The Scary-Feeling-Spot and the High Point

Miles 13.1

Camped at mm 376.7

It seemed like rolling hills at first, with a little pink in the sky and a little facial edema to accompany the lovely morning. The clouds swirled around over there all bustling about, ready to rain, but not on us. It looked like the high point must be just up that next pass.

We took a bunch of photos of the pass. It looks intimidating, all looming and eerie. But climb it, we must, so after stalling for a while under the guise of peeing and eating, we got around to climbing it. It was rough going, but doable for the most part. But we got to one spot that was super sketchy and dangerous. I asked Stone to go first.

This is sketchy. You go first, I said.

I knew she could make it but I figured I might fall to my death. Super slippery sandy gravel on a crazy incline, nearly straight up and down, around a curve, with a steep drop off on each side.

Stone scrambled up the rock face instead of trying to go up the trail. I tried to follow her but got to scared and backed down. I handed my poles up to her and found a different route up a different rock face. I swear I signed up for hiking, not mountaineering. It easily took me ten minutes to get up that stupid thing.

When I got safely to the top and onto solid trail, we sat down but only for a moment because the height was still making me nervous and I wanted to get away from that Scary-Feeling-Spot.

But the top wasn’t the top. We had to do, like, three more of those sketchy uphill climbs to get to the actual top miles away. But once we were there, we were really there.

I cried when I saw the sign.

High Point 13,271 ft. The Colorado Trail

We made it. We actually did it! This was a place I was starting to doubt I would ever see. But here we were. And there it was. And we were all together in the same space in time. We hooted and hollered and made general fools of ourselves but no one was there to see. It was wonderful and freeing and so lovely.

About the time Stone noticed her water bottle was missing and that she’d left it at the top of the mountain by the Highest Point sign and that she was going to have to climb back up to retrieve it, another hiker came down with the bottle and gave it to her. The Trail Provides. We were so grateful to that hiker, and we didn’t even catch his name.