Boulder, CO

Wednesday-Friday, Oct 19-21

On Wednesday, Howard decided to work from a mountain for the day.

He made some calls in the morning to take care of important work issues while we decided which day-long hike we wanted to do. We decided on Mount Audobon.

The Mount Audobon trail starts at 10,508 feet and ends at 13,233 feet above sea level. Boulder lies at 5,430 feet above sea level, so we had a hefty upward drive just to get us to the trailhead in the Brainard Lake Recreation Area. We let the car do that hard work, though, so it was all OK.  J

Important: dogs were allowed on the trail. Auggie was more than welcome on this hike. Hooray!

We set out mid-morning, giving the day a chance to warm up a bit. It was a beautiful, clear day, and there was snow on the ground at altitude. The trailhead was covered with snow, which meant that higher up was definitely going to have snow. Auggie, put your snow boots on, dude.

At the parking lot, we got out of the car, bundled up, filled our backpacks with water and snacks and took off on our hike. It was a Wednesday, so there weren’t many people on the trail. We encountered a few, though, who told us that the snow wasn’t too bad higher up. So on we went.

There were some stunning views of the mountain.

Starting at 10,000+ feet, we quickly passed the tree line; the trail was soon just rocks.

At some point, I noticed that I was stumbling on the rocks and not having an easy time keeping my balance. Hmmmm … I haven’t been drinking.

Aha – it’s the altitude, silly girl. 

Auggie’s first hike at altitude had been back in Banff on Sulphur Mountain. That mountain, starting at 5,200 feet above sea level, seemed like a baby hike compared to this one. But my boy is a strong one – he trudged on with us like the trooper that he is.

I say trudged, because that’s what I was doing. Howard is in fine shape, biking, hiking and running at altitude on a constant basis. I, on the other hand, train at sea level and was really feeling the altitude as we continued to climb.

I kept noticing that when I tripped over yet another rock, I could sorta see in slow motion that I was losing my balance. It took me so long to respond to the stumble, though, that I was actually conscious of telling myself to pick up my leg/foot and put it down (fast!) in front of me. Normally the reaction just happens so quickly that you don’t really notice it – the body just does what it needs to do to stay upright. The fact that I was seeing my reactions play out slow-mo in my own head and eyes was a clear indication that I was impacted by altitude.

As we got higher, the wind started picking up, too. Lower down on the mountain, we had opened up zippers and let the heat out that we had generated from hiking. Once the wind started to pick up, though, I closed up my zippers, put my hat and gloves back on and made staying warm my priority.

Howard could have easily kept going to the top, but at a certain point, I was no longer having fun (and I don’t think Auggie was, either). I called it – it was time to turn around.

I was happy to be heading down the mountain. Perhaps I was just imagining it, but Auggie seemed relieved to be going down, too. Bless his dear little doggie heart – he is such a dutiful friend – I am sure he would have kept climbing with us as far as we went. But he had a spring in his step as he headed down the trail, moving through snow drifts with four-legged ease and clambering over rocks with no problem.

I, on the other hand, was concentrating hard on each footstep, thinking through the placement of each foot so that I didn’t turn an ankle in my oxygen-deprived state.

Soon enough, we got down to levels where I could feel my reflexes responding properly again. We stopped for a snack below the tree line, too, which helped to refuel and reset my meters.

I think we probably reached close to 12,000 feet before we turned around, which was pretty high for me and Auggie (probably the highest we’d been all trip).  I was proud that we’d made it so high, even though we weren’t completely acclimated to altitude. Let’s hear it for good hiking training throughout the trip and a good level of overall fitness. Woo hoo! 

On the drive back to Boulder, I proclaimed that I wanted a burger and fries. So, after we’d cleaned up, we took off and found a great veggie burger and French fries, which completely satisfied my need for fat after a lot of hard work on the mountain that day. Yummy! Afterwards, we went for tea and dessert, where I found a cupcake and Howard had some cookies to round out our dinner.

I was so tired and slept like a log that night. Zzzzzzzzzz.

On Thursday, Howard went back to work like a responsible person, while Auggie and I took a nice long morning walk along Boulder Creek. I was scheduled to have lunch with my friend Maureen about noon.

Maureen and I know each other from our martial arts training. She lived in DC for a long time, and she and I actually tested for our Black Belts together back in 2001. She moved back to Denver in 2005 to be closer to her family, about the same time that I moved to New York/New Jersey.

Maureen had an appointment in Boulder on Thursday morning, so we met on Pearl Street afterwards and found a restaurant to have lunch. 

It was great to catch up with her, see what she’s been up to and learn how life has been treating her in Colorado. We took a long walk after lunch, did a little window shopping and enjoyed another pretty sunny afternoon in Boulder.

Once Maureen took off to head back to Denver, I went back to the apartment and woke up Auggie from his all-day nap. We went out for a walk to explore Boulder a bit. 

Another gorgeous university town!

Boulder is home to the University of Colorado and the Colorado Buffaloes. (What is it with me and buffaloes lately?)

It’s a huge university from my standards, with more than 30,000 students. It was fun to walk Auggie around campus, dodging bikes and recognizing how young college students are these days. Auggie and I clearly were not hip enough, though – we were not wearing our flannel shirts or riding our skateboards.

[Note to self: must teach dog how to ride a skateboard.]

We ended up taking a longer walk than I had anticipated. By the time we made it back to the apartment, I was pooped and so was Auggie. I took a little rest, fed Auggie and watched him curl up again to take another nap.

I took my computer and headed out to a cute little local café to connect to the Internet and get a bit of personal stuff done.

After that, Howard and I went out to grab some dinner, and then I stayed up way too late watching a movie.

Friday morning arrived, and suddenly it was time to pack up and drive again. This had been our final stop with friends, and it signified the beginning of our final few days on the road. We were going to follow a straight trajectory along Route 70 from Denver back to Maryland. It was time to go home.

We said a big thank you to Howard, I pushed the reluctant Auggie back into his spot in the van …

… and off we went!