You Got to Finish What You Started!!

It's a normal Friday (8/28/2015), trying to finish up all the work and leave early to begin an early weekend. I get a mail from a friend+colleague, invitation to dinner at his place, with a note at the bottom "Note: Sarita- We are planning a 14er tomorrow if you are interested let me know". Zooop, my antenna straightens up, and I respond with a yes and a yes to both :) 

I did not ask where? how? plan? etc..etc.. I just asked when?

They said, we will leave early come early, will be back by 1 PM in the noon.

So I packed light, thinking a trail hike, starting early morning, less time under the sun. 

My backpack and what it carried

1. 4 litres of liquid - Water/Gatorade/Coconut water
2. Some trail mix (Dates, Cashews, Raisins, Almonds, walnuts)
3. a half packet of Gummy bears; an apple
4. iPod
5. My favorite - Bose earphones.
6. BatteryPack
7. Pocket Knife
8. Cap
9. Sunscreen
10. Travel size Face wash, body lotion, Sanitizer
11. Paper Napkins
12. Sunglasses
13. Light Jacket
14. Phone
15. Gloves (the kinds we use in Gym)
16. An extra pair of T-Shirt and Shorts
17. Essential Accessories - Wallet (with ID proof and Insurance card), Keys, Mobile



I wake up at 3:30 AM in the morning; and am ready by 4:00 AM. Wait for the group to pick me up; I get picked up at 4:45 AM; and we finally start - 4 of us in a Grand Cherokee.

Original destination was http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=16250

On the road, my friends change their mind. Since the drive to this place might take a little longer; we think of picking up something closer. So we select Grays Peak + Torreys Peak Combo. Put the address in GPS and Yayy we are on our way.

5:30 AM, we are still on our way; 6:00 AM, we are still on our way. 6:15 AM we are lost, we are in some residential area. We tailgate an old man (hoping not to scare him, we decide to park on the side of the road a little behind him). My friend apparently parks the jeep, both the guys get down. Before they even turn their backs and start walking, the Jeep follows them. 

Yeah, he forgets to put the car in Park. He hops in and puts to Park from drive. Uff; the tension was catching up.

We get to know we are not on right track (the address we had earlier was actually some street named Gray's trail. Brrrrr!!!). We pull 14ers.com website on our phones for help. Put up the new address in GPS and restart the journey. We stop again somewhere in between the mountains realizing we missed the road again and GPS signal is lost again. (You might have noticed too many agains! That was an intended usage, to share how we felt. Not Again!!)

We smart asses did not have a route map/directions print out. We did not have signal on phones. So we take a best guess, and head down that path.

We hit the bumpy off-road track, thanks to Cherokee, we were able to get through it rather smoothly, although we were thrown off our seats every now and then. When for the third time we felt we were lost again in the mountains, we checked with another car behind us, if we were really heading towards the great gray's, and they say yes!!

Finallyy!! We are there at the parking lot at 6:45 AM, but that was not the actual trail head, there were no restrooms :( 

It's very cold outside. I put on my earphones, gloves, cap, backpack and am ready. 

We start our hike at 7 AM. We had a company of 2 other groups, so we follow them. But we decide to split way and take the route up hill on the left instead of the one on right. 

Start of our Hike from the Parking Lot.

Alright. So after 20 mins of hike, there is no more trail. We try to find a shortcut to make up for all the time lost. We find a marshy patch of land; we decide if we cross this, and the pile of rocks behind it, we will find our trail.

Making our way through the Marshy patch of land

Walk; then Jump from one stone to another, avoiding the marshy muddy water, and SPLASH!! One foot in that marshy area and then the next 20 steps got our feet wet. I need not mention it stinks. 

Anyway, finally we are out of the marshy land. Now we see a rocky hill, we think our trail to Gray's peak is behind it. We start climbing it. 

The rocky hill across the marshy land.

Oh! I did not mention what I was wearing. So up for all these adventure, I decide to come in my Nike Basketball Shorts, a tank top and a Nike windbreaker. Yo!! How Exciting! (*did you hear a meek - but I thought it was a trail hike. Duh!)

Nike Running Shoes, Basketball Shorts and
Lots of bruises from rocks and bushes - That's me!

I already had got enough scratches on my legs from the bushes and plants etc... Now I was looking at climbing the rocks without any gear. Well, it wasn't that intimidating to begin with, Pile of Big and small loose rocks here and there, had to just carefully walk across; we did get stuck for a while, then figured our way out.

Finally we are on top of the hill; probably around 8:30 AM


Now its getting hotter. We sit for a while; sip some water, eat some gummy bears. Then the search for trail begins. We are still not sure which of the mountain peaks in front of us is Gray's :D 

On top of the hill, still figuring out the trail. The hill behind is him is what we crossed again to find the trail.

We walk across and climb another hill with loose rocks and gravel. 

FINALLYYY we find some sort of trail!!!! After all these off trail hikes, we finally get to see some people and we are on the Southwest Ridge trail. But at this point again, there is no real trail ,however we can now see where we have to head towards.

Finally we see some trail. The snow patch you see is where we should reach and beyond that is Gray's peak.

We start climbing. The elevation is steep and we did not have hiking sticks. We crawl ( at least I am pretty much on 4 legs since my backpack was heavy). There's literally no place to sit and rest until we reach the top of that mountain.

Hiking up the Rocky part of the mountain

Almost there....few more steps

The loose gravels that you see on the top right side of the above pic, one of our friend had broken off from the group trying to hike up that side of the mountain to reach Gray's peak directly - and he succeeded. It's the same path where on the return they slide down their ass to hike down.

