Originally, during my quick visit to Colorado, my plan was to climb two of Colorado’s 52 14ers, 14,264-foot Mt. Evans and its little brother, 14,060-foot Mt. Bierstadt. A 10-mile loop connects the two from a trailhead at Guanella Pass. With a minimal total elevation gain of 3,900 feet (albeit all above 11,000 feet) it seemed a doable accomplishment for a flat lander in reasonable shape. Besides, I was looking for new conquests, new goals. Last Sunday I ran my first half marathon, in July I’d done my first mountain century ride. Adding a couple of 14,000-foot peaks to my summer resume would put me in the gold star category.

Then I met Nancy Dale.

Nancy works with my wife, at Loveland-based Interweave. Interweave puts out an array of online and print publications covering all realms of the crafting world, from crochet (my Marcy’s domain) to quilting to beading. I’ll write more about Nancy next week, but suffice it to say that Nancy’s world extends well beyond the crafting world. She liked my 14ers choices, she’d done them both. She said maybe I should consider something closer. Rocky Mountain National Park, less than 30 miles up the Big Thompson Canyon, has some nice hikes, she said. She mentioned Longs Peak; deeper into the conversation she mentioned that she has climbed it — several times. Deeper still into the conversation she mentioned that she was the first woman to climb every peak in the park (there are 60 alone over 12,000  feet). She offered to share her library.

Since I’m more into hiking than driving, I opted for the half hour drive to the park’s Lumpy Ridge trailhead over the two-hour trek (through Denver) to Guanella Pass.

Lumpy Ridge is a 10.1-mile loop that’s an ideal day-hike sampler of Rocky Mountain National Park. Hiking counterclockwise, you climb for 1.7 miles up to Gem Lake, a community pool-size lake five feet deep. Much of the lake is rimmed by a 40-foot-high granite wall. It’s a destination unto itself. The trail then drops down to the north side of Lumpy Ridge, through pine and aspen, following Cow Creek north before turning the corner and returning along the mountain’s west flank, offering a wide-angle view of the valley below and a brooding Longs Peak — on an otherwise clear day, Longs Peak remained shrouded in clouds — beyond. I’ll put up a slide show next week.

It may not have been a goal-setting day. But it sure set my mind right.

Photo at top: Clouded-enveloped Longs Peak, as seen from the Lumpy Ridge loop trail.

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My cycling compagno Alan Nechemias went to Colorado two weeks ago and did the 27-mile ride from Idaho Springs, elevation 7,600 feet, to the top of Mt. Evans, elevation 14,130 feet (that’s 6,530 feet of vertical climbing, for the subtraction challenged). Alan is a mountain goat: he’s been doing all the major Southeast mountain centuries — Assault on Mount Mitchell, Six Gaps, Blue Ridge Brutal, Blood, Sweat and Gears, to name a few — for the last 15 years. And while those rides all have 10,000-plus feet of vertical climbing, the ride up Mt. Evans started 916 feet below the highest finish of his Southeast rides (Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet). Alan lives in Chapel Hill, elevation 510 feet: to go from 510 feet to 7,600 feet, then climb another 6,530 feet on a bike and only get “a little light-headed at one point” boggles my hypoxic mind.

Then I heard from Tom Hughes. Tom’s girlfriend happened to mention the Rabbit Ears 10K, Tom happened to find it intriguing. So he signed up for the race, which is Sunday. This 10K (which is actually closer to 7 miles, according to the Web site) starts at Rabbit Ears pass (located near near Steamboat Springs and probably the prettiest pass in Colorado) above 10,000 feet and pretty much stays above that lofty elevation. Tom lives in Durham, elevation 413 feet. But Tom is also an Ironman — twice! He’ll be fine.

Not that I’m the competitive type, but their exploits have left me thinking that maybe I need to up my plan. Not to be a copycat, certainly: Mt. Evans is out; If I struggled on Roan Mountain, I’d be eaten alive on Evans, and while I love a good run, there don’t seem to be any races above 10,000 feet scheduled during my visit. Thus, I need to do something not simply epic, but something I have a reasonable chance of completing.

Climb a Fourteener, for instance.

Colorado has 52 peaks of 14,000 feet or higher. The one closest to my base camp of Loveland is 14,255-foot Long’s Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park. That one is probably out: I’ll be climbing alone and Longs is dangerous enough. At least one climber/hiker dies on Longs Peak a year; six died in 2000 alone and just last Friday a man fell  from a ledge on the mountain and died. Also: You need to start your climb around 3 a.m. in order to summit and be off the top before afternoon electrical storms set in.

The next closest 14ers are the twin sisters of 14,270-foot Grays and 14,267-foot Torreys peaks. These may be the two most frequently summited of Colorado’s 14ers, in part because of their proximity to Denver, in part because the climbs aren’t technical, in part because it’s easy to knock off the next-door-neighbors in one trip. Alas, I did Torreys in 2004, and while it’s a gorgeous and worthy climb, I’d just as soon add a new peak to the resume.

Next on the list of Front Range 14ers I found Mt. Evans,  the same Mt. Evans that Alan rode his bike up, the same Mt. Evans that scores of people drive their cars up every day. Evans I have summitted as well, in a 1983 Toyota pickup, if memory serves. But I haven’t done it under my own power (unless you count the mental energy it takes to will a 1983 Toyota pickup up a 14,264-foot mountain). As I poked around a little more I discovered a backdoor route up Evans from Guanella Pass that summits 14,060-foot Mt. Bierstadt to boot. Another two-fer deal that, the more I looked into it, seemed the perfect trip:

• It’s 10.25 miles roundtrip, not a crazy distance for a day hike (even if most, if not all of it, is between 11,000 and 14,264 feet).
• It’s got a total elevation gain of 3,900 feet. Again, this is at high altitude, but spread over more than 10 miles not all that intimidating.
• It’s rated Class 3, meaning some scrambling may be required, but ropes aren’t.
• On a clear day it offers some of the most panoramic scenery on Earth.
• I won’t have to get up ridiculously early to drive to the trailhead. Google Maps suggests that if I’m on the road by 4 a.m. I should make the trailhead by 6:30 a.m. Six hours on the trail gets me off the mountain by the time the afternoon storms generally roll in.
• I get to drive through stunning South Park to get there (South Park being this, not that).

It’s biggest selling point? The high for today is only expected to reach 53 atop Mt. Bierstadt. The overnight low: 35.

After the summer we’ve had, I’m up for a good shiver.

Photo: Image of Mt. Bierstadt taken from Mt. Evans borrowed from 14ers.com.

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