Mt. Harvard
Horn Fork Basin Approach (I, 1.0)
Trailhead: 3,005m (9,860ft)
Elev Reached: 3,426m (11,240ft)
Vertical Gain: 421m (1,380ft)
Distance: 10.3km (6.4mi)

Pikes Peak
Northwest Ridge Route (I, 2.0)
Trailhead: 3,941m (12,930ft)
Summit: 4,303m (14,117ft)
Vertical Gain: m (2,733ft)
Distance: 10.0km (6.2mi)

2005.07.15 - Day 1: Ivy League Hiking 101

After the all-too-familiar and all-too-tedious drive from Fort Worth to Colorado, Carol and I found ourselves in the mile-high plus vicinity of Colorado Springs. The itinerary for the day had us driving out to the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, and making camp in Horn Fork Basin for the next day's intended climb up Mt. Harvard. With no real time pressures to speak of, we stopped in at a local coffee shop for a shot of caffeine and several water bottles full of, you guessed it, water. We spread out all of our gear in a remote corner of the parking lot and spent the time here sorting what we needed and what we could leave behind. There was enough in the "leave" pile that our packs wouldn't be too heavy for a two-day try at Harvard.

We drove out U.S. 24 past Manitou Springs and Woodland Park, eventually reaching the broad Arkansas River Valley. Crossing the old Republic of Texas border, I felt much more at home as we entered Buena Vista. ;-) Carol & I stopped at a convenience store to change into hiking clothes and soon were off up the rough road to the North Cottonwood Creek trailhead; I had seen this route described as passable to passenger vehicles, which it indeed was as evidenced by the beat-up Impala parked at the TH. Let me add this however... If you value your non-high-clearance vehicle, do not take it up here! Granted I'm just a hick Texan, but I wouldn't want to get my Corolla on rocks and potholes such as those found on the approach road. That being said, our new Ford Escape Hybrid did a great job navigating quickly up this rough track! The fancy-shmancy navigation system even had the Forest Roads pictured, so we always knew where we were.

At the trailhead on this Friday morning, there were only a few cars present. Carol and I gathered together the gear we would need for the next two days, and pooled all of our unnecessary "smellables" into a plastic bag that we subsequently hung a good distance off in the woods. Call me paranoid, but I didn't really want a hungry black bear breaking out a window. Just after noon, we had everything ready to go, so we packed out under surprisingly peaceful skies. That was clearly about to change.

After only a few minutes of hiking on the level, dusty trail, we met up with a large group of boyscouts on their way out from backpacking in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness. Throughout the rest of the day we would meet up with a few other small groups, but all things considered, it was very sparse for a weekend on a fourteener. The highway of a trail was very easy to follow and surprisingly calm as it meandered above the course of North Cottonwood Creek. The stream sung a simple melody that served not only to draw us further up the basin, but to also drown out the distant rumble of the not yet visible clouds. After a short time, we had covered the 1.5 miles up to the creek crossing. As Carol led us up the trail into Horn Fork Basin thae grade became markedly steeper. With my ~60 lb pack, I was getting tired much more quickly than normak; it had been quite a few years since I had carried such a heavy pack at a similar altitude, and I truly underestimated the effort.

Slowly but steadily, we picked our way higher into the beautiful basin. All of a sudden our bodies were rattled by a deafening clap of thunder. It was difficult to tell exactly where the bolt had struck, but the way the valley was shaped, any nearby strike would funnel its noise down the valley. Only a few seconds later the rain began to fall. It was light at first, but the drops grew into large projectiles pelting our packs and clothes. As quickly as possible, Carol and I threw on rain gear and pack-covers. As we somewhat reluctantly pushed onward and upward with thunder and lightning as our ever- present companions.

After a half-hour of slogging into the cold, wet atmospehere, the menacing clouds began to break. Very quickly, the sun came back out and warmed is up considerably. We went from Seattle to Houston in 15 minutes! The hike sped up in the more comfortable conditions, and be fore long, we started to pass several good camp sites. Our intent was to climb up as high as possible to make the summit day shorter. A swampy area presented a minor slow down, but soon we came to an idyllic meadow at the base of Mt. Columbia's west slopes.

Throughout the rest of the day, we ate some leftover pizza, bushed our teeth, took out contacts and hung the bear bags. As the sun was setting, we settled in to bed. We decided that given the quickly building storms earlier, we would need to keep a close eye on the weather.

2002.07.16 - Day 2: Big Decisions

At precisely 4:00 AM, I was loathe to hear my friend Mark's voice incessantly screeching "Wake Up!" Time for an aside...

A few years ago, I received a recordable travel alarm clock for Christmas. While visiting Mark in El Paso, he recorded the annoying message and set the alarm as a prank. Though the clock & message brought out their desired effect, I couldn't bring myself to change the message; it did a "great" job at waking me up.

... Ok, I'm back now. Blindly swinging my hand through the darkness, I fought through the desire to kill my friend, or at least his recorded voice, and shut off the alarm. Fully awake, both Carol and I debated on who should be the one to emerge from the tent first to check on conditions. In my undying effort to be the epitome of chivalry, I bravely stumbled out of the tent into the pre-dawn coldness. I looked up expecting to see the fullness of the Milky Way spread out overhead, however, there were many puffy obstructions to my anticipated view. I crawled back into the tent and told Carol that some clouds had already begun to form. The decision was easy; given our electric experience on Mt. Evans a few years prior, the current conditions were not conductive, er, conducive to a hike that day. We happily crawled back into the sleeping bags to await sunrise.