You can see people hiking uphill.

The last bit of rocks to climb to reach the top of the hill

I reach the peak of this rocky piece of mountain at around 12 PM MST. View from there was divine. And to see where we came from was exciting as well. There was still quite a long way to go to reach the Gray's peak. 

From the Peak of Rocky hill. The small stream of water on the right, we started from behind that mountain.

And I was dead exhausted. I felt more tired trying to think that we had to hike down this steep rocky mountain on our way back; which did not seem exciting at all. People were sliding on their ass and it was quite ugly imagining the pain it would cause.

Another view from the top of that rocky hill.

I sat there on the rock, waiting for my other friend. Other 2 guys were already on their way to the peak, out of our sight. I had no energy to think that I could make it to the peak. I gave up. My friend was also on the same boat.


Then we see a Father and son hike down from the peak. I ask "How bad is it uphill?". He says "You already did the tough one. The rest of the path is easy. It seems intimidating but it isn't that bad. You can do it."

That was fair enough of a motivation. We did not have a choice. We could go back to our car, but there was no way we could intimate the 2 guys who have gone ahead of us. We couldn't leave them imagining what happened to us or come back looking for us. We couldn't sit on the top of that mountain, under that hot sun on those pile of rocks. 

So we had to move our bodies up the hill. 

We walk, and then walk, then we hike and we hike and then we climb and climb.

The long stretch on the top is what we have to walk to reach Gray's Peak.

Finally; at 1:10 PM MST, we are at the top of Gray's Peak. It was quite crowded on the Gray's peak; so it was quite noisy. We sat there for a while and around 1:30 PM we start climbing down the Gray's via standard route towards Torrey's peak.

On top of Gray's peak - 14,270 Ft.

After the continuous long hours of Uphill hiking; we were seeing the downhill path for the first time. So our legs take a while to get used to it. And I mentioned that I was wearing Nike Running shoes, so I take twice the time to cover the distance since I did not even have the hiking poles. I was skidding at pretty much every step on those loose gravel; so I had to pause every 3-4 steps.

Hiking up the Torrey's

3:00 PM MST, we are at Torrey's peak. Peaceful!!! Such a blissful feeling that I can't explain. There was just one other person sitting on the edge of the peak. 

Can you see a man sitting on the edge of the rock in the center of the picture?

I sit there looking at the vastness of the earth, the mountains stretching to infinity, feeling the wind against my face, a beautiful feeling.

All the toiling and pain for just this one view - worth it anyday!!! View from Torrey's Peak.

Another view from Torrey's peak!

We start hiking down, Now we are so tired that we don't have enough energy to walk up the Gray's again and hike down that rocky path that we came through in the morning. 

View of Gray's Peak from Torrey's - Gives an idea of downhill hike

So we try to see if we can hitch hike in someone else's car from the main parking lot. A very sweet couple offered to help us. We take the standard trail route that takes to the trail head parking area. Guys trace back the route we came from so that they would get the Jeep and pick us up from Georgetown Visitor's Center.

Finally - This is how the actual official trail head looks like :( A lot easier hike
if we took this trail, But I must admit now looking back it would have been a boring one. 

We shared the ride with them :) They were tired too. They fell asleep on the way :)

Well the story does not end here. When we reached the parking lot, there were rangers hiking up, who asked if we heard anyone screaming for help on the Gray's. We said no. They said, apparently 2 guys have been asking for help, but they aren't sure.

And we start getting worried. Our 2 friends, were to trace our hiking path back from Gray's to parking lot, pick up the Jeep and pick us up from Georgetown. 

We wait in Georgetown center for more than an hour waiting for them. We were at parking lot at 6:45 PM, and in Georgetown by 7:30 PM. We keep waiting till 8:30 PM without any news from them. We call them, but call keeps going to voicemail. My friend whose husband was one of the 2 guys, starts praying.

We were worried because, its already dark and they did not have a torch or enough water and food. We decide to wait for another 10 mins and then call a friend for help who generally goes on hikes; and has idea of what to do.

Luckily just then we get a call, that the guys are on their way to Georgetown. Finally, we breathe. 

Being physically exhausted is one thing, that I enjoy. But all the mental exertion did take us for a toll.

Things that we dint do right.

1. No printout of the directions to the trail head
2. No printout of the trail
3. Did not carry enough liquid
4. No torch (when we were heading back it was 6:30 PM, and it was getting dark)
5. No proper hiking gear (I have slipped on the rocks 4 times, where I almost thought I would fall off the cliff)
6. Split group; No means of communicating with each other.

The Crazy 4 - a memorable hike for everyone!!! Who are We????

Well as they say, all's well that ends well. Now when I look back, its a lifetime experience for me. But a lot of things could have gone wrong, we were just lucky that day.

Our Hike will always remain memorable one due to its trail hunting experience and all the surprises we weren't prepared for.

Oh, I forgot to mention our motivating slogan that we came up with while hiking up the Torrey's, where we almost gave up. "Who are we???? We don't Quit!!!!"

While hiking down the last 6 miles to parking lot from Torrey's peak, I realized 2 things - You are never too tired for anything. It's all in your mind. If you have to do it and there is no other way out, then you will do it. Second, Hiking teaches you that you ought to finish what you started, no body else can complete it for you. Just like your life, you deal with it till the end.

-Sarita
Dated - 11/1/2015
(Took me 2 months to complete this blog. The hike was on 8/28/2015. Just got too busy with my work. Last weekend had been to another hike in snow. Let's see when I will get time to write something about it.)