Conquest on Mount Lamborn!

Two weeks ago, Austin and I set off on a most excellent adventure. Well, let me start from the beginning. Since moving to Paonia, we have had a goal to climb the highest peak in our area: Mount Lamborn. (Pictured above.) It's not the highest mountain anywhere, only 11,400 ft, but it's steep, and it's the first mountain at the edge of the desert, so it shoots pretty quickly upwards. It's also the mountain that we have seen outside our front door every day--towering over our house, taunting us to dare make the journey upwards.

We had actually tried to climb the mount once before, about two years ago, but it turns out that the trail head is pretty difficult to find. If you're ever trying to hike it, find good maps! And here's what the trail head looks like:

It may seem odd that I finally got up the guts and the gumption to do this 6 months after the birth of my first child. Many of you may be familiar with my pre-Austin thoughts on hiking--most particularly with my story of the miserably failed attempt to hike Mount Timpanogus in Utah. (Made it, like, half-way up, and after being passed by several older and more decrepit looking people than myself, I lay down on a pile of rocks and took a nap whilst waiting for the remainder of my party to return.) But since we are looking at having to leave the area soon and we hadn't done it yet, I figured we'd better get a move on!

So we grabbed our GPS, strapped Carson into the Kelty pack, put a pack on Austin with all our jackets, hats and scarves in the event we met cold or inclement weather on the peak, and made Seamus carry a back pack with all our food, baby supplies, and other such necessities and headed up the mountainside.

We decided to take the Bell Creek route, as it begins closest to our house, and there is apparently a less likely chance to get lost approaching the mountain from this direction. (Although that didn't keep us from getting lost last time.) This meant that we had to test the mettle of our Subaru to see if it could make the drive up the narrow, rutted, crazy dirt road to the trail head. But we were not disappointed. The Subie made us proud.

So we started our hike at approximately 7400 feet elevation, and climbed to the 11,400 ft peak.

Here are some of the cool bits of scenery along the way:

Carson's not really scenery, but he's cool.

(Austin is our resident budding photographer. As soon as we get my birthday/Christmas/his birthday camera next week, he'll be able to take really good pictures!)

Below is Needle Rock, a very prominent rock formation around the back side of Lamborn, outside the town of Crawford. You can't really tell from this picture, but our friend's Jeff and Tawnya have a house just in front of this rock. Their roof is so shiny that you can see it from miles around. We could see it from where we stood on the mountainside.

This picture of Needle Rock is from Google Maps. It's from the other side of the rock, but gives you a better idea of what it looks like. I believe it's a volcanic core.

The last 1000 vertical feet to the summit are pretty steep. You climb up some incredibly steep, windy, switchbacks through tall grass on a trail that is barely worn. About halfway up this last bit, I finally had to give up on carrying Carson, so Austin ditched his pack and carried him for me. We still made Seamus carry his load. (We were determined to find something that would actually tire him out!)

And when we finally reached the peak, it was not without some misgiving that I watched Austin carry my child up the last boulder. Yes, that is a picture of Austin doing some light bouldering at 11,000 feet with Carson strapped to his back.

And here we are at last, sitting on top of the highest point in Delta County. I wish there had been a way to take a picture looking down on us so you could see what it looked like around us, but as it is the highest point in the county, it was difficult to find something taller to put the camera on. Or, in other words, we didn't haul a tripod up with us.

Here's a better picture of what the summit looks like from a distance.

Yes, we sat on top of that boulder. Baby, dog, and all. (And Seamus wasn't crazy about being on top of a wind blown rock with nothing else around it. Silly dog. Afraid of candles and heights!)

This is a picture of our valley. You can actually see where our house is in this picture, but it's so teeny, and it's kindof hidden by the church across the street. We're more or less dead center in the picture.

This is me, performing motherly duties at 11,000 feet. I have to say, Carson was a champ. He pretty much slept or babbled happily almost the entire way up. He didn't cry at all until Austin had him for the last bit of the climb. And then all he wanted was some food and a fresh diaper! He's certainly managed to make his first summit at a much younger age than his mom!

Although the hike took us nearly 6 hours to go up, it only took 3 hours to return. It was a good thing too, because we made it back to our car at just barely the last drop of sunlight. We did stop, along the way however, to take this shot of some bear claw marks in an aspen tree that were higher up than Austin's head. That's a big black bear! Glad we didn't meet him in person!

So I have to say, after putting off even the thought of attempting another 11,000 foot summit, this one really wasn't so bad. It was a little cathartic. I think I may be ready to head back to Utah County one day soon and tackle Mt. Timpanogus. There really is no feeling like standing on top of a mountain and looking around at everything below--especially when everything below is area you recognize. It was a beautiful view, and I have a completely different perspective when I walk out of my house and see the mountain now. I can look at that pointy rock on the top and say "I've been there! Yeah!"

(Also, as I typed this, I watched Carson scoot around to grab something he couldn't reach for the first time!)