It was the night before, at our Inspiration Dinner, that we discovered that we would be hitting the trailhead at about 4:30 a.m. and hike for over an hour before sunrise! We new that we would be meeting at 4am, but had thought that by the time we gathered, made our way to the trailhead and started out, that it would be light out. Oh but no. Luckily for us, the local outfitters who were supplying our Hiking Guides told us they would stay open an hour later so that we could go get a few supplies. I personally didn't have a headlamp (a couple of others needed one too) and we also were told that we would need stocking caps, gloves and warm layers. I had bought a wool cap the day before but had skipped the gloves. Our hike to Mills Lake made me think that it was just too warm to need gloves (I bought the hat cuz it was green and I like green! - and had forgotten my sun hat at home). Even though I still didn't think I'd need gloves for most of the hike, I took our guide's advice and bought a pair of simple wool gloves (they were green too!). I was happy because I found them in the clearance bin and after a 20% discount that Kirk's Fly Fishing Shop offered us LLS hikers, they cost me only $3.95. Woohoo! Later I would realize that that $4 was the best $4 I spent all weekend!
I was excited about the prospect of hiking in the dark. This is something I'd never done, and for me, a lot of this summer had been about challenging myself. So the idea of starting out on the trail before daylight, possibly seeing a spectaculur sunrise, was exciting.
My roommate, Heather and I, set probably a total of 4 alarm clocks. We had to be up by about 3:15 to get all our gear on and make our way to the Estes Lodge where we were meeting the rest of our group and our guide. We had to check in at 4 am. So I set the alarm on my phone and the alarm on my watch. Then I was so anxious about sleeping through the alarms that I kept checking to make sure they were on.
The alarms clocks worked and Heather and I made our way to the Lodge. We were walking and got a chance to use our headlamps and see how well they lit our path. We walked across a small field to the sound of elk bugling. It's a sound I'd never heard before and not what I'd expect to hear from an elk! They sounded pretty close too. It was on our way through Estes Park to the National Park that we realized why they sounded so close. The elk en masse were eating leaves from the trees that lined the streets. Not something we see here in Des Moines!
We made it to the Rocky Mountain National Park and were standing at the trailhead at about 4:45 am. When we asked why we needed to start so early, the guides told us it's because that during the summer there are thunderstorms almost daily in the afternoon and they wanted all of us hikers off the mountain by noon. Soooo, there we were at a quarter to 5 with a big beautiful night sky full of stars above us. And off we started.
Our guide walked pretty slowly to start. We were used to going at a pretty fast clip, so for the first hour or so we were bunched up behing the guide almost tripping over her. But it was pretty dark and the only thing you could see is where your headlamp shown and the guide was being careful to not miss any of the trailmarkers. We didn't want our hike to Flattop Mountain to get diverted to Bear Lake by making a wrong turn!
Everyone was pretty quiet. Our guide was paying close attention to each of us, trying to gauge how we were reacting to the elevation. The trailhead starts at 9475' which is higher elevation than I've ever hiked in. They wanted us to watch for shortness of breath (uh, I think we all experienced that!), any tightness in the chest/lungs, any dizziness, naseau or headaches. You can't predict who will suffer from elevation sickness. And someone who had no symptoms one day, might experience symptoms the next. They wanted to know immediately if you felt any of these symptoms. Some people try to keep going up, but elevation sickness will only get worse as you climb higher and the only cure is to get off the mountain. You can help prevent elevation sickness by staying hydrated.
No one wanted the hike they had trained all summer for to be canceled because of elevation sickness. Luckily, other than the unusual shortness of breath, we all felt pretty good. But the guide was nervous and kept a close eye on us the entire hike.
On we hiked in the dark. Usually the hike up the mountain is our sight-seeing time. We spend more time taking pictures and checking out the views, but in the complete dark we just all quietly hiked along. We stopped a time or two to catch our breath but kept moving pretty steadily. After the hike we all thanked Bobbi! She, with our sweep and coach Craig, was the one to speak up and say I need to stop. The rest of us joked around later that we relied on Bobbi to stop once in a while cuz then we could all take a breather.
What was great about this hike is that other than our guide, we were all from our Washington team. Usually at the big events, the teams get broken up and you end up hiking with strangers, on different trails. But somehow, through some coordination mix ups, we were put as a group or our own. Our hike coach Craig was our sweep and our entire group of six were all together. After spending the summer hiking and training together, it was great to be able to hike in Colorado 
with our teammates.
with our teammates.We walked about an hour and a half in the dark. About an hour in almost complete dark. The sky started to get lighter about 5:45 and we kept an eye out for a good vantage point to see the sunrise. We got some spectacular photos of the sunrise. By about 6:10-6:15 it was full light out and we had a chance to start seeing the trail. By that time we were nearing the treeline and had hiked about 2.2 miles. We hiked on approaching the Emerald Lake Overlook at 2.9 miles and 11,357'.
