Kit Carson beat me up. No, I was not pummeled by a Colorado legendary man who has been dead over 139 years ago. I was taken down by the 14,165 foot mountain in the Sangre De Cristo Range in southern Colorado.

This was a long (around thirteen miles) and hard climb to the top of the mountain. As for me, I did not do the whole hike. For me the hike involved eleven and half hours of hiking. For those who went on and stood on the top of Kit Carson, they spent fourteen hours hiking. It was a long, exhausting, and frustrating day. In fact, two days later, I am still pretty wiped from the trip.

This journey actually did not start out as planned. We ended up leaving Denver over a hour later than we hoped. We also picked a wrong place to eat dinner. It took them over a hour and half to get us food. So we did not arrival at the trail-head area till well after dark making it hard to find a place to camp. Finally, we all went to bed but none of us could really sleep. I normally do not sleep that great the night before a hike but this one was worst than normal.

The trail started off nice and sandy (which felt good when we got down) and there was a quick river crossing to make. Then the trail became rocky and started going up. The plants and trees were very green and there were lots and lots of beautiful wild flowers. One of the bonus about this hike was that it featured a lot of great views of waterfalls.

It took us nearly five hours to get to Willow Lake. We had to make a total of three river crossing along the way. I did not think it would be that long but it was a ways up there. In fact we were starting to wonder if the lake was even real. When we saw it I was hoping it wasn’t a mirage. It turns out it was real and a very pretty lake. It also gave me a little hope that were getting closer to the top. However, we had a long, longs ways to go. If you ever do decide to climb Kit Carson on the Willow Lake Trail, I recommend you backpack to the lake and then climb the peak the next day.

Once we got around the lake and crossed another river, the up got a whole lot steeper. At this point I started to doubt if I could make it as my energy level was almost empty. It is not good when you mentally start to believe you are not going to make it. I went on for awhile and was really starting to fall behind the other guys. David stayed with me but I knew I was not going to make it. I had no energy and I was still going to have to go down. So I told David I was done and he should go catch up with the other guys.

I sat there for awhile and figured out from my GPS I was at about 12,600 feet (we started at 8,880 feet). We had been hiking for six hours when I ended my upward climb. Then I started thinking maybe of going up again and at least getting to the top ridge and maybe even to Challenger Point, the 14,081’ sub-peak of Kit Carson. However, some guys came down and I talked to them for awhile. After that I knew I really did not have any energy for hiking the four hours from were I was to the car, so why keep going up. So I went back down the steep part to near the last river crossing to wait for the guys to get back. It was spot that would give me a great view of people coming down so I could know when the guys were coming down. It was also good place for them to see me.

After talking to people as they were coming down, I knew I would not see the guys till at least 4:00 PM if they were able to summit Kit Carson. At this point some clouds were rolling in and I started worrying about the weather. I was also so depressed from not making it to the goal of the top of Kit Carson. For a little bit I did not want my friends to make it either since I didn’t. However, I realized that was so selfish and if I was them I would want my friends praying for me. So I started praying for them to get to the top, have strength and energy, to be safe, and for the weather to stay nice (which it did till we drove away from the trail-head).

While I had the few hours alone I also decided that I did not want to climb 14ers anymore. That was it. Then I started thinking that I would at least not climb any more as hard as Kit Carson. Really, I may climb a few more (I am suppose to take Mindy to her first one this weekend. It will be much “easier” than Kit Carson). However, I don’t think the goal of standing on top of all 54 14ers is a real one for me anymore. I will just do the ones I can and enjoy those. There are plenty of great hikes that are not so demanding as 14ers that I can do and still help me be in somewhat so-so shape, but they will not physically and mentally drain me like Kit Carson did.

Around 2:30 PM Bob came down. He made it to Challenger Point but could not do Kit Carson. So he told the other guys he would find me and we would meet them at the vehicles. After Bob got a much needed break, we began the long four hours trip down to the vehicles.

To me going down is the hardest part of a hike on the body. Your knees, feet and sore muscles take a beating as you go down. You are already tired and a lot of times you will stumble over your own feet because of how exhausted you are. Then you think you are closer to the trail-head then you are so you get bummed when you round a corner and realize you still have a long ways to go.

Bob and I made it to the vehicles around 6:45 PM. From there the best part of the hike happen, I was able to take off my hiking boots and let my poor, hurting feet rest in more comfortable shoes. The cold juice and water I had in the cooler may have been the best tasting things I have ever had in my life. My cell phone had a signal again for the first time all day (it probably would have had one on top of the peak but I never founded out) and I was able to call Mindy to let her know we would not be home for awhile and that we were OK.

A little after 8:00 PM, David, Ethan, and Josh made it to the vehicle. By then it was already dark. It was a good thing Josh had a head lamp in his gear. He is like me and always carries one in his pack. If they did not have it they would have been on the trail in total darkness.

Sadly, the story does not end there. We still had to drive back five hours to Denver. Plus, we were on the hungry side. We made it to Salida, CO around 10:00 PM and got some gas for the cars and food for us. When we had left the trail-head it was raining pretty hard and it rained all the way to Salida, which made it harder to see and made me more tired. We thought we could find a place to rest before heading back to Denver. However, we could not find a empty hotel room or any camp area, so we drove to Denver. I somehow got second wind and Josh was able to stay up with me so I could drive home awake. We make to my house safely a little past 1:30 AM.

Once home, Josh just stayed the night at our place (no need for him to drive to Greeley from Arvada). I really did not get much sleep or rest that night. I did not even get a nap on Sunday. However, Sunday night I slept very well, finally!

I still do not want to do anymore 14ers right now, but I am sure I will do a few more that I have not done along with some I have. I will make sure I know the mountain better than I did for Kit Carson and I will break it up into a few days if need be. I will try to remember to have fun and enjoy the hike more than I did on this trip.

If you want to see my photos from the trip, Click Here. I was able to get some nice photos without making it to the top.

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