Silverthorne / Mount Royal

07/09/11 - 7/11/11

I spent the weekend with the Phillips family. Our adventures were based out of their condo in Silverthorne, CO. It's about an hour west of Denver. Thanks Ron, Alecia, Michele, and Renee for letting me tag along.

After our hike to Wheeler Lakes, Alecia and the girls had to head home. Ron and I stayed at the condo another night and did a hike to Mount Royal the next morning. Although the hike had the same elevation gain (1300 feet) as the Wheeler Lakes hike, it was compressed into a shorter distance. This trail almost defeated me. Somewhere between the steepness of the trail, the fact that I'm old and out of shape, the high elevation, inadequate hydration, or that we did hikes on back-to-back days, I almost didn't make it. On some of the steeper sections (which seemed like the whole trail), I could only take a dozen steps or so before not having any breath left. Of course, Ron wasn't having any problems at all. But man was I sucking for air. So we had to stop fairly often to let me catch my breath. Thanks Ron, for being patient with me. But I did eventually make it to the top of Mount Royal.

The first two photos below are views from their condo. The remaining photos are from the hike to Mount Royal.