willow lake

me, merilee, rudy and riccara at the summit of "Challenger Peak." it was a tough climb, and rudy's tradition of eating a snickers at the sumit of every "14-er" she climbs was a definite motivation!

Willow Lake. Amazing! we climbed on the rim of those cliffs on our way up Challenger!

On our way up to Willow Lake.

The "before" picture. Before our feet hurt. Before we smelled bad. Before so much laughter. Before the best night of sleep i've EVER had on the trail! (the hike up to willow lake was NOT easy!)

Merilee and I got to Colorado Wednesday evening. We had great days on Thursday and Friday just hanging out with a bunch of friends from college. Saturday morning me, merilee, rudy and riccara left for a quick backpacking weekend. We camped by a lake, and then Sunday morning we summited "Challenger Peak" all 14,081 fee of it! And i will just say that climbing a 14-er, is hard, no matter how you look at it! i was thankful for the clear weather, and that we were all able to summit. Climbing a mountain was on my list of things to do in life (learning greek and running a marathon are the other two remaining), so now i'll have to come up with something to replace it!

it was a privilege to hike with rudy and riccara. there is just so much time spent together...so much time for conversation, so much encouraging, so much joking. it was a gift!

there are lots more stories, and definitely more pics - but i thought i'd get started with these ones. I may try to upload a bunch to flickr...but i never have good luck with flickr, so the jury is still out on that one!