Rocky Mountain Hi!

Greetings from Estes Park, Colorado!

It's chilly outside, and it's raining. I'm laying on a window seat enjoying the fresh mountain air and letting my lungs adjust to breathing at 7,500 feet.

We arrived in Denver at 11:05 a.m. local time, got our rental car and drove to Estes Park, a charming town set at the foot of Colorado's Rocky Mountain range. We arrived a few hours later, and could see the dark gray sky beyond, as afternoon thunderstorms rolled in towards the Rockies. Not unusual for summertime along the continental divide.

We checked in at our bed and breakfast by 3 p.m. and set off on an afternoon drive through Rocky Mountain National Park, where we will be hiking the next four days. We drove up, higher and higher, through winding mountain roads and fragrant pine forest. We came to the park entrance and noticed the temperature outside had fallen to 57 degrees Fahrenheit (13.9 degrees Celsius) as it started to drizzle.

Inside the park, the drizzle turned into definite rain, and as we drove up even higher, the triangular silhouettes of mountain peaks were revealed, though obscured by the afternoon rain, with thick, low clouds drifting among them. We kept on driving, and the mountain tops slowly drifted from above us to below, as we climbed higher and higher, winding along the sides of this awesome mountain range.

We drove past forest-filled valleys, steep rocky cliffs, and the widest expanse of alpine meadows I have ever seen. And as we went past the rolling grasslands, traffic came to a halt as motorists gawked at a herd of two dozen elk, the graceful females lying on the grass, serene, while a few males frolicked about with their antlers held high, one stopping to look at traffic about twenty feet away.

On our journey this afternoon, we passed the highest point on this, the Trail Ridge Road, at 12,183 ft. An altitude record for me, and I could feel it, as my breathing became more labored and my heart pounded in my chest. We stopped at a nearby gift shop as the rain pelted down, and saw the temperature at this elevation had plummetted to 46 degrees (7.8 degrees Celsius). We ran across the parking lot in sandaled feet in the frigid rain and stayed inside for half an hour, letting our bodies adjust to the thinner air.

Back here in our room two hours later, my breathing has still not returned normal. I hope I effectively acclimatize over the next two days as we hike trails at 9,000 to 10,000 feet, before we attempt the summit of Mt. Ida at 12,880. It will all depend on the weather and our physical resilience. If succesful, that will set a new personal record.

Before that, though, we start tomorrow with a 10-mile moderately strenuous hike from Glacier Gorge to Sky Pond, starting at 9,240 feet with a 1,660-ft elevation gain. We plan to start at 6 a.m. I sure hope the weather cooperates.