Hiking my first 14er

My friend Heidi and her husband moved to Colorado recently and wanted to go on a hike with us this past weekend.

As we were figuring out plans, I had this little convo with Ryan Friday night...

Kendra - what hiking trail do you want to do Saturday?  I need to let Heidi & Marshall know our plans.
Ryan - bierstadt.
Kendra - the mountain?
Ryan - yep, the mountain *big smile*
Kendra - hike to the top of a mountain?!  My first 14er?! 
Ryan - yep.

Side note: don't you love how calm he is?  And cra(z)y I am.  

So, here we go on my first 14,000+  ft. Colorado mountain...whoa... 

Mt. Bierstadt is a popular mountain to climb, mostly because you start a little higher than the other 14,000 ft. mountains so it takes a shorter amount of time to summit, but also because it's so close to Denver.  When the boys tried to check in, there was no paper left!  The mountain was pretty crowded on Saturday.

Our pup, Zia, can climb a mountain, but she refuses to cross a stream.

Can you see the tiny little specs at the very top?  We thought that was the top, and had the same thought multiple times through the hike.. it was never really the top, there were so many turns.  And everyone we passed said "just 15 minutes or so".  Lies.  I guess that was our fault for asking so much!

I had to stop a lot to catch my breath.  My muscles felt fine (well, sort of), but the closer we got to the top, the harder it was to breathe!  So, I had to "stop and take a photo".  It was my excuse to take a little break, but also to really capture some of the vegetation -- aren't these little succulents darling?  I wanted to scoop them up and put them in my pocket.  But I didn't. 

Zia went exploring...
Heidi started dancing.
Whatever it takes to get up this thing.

After a quick bathroom break (yep, Heidi and I went there) and an adorable photo-op, it was time to scramble our way up to the top of those boulders!  It got real.

Summit photos tomorrow... oh, the anticipation.