A few hours later, we both got moving and started to break down the camp. The sky was a crystal clear blue, and for quite a while, I debated on just heading up anyway. Better judgement won out, and after a small breakfast, Carol and I began to descend the basin toward our car.

The hike went relatively quickly, but the conditions were noticeably warmer and more humid than the day before. The mosquitos were out in force, so we didn't stop much during our descent. Before very long, we arrived at the trailhead ready to get moving. I packed up the car while Carol retrieved the "smellables" bag and we were soon on the bumpy track back to civilization.

Now with pleanty of time to second-guess, I was frustrated to have not climbed up Harvard. Could we have made it up to the top? Yes. Could we have beaten any bad weather? Probably. Was I really regretting the decision to descend? No. This feeling was further justified when we looked up at ~10 AM to see some truly menacing clouds building some three hours before the storms had materialized on the previous day. If we had left for the summit at 5 AM as planned, we definitely would have been off before the lightning began, but it would have been very close getting back down below treeline. At the end of it all, we had made a very good decision.

Driving back to Colorado Springs, the discussion turned to some sort of Plan B; we hadn't made it to a summit, but more importantly, we hadn't gotten enough vertical feet on Harvard to support the WCFF donations like we wanted. Carol and I traded various ideas before finally agreeing on Pikes Peak's Northwest Ridge. We could drive high enough to roughly equal our elevation on Harvard and then follow the ups and downs of the ridge to make up the remaining vertical. The accessibility of the trailhead and route was another plus as I needed to be back for work on Monday morning.

With high hopes for the next day, we drove around the Springs trying to decided if it would be a good place to live. All signs pointed to yes, so after going to Mass but before turning in, we went out for some much deserved LCRT (liquid carb replacement therapy). Even though I was really looking forward to the next day, I didn't have any trouble falling asleep.

2002.07.17 - Day 3: Pikes Peak Or Bust

This final morning, another early start was in order. The rising of the Sun saw Carol and I packing away the last of our gear into the car, with dayhiking provisions readily accessible. Since the road up the peak wouldn't open until 7:00, we munched on a leisurely breakfast at the hotel.

As soon as we got on the road, both of us remarked how little traffic there was on the normal tourist routes. Take note! If you can help it, Sundays are much better to visit Colorado Springs than summer Saturdays. We again drove up US 24 through Manitou Springs, but this time turned off toward the Pikes Peak auto road. There were several groups in ahead of us. Paying the $20.00 fee, we began the slithering drive up to the Devil's Playground.

After the brief auto ascent, we pulled into the parking lot and got out the few provisions that might be needed during our hike. Carol was feeling a bit cooler than I, so she threw on a shell jacket as we started off to the ridge. In order to maximize the vertical gain, we started walking along the well-worn track but shortly worked up to the ridge crest. Carefully, avoiding the tundra vegetation, Carol and I hopped from rock to rock across the treeless plain.

Contouring along the gentle ridge was relatively easy despite the altitude; both of us were feeling fairly strong since we had been up at treeline just one day prior. We talked back and forth, which made the first section of the route fly by. We saw several pika and one marmot as we made our way over "Little Pikes," and descended toward the final saddle before the big rock pile. We noticed a small group of hikers slightly ahead of us on the talus slope.

We came upon one more marmot who was very much hoping for a hand-out near the saddle. Not willing to oblige him, Carol and I hurried on to reach the last leg of the route up the large blocks of talus. We stuck to the trail as much as possible, but eventually settled on the path of least resistance, straight up. Making great time, we quickly passed by the group of hikers who we had previously seen; they were a group Colorado Springs locals climbing Pikes Peak for the first time. The wind blew at our backs as we hopped up the shifting granite slabs; it urged us ever upward until we finally topped out on Pikes Peak's plateau. (Like the alliteration?)

With the hike behind us, Carol and I casually strolled over to the highest rock, a few feet higher than any of the benchmarks. After taking the usual summit photos, we enjoyed the rewards that make Pikes Peak a truly unique destination! Mountain Dew, pizza and hamburgers were our lunch fare, with a t-shirt and hat filling out our gift shop purchases. We roamed around the large summit for awhile before starting our descent.

We followed the same ridge route we had taken earlier, in order to maximize the elevation gain. The short uphill portions were not too strenuous, and before long, we had made our way back to the Escape. Before leaving for Texas, we drove up to the top to get a picture of the car on its first Fourteener; we were evan able to get the tire up on one of the summit rocks! We then started our descent back toward the Lone Star State.

Looking back, the weekend had been a great success! Despite the problems on Mt. Harvard, the hike up Pikes Peak allowed us to book the same amount of vertical gain that we had forecasted: 4,113 ft. The best outcome was definitely the amount of money and food that were raised to support the hungry in Fort Worth. Carol and I really enjoyed being able to help others while at the same time having an enjoyable outdoor experience. I have a strong feeling that this will not be the last "Will Climb For Food"!