While hiking through the treeline, under cover of darkness, although there was some wind, the temperature was pretty comfortable. I had taken my wool gloves off and was debating on whether I should take my fleece jacket off. As we climbed above the treeline at about 3 miles, the wind picked up considerably and was downright cold. So though I had gotten a little warm earlier, I was glad to have the extra layers as the morning wore on. We were now hiking in alpine tundra and our guide told us to keep an eye out for marmots, pika and ptarmigan. Ptarmigan's are a bird that leaves yearround on the tundra. In the summer they are brown and in winter white. The pika (look like big mice) were immediately apparent as was their little chirp. They were everywhere.
At this point there were no trees to break the wind and it picked up considerably. And it was cold. We kept moving, stopping only occasionally to take a picture or catch our breath. And adding layers. I put my gloves back on - the wind was just too cold to go without.
We continued to climb switchback after switchback finally reaching hitching posts at 3.9 miles, 12,115’. We could see Tyndall Glacier and our original destination - Hallet Peak. Several times on the way up we had cuaght sight of another LLS group ahead of us on the trail. At one point, we came across one of the hikers and their sweep headed back down. The hiker said he was experiencing some elevation sickness and was headed back down. Later we found out he was fine (people can die from elevation sickness!) and that only two LLS hikers had suffered any sickness.
The wind and cold continued to be brutal and we could see Longs Peak from our trail. Our guide told us that in these conditions it was unlikely that the group hiking Longs Peak would be able to complete the hike. You could see snow blowing off Longs Peak which indicated it would more than likely be too windy to cross the narrows. What that meant for us is that it was also probably too windy to continue on from Flattop Mountain to Hallet Peak. As we headed up from the hitching post towards Flattop Mountain we crossed paths with the group ahead of us. They had hungout just past Flattop Mountain for a lunch break for a little bit before heading back down the trail. They had decided to not attempt Hallet Peak. Although we didn't make any decisions ourselves yet, I was half hoping we'd be able to climb Hallet Peak and half hoping we would turn around too. But we were going to wait until we reached Flattop to decide - which was just moments away. We took a moment to put on a final layer. We knew that Flattop was going to be even colder.
Flattop is flat! Here was the Continental Divide. Marked only by a sign indicating the trails. We ended up stopping here for only a short, short time. My face was so cold that my mouth felt numb. I took my gloves off to unzip my pack and take some pictures and within minutes my fingers were frozen! We stayed only long enough to take a group photo, and having made the decision that it was just too windy (Hallet Peak is another 389' higher) to go any higher, we headed back down. We still wanted to eat some lunch but there was just no way we were going to attempt to eat lunch on Flattop. We decided to head back down the switchbacks until we could get some shelter from the wind.
We were still on the tundra so there were no trees to take shelter by, so we got around a switchback and huddled down behind some huge boulders to eat. It was significantly warmer, but still too cold to stay long. So after eating, we took off down the mountain, moving pretty quick. As we reached Emerald Lake Overlook we had already crossed paths with several hikers on their way up to Flattop. Shortly after that we began seeing some of the trail we had hiked in the dark. As the morning wore on and we got further down the mountain it got much warmer. We were passing people in shorts and thinking to ourselves that they were going to regret shorts well before they got to Flattop!
Down we hiked, shedding layers as we went. As we neared the trailhead we came upon Bear Lake. We hadn't even realized that we had passed the lake that morning on the way up the trail. It was gorgeous and the views of the mountain peaks surrounding the lake were phenomenal. We made it off the mountain and back to the trail head by about Noon. We took our time coming down the trail enjoying the experience and our short time there as much as possible.
We made our way back to the trailhead and finally back to Estes Park. We did it! We had hiked 8.8 miles roundtrip with a cumulative elevation gain of 2909'. Reached reached Flattop Mountain at 12324' and enjoyed panoramic views from the Continental Divide. We later found out that the wind was blowing 60 mile an hour gusts at Flattop and 125 at Longs Peak. All three of the goups hiking these trails turned back.
I cannot wait until next summer when Hike For Discover starts up again. Next year it'll be Team In Training instead of Hike For Discovery, but'll it'll be the same hiking program and still raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And I'll be setting my sights on Longs Peak - 14,259'!
For now, I'm off on a Cross Skiing Country adventure! I'll be spending my winter training for the Tour of Anchorage and continuing to raise funds for the LLS. Check back soon for a link to my new fundraising page and XCS blog!
And don't forget to check my photo gallery for more pictures from my hike in the Rocky Mountain National Park.
