Getting Bolder in Boulder

So Daniel wanted to go mountain climbing.  (I guess he took all those times I told him to go take a hike literally!)  Well, Daniel's 18 now, so he could go unsupervised, legally.  But then Bethany's competitive nature kicked in, and she insisted that she wanted to go mountain climbing, too.  (Anything Daniel can do, she can do, too!)  As Bethany is still a minor, responsible parenting demanded that she be accompanied by mom or dad.  Debbie, the one who started this whole thing by asking Daniel what he wanted to do, said she would just stay with Katie and sleep in.  Nice.

At 7 a.m., our sherpa, Adam, took us to the base of the Flatirons.  I had hoped he was talking about some kind of par 3 golf course, but no, the Flatirons look like this:

Sherpa Adam told us that we would be hiking up a switchback trail between Flatiron #1 and #2 (the trail runs under the heavy strip of trees between the two rock faces.)  Only later would we learn that this hike requires ascending about 1500 feet vertically over the course of about 7500 feet horizontally.

I hear that it was a beautiful hike.  I was too busy trying to breathe and maintain consciousness to be aware of any scenery. 

I vaguely recall a lot of rocks.

Sherpa Adam shows us the way!

Unbelievably, I made it to the top.  As I gazed down at Boulder and desperately wished for an oxygen tank, I mused to the kids that this would most likely be the one and only time in my life I would ever be at this particular spot.  (i.e. I'm certainly never doing this again!)  Daniel said he already wants to climb one of the really big mountains, like Long's Peak, and Bethany said she wants to come back and climb straight up the rock face of the Flatiron.  I think those sound like trips for Debbie to chaperone since I took this one.

When we got back to Adam and Patti's for lunch, I asked Debbie what she would like to do for the afternoon.  She said she was interested in going on a hike.  After all, here she was up in the Rockies and hadn't had the opportunity to do any hiking yet.