Blame it on the Altitude: Grays and Torreys

This Friday, I had the opportunity to hike my first TWO 14ers*! I went with some other Calvin students, Dave, David, and Melissa. I was more than a little apprehensive about this trip... my hiking companions were more experienced/in better hiking shape than I was, but I went hoping for the best!We set off at 6:30 AM (which I'm told is late for climbing 14ers... it's better to do it earlier so you can be sure to be off the summit by the time the daily thunder-clouds roll in) and drove for 2 hours to get to the trailhead. On the drive, hiking stories that I have heard about other people's 14er-induced sicknesses (vomiting and diarrhea are just a couple examples) kept replaying in my head. The car ride over, we set off on the trail (the trail began at about 11,000 feet... 3,000 feet higher elevation than SMR). The guys set a fast pace, and after a while Melissa and I decided that we would slow down a little (I would say that our pace was still pretty good... we just weren't jogging up the mountain...:). It was challenging, but, when we made it to the top of Grays, I realized why people 'enjoy' pushing themselves to these extremes. The view was spectacular- God's handiwork was breathtaking! However, we still had one more peak to reach. We were able to summit Torreys at noon, and were blessed by great weather... not a thundercloud in the sky! We made it back down safely- the trip home was a quite one... I think Dave was the only one who didn't nap (yes, he was the driver), and that night I had one of the best nights of sleep I've gotten in a long time!