture of Satchmo and me at the top of our hike though.
I also learned a valuable lesson about having a bit more respect for even the smaller mountains. Next time, hiking poles and my micro-spikes, plus packing food. Hopefully then I won’t have to rue sitting for a week following.