Mike and Sara's excellent adventure

Our adventure began as most of our adventures do, with a bike ride. (of course) We went for about an hour and forty-five minutes around fort collins, then came home for chocolate milk and to change into swimsuits to go cool off in a pool.

I made sure Michael took a photo from my good side, my other side is still looking just a little bruised and scraped.
We enjoyed laying around and cooling off in the cool pool water. I'm sure we'll be spending a lot of time there this summer, it is getting really hot here, and I don't handle the heat well.
After that we headed home for lunch and to pack up to head down to Georgetown, CO area to camp so we could hike two 14er's in the morning. We stopped in Golden with the intention of doing a Coors brewery tour, because since I worked at Anheuser-Busch I am curious how other brewers handle their process.
It was way packed to do the tour so what did we do? Well, we managed to visit two of the bike shops in the area (go figure) but we did get some delicious iced coffees at a local shop. We also stopped and put our feet in the water at a creek that goes through downtown Golden called Clear Creek. It was so awesome! They built it up so that it wasn't flowing too fast and had a couple of drop offs so that people could tube and kayak in their pretty safely! I want to go back and tube it, if I'm not scared, trust me, no one else should be!
We don't have any pics of this part but after Golden we went to Red Rocks and mountain biked around a little. I wasn't in a very good mood. i was way too hot and tired already from the bike ride that morning. For some reason I was deathly afraid of crashing too so I wasn't very loose and having fun. We did get to bike up to where they have the concerts and here the band practicing. I do want to go back for a show sometime. After that was idaho springs for some dinner. We stopped at a local bbq place for some good food. It definitely was good, but folks, we don't recommend eating food like that before hiking in the morning, just saying. We won't be doing that again.
After dinner, it was time to find a place to camp by the trailhead of the 14er called Gray's. we set up the tent and huddled down.

It got pretty chilly, for me anyway. I didn't want to get out of the sleeping bag in the morning, but Michael was up and ready to go! We woke up probably around five and were ready to hike at 6am sharp. Here is Michael at the trailhead. I wasn't quite awake yet and needed more time to get acclimated, but we were off anyway.
And it turned out to be great! I forgot how cold it gets on top of 14ers so we were lucky we didn't freeze to death and that we are both fast hikers.
It was getting pretty windy, and it was a cold wind. Our hands were freezing and we were pretty cold. I can't believe I forgot to think of packing hats and gloves!
We got to see a mountain goat! He was all by his onesy so I don't know where his friends were. He wasn't afraid of us at all either. We were this close, there is no zoom on this picture.
Here we are on top of Gray's with Torrey's in the background. that is our next stop. Let me just say, we were very cold right now.
That saddle between the peaks was deathly cold. You can't know how happy we were to reach the peak at Torrey's. Torrey's didn't have the wind at all so it wasn't too bad up there.

It was amazing up there. I still can't believe we were on top of peaks that were above 14,000ft. It was just astounding.

Look how far you can see! We could even see some of the ski resorts on the surrounding hill sides.

On the way back down, we had to hike through a snow shelf.
Me with Torrey's peak in the background
Coming down, it was just so beautiful!

By the time we were getting close to the bottom it was getting pretty darn warm.
After we got to the bottom, we put on sandals right away, and put our cold feet in the creek at the bottom of the peak. I think it is time for new boots for me, I had about four bad blisters. I had just gotten some great new hiking pants too, the kind that dry, have spf protection, and zip-off. I love them!
All we wanted to do after hiking for 5 total hours, straight, was eat. We went and were able, between the two of us, to consume a two pound pizza at Beau Joe's. then we went over to Thommy-Knockers brewery up the street in Idaho Springs to sample the local brews.
then we headed home, unfortunately to our incredibly hot house to try and relax. It ended up being a trying evening, but we did get our new room air conditioner (thank you megan! we love you!) in the window to cool us off. it took us about 3 hrs and a trip to home depot. We were already tired too on the account that mike's coworkers hid his bike frame from him at the shop and we found it rigged to the ceiling and had no way of getting it down. Mike had to pull out two ladders before we found one tall enough. it was kind of funny I guess. I have to give them points for their creativity. We were about ready to strangle each other I think though. it is amazing how heat can make you so irritable and tired. It was lovely to relax later in the evening in the cool after a nice shower. I think we will be hiking more for sure, even though we are both pretty sore this morning. Two down though!