~ 3 Summits, 3 Trailheads, 3 Days and 23 Miles Oh Yeah~

This past weekend my husband and I stayed in a small town called South Fork, CO and stayed in our friends little cabin. Our goal was to hike 3 14er's in the area. Every morning the alarm went off at 4:45 am and we drove to the Trailhead. Our first hike was Handies, our second was Wetterhorn and third was Uncompahgre all in the San Juan Mountain Range. What a trip! Wetterhorn was the most difficult since there was a section class 3 on it. It was scary for a moment but then it was pretty sweet.



First stop we got gas and there was a bar within the gas station!! They had happy hour so we decided to have a drink since this was a mini vacation weekend~

First up was Handies Peak. I chose this as our first since I read it would be the easiest. It was a great hike although a bit windy at the top. After we stopped in the town of Creede and shopped and ate. Since usually we are done with the hike around noon we still have most of the day to explore the towns nearby!

The Summit of Handies Peak

On the way up to the Summit. Gorgeous lake.

Next up was Wetterhorn. I was nervous for this hike as there is a class 3 section to get to the top. I read and watched youtube videos so I could make sure I could handle it. It was a little scary I am not going to lie. At one point I told David that I am good and will just wait for him to summit and I will stay back. However, I sucked it up and it was pretty cool to climb that last section.

Figuring out the route...

Posing after I had made the class 3 section

Wetterhorn Summit

Now at this point David was feeling good but my foot was killing me. Earlier that week I could not run on the dirt track due to flooding and had to run on the roads. Well I do my track workouts in my racing flats. I only ran 3 miles and it hurt my foot. This upsets me as I thought lightweight shoes and barefoot running is all the rage when in fact NOT FOR ME!!!!!! There was a route to hike 2 14er's in 1 day it would have been 15 miles round trip but my foot could not go. So we went to the car and decided to do the last one the following day. This was actually are original plan but thought we could do the double.

Onto Uncompahgre...

Instead of taking the standard road for this hike we decided to take the 4 wheel drive road in a Honda CR-V HA!! We made it though! This was great so we got to hike on a new trail. Otherwise the first 2 miles would have been the same as the day before. After icing my foot and taking a TON of Advil and wearing compression sock my foot managed and we summited!

Uncompahgre



Summit of Uncompahgre and you can see Wetterhorn in the background.

 What a weekend! I am addicted. Some of you may think hiking is boring like I used to, but 14er's are different. It's like running the whole time you are so out of breath because of the altitude. It's so fun and it helps my running! Sometimes I run down depending on the condition of the trail. I hope I can run/hike this weekend. I keep icing the foot......