For Labor Day Weekend we wanted to take advantage of the extra day off and go hiking a little further into Colorado. Our choice was near Salida, CO to attempt to take on four 14ers. Our first stop was Challenger and Kit Carson via Willow Lake. We were going to miss the first K-State game of the season so we decided to show our support at our campsite!
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| Showing our support for K-State at our campsite |
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| Willow Lake at sunrise |
We camped Saturday night and set out for the summit of Challenger and Kit Carson early Sunday morning. This was a beautiful climb and my most challenging yet, but I was at trooper and made it to both summits!! At the top of Kit Carson, we ended up meeting a Gonzaga Law School alumna who nows lives in Colorado. Talk about a small world!!
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| Tara at the summit of Challenger |
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| Reid at the summit of Kit Carson |
After our summits, we headed back down to camp, rested our feet and packed up to head to our next destination: Shavano and Tebageauche. But here is where the crisis begins...the car is packed, we hop in and THE CAR DOESN'T START!! We instantly start freaking out because we are at a trailhead which can only be accessed by a 4x4 vehicle and we are 60 miles from the nearest town with amenities. Our first plan of action was to find someone to give us a jump. We ended up finding someone but as our luck would have it the jump didn't work. So freak out number two begins!! We call a few tow companies and the only one who would have access to get to us charged $250 an hour from the time they left to the time they returned...oh yeah and their shop was an hour away. So we ultimately decide we need to find a way in to town, hopefully rent a car, buy a new battery and take it to our car to replace. Now how do we follow this plan through...enter the Gonzaga alum! Thank goodness for him and his son because they graciously drove Reid and I (oh and Snyder) to the nearest town where we stayed in a motel and hoped that the rest of our plan would pan out the next morning.
We awoke the next morning, refreshed and feeling that luck was on our side. And boy was it ever! 5 businesses down from our hotel was a auto shop that rented Jeeps for the day. We walked down there and got a Jeep, no problem. Even smaller world the owner was born in Olathe and grew up in Kansas!! He even had no problem with us bringing Snyder along for the ride. So long story short, we got our Jeep, went to Wal-Mart and purchased a battery, drove back to our car and PROBLEM SOLVED. She started right up and we were on our way. So my post will send a big shout out to Denver attorney Kozma, Super 8 Motel (Salida, CO) and Anderson Motors (Salida, CO). Now back to our plan of climbing Shavano and Tebageauche. After a quick stop for a milkshake we were off to tackle two more 14ers.
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| Mount Shavano |
We did the hard part and made it to the boulder field at the base of the summit push and made the ultimate decision to turn back due to weather. Sure the picture looks like the weather couldn't be any more perfect, but we were facing some strong winds and looming rain clouds behind us. Don't worry Shavano and Tebageauche, we will be back.
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| Benson's Tavern in Salida, CO |
After our hike we made our stop for burgers and beer at Benson's in Salida. Even though the weekend had its stressful moments, it was one of the best weekends I have had! Needless to say, it will definetly be one for the story books...
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