After four years out here, I finally got my act together enough to climb one of Colorado's fourteen thousand foot mountains. Actually, I got to climb two in one shot.

This fall, I took a class through the Santa Fe Community College called "Hiking Colorado's 14'ers." For a nominal fee, you get two instructors, and a free ride up to Colorado in the school's van.

We did the hike on Saturday, September 19, 1998. It was as perfect a day as you could hope for. Not a cloud in the sky, and no chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

We left the Missouri Gulch trailhead (9,670 ft.) at 7 a.m. This trail is nothing but straight up, up, up. The total hike to the top of Belford is only about 4.5 miles, but in that span, you gain 4,500 feet in altitude. One thing about going with a class is that not everyone hikes at the same pace. After a couple miles, we had to wait about half an hour for the rest of the class to catch up. Once they did, we re-shuffled, and got the faster hikers in front with one of the teachers. The last mile up to Mt. Belford is a doozy. It's basically like climbing stairs for an hour with an elastic wrap around your lungs. One of the keys was to go as slow as you could. You don't want to over-exert yourself. Having an instructor with me certainly helped, otherwise, I would have gone too fast, and probably burned myself out.

Once we summited Mt. Belford at about 11 a.m., you could see forever. It was cold and windy, but nothing serious. To the Southest, Mt. Harvard and Mt. Yale came into view. To the Northwest, Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive.

There were eleven total people in the class. I was the third one up, closely followed by another two classmates. After a power bar and some power-aid, I felt a little better. I expected the altitude to affect me more than it did. We huddled in a little kiva-like area just off the summit, and out of the wind. After about fifteen minutes of sitting around getting chilled, I told our instructor, Bill, that if we didn't leave for Mt. Oxford soon, I was not going to make it. He gave me permission, and I started out across the saddle for Oxford, about a mile away. I was followed closely by two others, and the instructor.

To get to Oxford, you have to go down across a saddle. Baiscally, you walk down 700 vertical feet, and then back up 700 feet. We made it to Oxford about an hour later. After a couple of pictures, we slogged our way back to Belford, which is the only way to get back down. After another, hour, we summited Belford for a second time. We finally left Belford at about 2:20 p.m.

I took some comfort in knowing that from that point on, I would not have to climb another step. Of course, by the time a made it back to the trailhead, my knees were thankful that I didn't have to take one more step down.

After we all hobbled back to the vehicle (everyone in the class at least made it up Belford by the way), we piled into the van, and headed to the Cottonwood Hot Springs in Buena Vista. There we soaked for a good long time, our bodies absorbing the mineral water heavy with lithium.

On Sunday, we stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Monument on our way back to Santa Fe. There, I promptly managed to blister both my big toes in the hot sand. I didn't make it to the top of that one (hint: wear shoes, not sandals).