That is correct, you did read that title correctly! That title can only mean one thing on this blog. It means 2007 was different than 2006. It means after 519 days, I finally completed another 14er. After being rained or snowed out so many times last year, this year the first 14er attempt was much more successful. This hike had the best weather I have ever had for a 14er hike.

Friday afternoon, Bob, Ethan, and I headed out at noon for our seven hour trip to Handies Peak, which is near Lake City, Colorado. Mike and David could not leave that early, so drove down later. We wanted to make sure one of the groups got there before daylight and setup camp. It was a pain to get to the trail-head as our directions there were not quite right but we found it before daylight. Mike and David did find us till after dark as they too had some adventures finding the site.

Saturday morning around 6:30 we got on the trail and head up. It was a nice morning, near perfect temperature for hiking with beautiful and a big blue sky with no clouds. Not too far up the trail we came into a lot of snow fields and the first half of the hike involved going in and out of snow banks. For a bit the snow fields were hard, but as we went along and it warmed up, the snow became softer. So we did a lot of post-holing (sinking in the snow). This is a pain because, you have to do a lot more work, it makes you tired, and it can cut up your legs if you are just wearing shorts (like I was).

Once we got pass the snow, it just became a steep climb up like most 14ers. There was not much scree or boulders to deal with and only one false summit. It is just a nice and simple trail that goes up. I really did struggle on the hike. Between being too much out of shape and dealing with my chocking issue, I had a harder time than I should have. The other guys were patience with me and stay with me and we had some great talks. I did appreciate the guys hung with as they are good guys and great hikers. We reach the top near 9:30 AM. So we got up to the top pretty fast.

The weather was so nice and the view was so great, we stayed at the top for an hour before we decided we should head down. As Ethan said, “Going up is optional, but going down is mandatory”. One thing I should mention about this 14er is that Ethan and I made the hike the 30/30 club. That is both of us completed our 30th 14er by doing Handies!

On the way down, we keep pasting a group of people, who were coming up, complimenting me on my backpack. Well, I just had gotten this backpack, so this was its first trip up a 14er. The pack is an Osprey Talon 44. I was very happy with the pack, but wondering why everyone in the group coming up liked my pack. So a little bit later when another lady complimented my pack, we stopped and talked with her. It turns out the group were from Osprey Packs which is located Cortez, CO. They were out testing packs and doing company group activity.

We walked down the trail and did a lot of post-holing through the snow but we made it back to the vehicle around 12:30 PM. From there we packed up the tents from camp, grabbed lunch in Lake City, CO and then drove back to Denver after a great day.

Click Here to see pictures of our hike.

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