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We had all been feeling great physically on our hikes earlier in the week.
We made it to the trail head of Longs by 2:30 am and we were off.
We took the Jim's Grove short cut. Seeing all the lights of other hikers on the Longs Peak trail was very cool as was seeing the lights of Denver and Boulder. Unfortunately, I started not feeling well and became sick before we were even out of the Jim's Grove trail. This was bumming me out big time. We rested a lot and I tried to eat and drink. I am not an early morning person so this very early morning thing was hard and I did not get enough sleep the night before. I think excitement kept me up. Rick offered several times to turn around but I just couldn't, this was supposed to be the highlight of the week and I was going to try as hard as I could. Also, I knew how badly Katie wanted to do this climb, and she was feeling great, Ah to be young again!
We pressed on. Katie was going at very good rate and was ahead of us most of the time. Not feeling well did force me rest often and because of that I stopped and really enjoyed the sunrise.
Now granted I was not feeling well but I think the boulder field is underrated. That thing is huge! It just went on and on. I pressed on too while Rick and Katie were ahead of me. About mid way through the boulder field I made up my mind that perhaps on this day the key hole was going to have to be my destination. I wanted to cry but that would take too much precious energy. I thought to myself I will let Rick and Katie go on and I will go back by myself from the keyhole. I so badly wanted to get to the keyhole and see that view. We have hiked to Black, Frozen, Shelf, Solitude, and have seen Blue from the trail to Frozen. It's a view I was so struggling to get to. I met a couple of nice college girls from the Timberline Camp and one of them was from MI so that was a neat connection. I wanted to chat with them more but I felt so sick that I didn't want to chat. They were very encouraging to me.
Now Rick took some photos that I didn't know he took. I don't look like I feel good and I'll insert them anyway because that is my story on that day. The one where I am smiling in the boulder field is a fake smile and you can see I'm holding my stomach.
I made it to the Keyhole! It came at a cost but I made it!
I sat there several minutes and did enjoy that view! The longer I sat I thought I was feeling a little better. I looked at the ledges and thought they didn't look so bad maybe I should go on. I discussed this with Rick and he didn't think it was a wise thing to do. He didn't like the looks of some clouds and knew my I was much slower this day than I had been all week and that would not be good if weather was going to be an issue. He also knew from experience that the best cure for altitude sickness is going down. I told him that he and Katie could on but he said no he wanted to stick with me as I was not myself and he had concerns. I was not comfortable with Katie going solo. The gals from the camp met up with us at the keyhole and said Katie could go on with them. So that became the new plan.
[continued]
Edited by Bill 007, 13 September 2009 - 08:06 AM.
Fixed photo tags
