so... not a story about chicago... but still blog-worthy... i think... :)

it started with a naive goal of climbing a 14er (the label given to mountains that are above 14,000 feet).

colorado has several "easily climable" 14er's.  i thought it would be a fun activity to do with one of my adventurous friends, alisa.

the night before, we looked up the trail to mt. bierstadt.  we found it here.

we had a friend who had climbed this trail look it over.  she said it looked do-able and that even old people (grandparents) climb this trail.  and alisa, my oh so knowledgeable hiking friend (sarcasm lovingly intended) said that it was only a class three and that the scale was 1-13, so we were totally fine (i do believe the scale is 1-5).  and, in hindsight, i don't think the friend really looked at the route.

we filled up our camelbaks (authentic ones used by the marines, thanks to alisa's husband!), packed snacks, layers of non-cotton clothing and went to sleep, excited about the 5:30am wake-up and ensuing adventure.

instead of going through the whole narrative of what turned out to be a mostly terrifying and unaccomplished adventure, i will give you some highlights:

- it was COLD (but in a good way, particularly in comparison to this chicago humidity).

- upon running from the car to the bathroom about 13,000 ft. up, i could not breathe like normal.  i knew this would happen, but the experience was far more peculiar than anticipated.

- we got about 40 yards down the "path" and it ended.

- we looked at the directions and realized that we had no idea what the following words meant: gully, scrambling, traverse, "carefully climb over the innocent rocks" - sarcastic paraphrase).

- we start going down what looks to be a slightly challenging, but mostly enjoyable rocky hill.

- we encounter lots of poop (we think deer?), a marmot, and some suspicious looking white fur.

- the "hill" turns into a steep, rocky, natural version of one of those water slides that goes straight down.

- challenges: footing that would give away (i.e. loose rock or soil) when we put any pressure on it, a stream flowing down in obvious and hidden spots that had frozen onto rocks, steep drop-offs, lack of any real experience rock climbing (besides the times where we were attached safely at the top), lack of anything holding us to safety besides our hands that were frozen due to gloves that were too thin.

- after 2 hours of trying to get down 600 ft., we realize it only gets steeper and decide that we're not sure how to get down, nor how to get back up (this was a scarily pivotal point for us... the moment where you have this immediate understanding of how it is possible for people die in the mountains).

- we decide to turn around and go back up what is, now, equivalent to a wall covered in loose rocks, random flowers/grasses and ice.  then we see the source of the poop and white fur.  goats.  lots of them.  three males, in particular, all looking down at us from directly where we want to go up (i.e. in between us and our exit).  also several baby goats.  since my only experience with wild animals is my old guinea pig named skittles and any knowledge i could glean from the discovery channel, i figured that where there were babies, there were very protective parents who couldn't differentiate between innocent, exhausted climbers and bloodthirsty enemies.

- as we are trying to manage our freaking out, all of a sudden a large, cantaloupe-sized rock suddenly whizzed down at 70 mph (no exaggeration) only a few yards to our left.  if either one of us would have been a few yards over...

...well, let's not even go there.

luckily, as evidenced by this blog, we made it out of the terrifying rock gully alive, but incredibly disappointed that we didn't get to climb a 14er.  after 4 hours of more or less rappelling (without ropes) up the side of this rock gulley, we were exhausted (compounded by the inability to breathe fully).

we also realized that the goats were practically harmless.

i wish i could say that most of these details were dramatized, but sadly it is mostly true (though during our rest breaks, while we found safety in the bigger rocks we did take pictures of flowers and ourselves).

all in all, it was a great bonding experience with a dear friend.  we will conquer that 14er another time.

photo time!

at the beginning of the journey, when there was still a trail:

still at the beginning, photo shot with an intriguing formation.  if you notice, i am wearing the clothing of my much shorter counterpart, supplemented with her marine-husband's dri-fit shirt.  if this isn't sexiness, i'm not sure what is:

the view we got to enjoy when we sat down to catch our breath.  it was rather humorous because we would have moments of "this is not fun.  we are scared" and "...but it's so beautiful!"

lovely little flowers

the goats we initially feared were going to charge us down the rocky slope.  for moments, we literally thought our options were: a) be charged by goats and thus fall off the side of this gully or b) fall off the side of the gully by our own power.  the goats were less interested in charging us and more interested in munching on greens.

they had babies!!

my fellow adventurer and wonderful friend: