Bear Poop, Altitude Sickness, and Tight Pants. Welcome to State 22.

Guys, after living 3 hours from the border, I finally made it to Colorado!  And although that state did all it could to make me hate it, I still managed to absolutely love it.

Since we were visiting Colorado, we had to do what Coloradoans do, which is, hike.  And since the motto for the trip was go big or go home, we hiked a 14er.  We rolled into our 'campsite' that night at 12:30. While setting up camp, I was walking around in sandals and stepped sunk down into what I thought was mud.  When I explained my plight to my friend Ammon, he mentioned that he didn't think it actually mud.  I took a small piece and smelled it.  He was right.  I'd stepped right into a pile of poop.  To make matters worse, we concluded that it could only belong to a bear, and it was right next to where we were camping.  Did I mention that it was pretty fresh?  The others were convinced that we'd be fine, but I'll admit that I slept a little fitful that night worrying about a bear tearing down our tent.

We did manage to survive those 3.5 hours of sleep that we got, and were up early, with our spirits high, ready to tackle the mountain.   About 2 miles in we realized this hike was hard.  Very hard.  It was all we could do to climb 50 feet without stopping to take a break.  Later our host let us know that we'd actually climbed one of the easier ones - thanks for making us feel awesome.  About 2 miles from the end of the hike, I began to feel nauseous.  Not wanting to be the weak sauce one in the group, I kept goin.  We reached the trailhead and a huge storm hit.  I for one, couldn't even begin to think about walking the mile to our car. Luckily my friends are nice and hitched me a ride, but that 10 minute car ride was the longest of my life.  I've never wanted to die more in my life.  Thankfully, I somehow managed to fall asleep once I got a couple of Excedrin in me, and woke up feeling so much better.  Exercise was still out of the question, but I was just happy to get rid of the wanting to die feelings.  You just don't appreciate things like that until you find your body being racked with pain.

Now what's this about tight pants?  Well that night, after finally getting most of our strength back, we decided to venture into Denver to see what that city was all about.  We came across an H&M and Ammon insisted that we go in.  I managed to find 2 cute pair of pants there, and decided to try them on. The first pair fit like a glove.  Feeling optimistic, I tried on the second pair that was supposedly the same size.  I managed to get them on, but they were a little tight for my taste.  I started to pull them off, but found that they wouldn't go over my feet.  I tugged at them a couple of times, each time becoming a little more panicked.  Then I got serious, and sat down to try to pull them off.  No luck.  Trying to keep my voice calm, I called my friend and asked for her assistance  After a lot more sweating and trickery, we were finally able to get them off.  I felt like I'd just put on a Chinese finger trap, except it was a Chinese leg trap instead.  

If you haven't been to Colorado, you should go.  Despite the fact that Colorado always seems to be hit by every natural disaster known to man, it is one of the prettiest places I have ever been..  and it has wild bunnies.  If that doesn't sell you on it, I don't know what will.  I'm being serious when I say I'm contemplating moving here.  It's just that great.

The ridge behind me was called Kelso's ridge!  What a magical place.