After my 4am alarm went off I sleepily packed my things, took a few bites of a banana and set off on the trail, starting from the North Cottonwood Creek TH. Solo under the stars as I hiked through the forest and beside the creek every so often it was extremely peaceful. About 2 miles in with my headlamp shining bright, it reflected off of something ahead and to the left which caught my attention. My first quick thought was that it was a reflective part of a tent in the distance because I knew I would be approaching some of the backcountry camp sites soon but after getting closer and shining it again that theory was soon eliminated whenever I realized it was a pair of green glowing eyes staring straight at me. After taking a few more steps to see if I could see what exactly it was, I still couldn't make out what it was but realized it wasn't moving at all as it continued to stare at me. I took a few steps back and started making some noise with my hiking poles just to see if it would move so I could continue up the trail since it was right off to the left of the trail. After about a minute of it staring at me, which felt like forever btw, it finally moved across the trail and off to the right far enough to where I felt I could safely pass, although it kept it eyes on me the entire time. Whatever it was seemed to be pretty tall since its eyes were higher up. But for my own sanity in future solo night hikes, I'm going to go with a deer. (**Also please drop your headlamp recommendations because I plan to purchase a better one in the future that will hopefully help me see what type of actual animal I'm looking at in the dark!**)

I started up Columbia as the soft pink alpine glow was illuminating the peaks around making for a beautiful view. Most of the trail up is pretty good quality except for a short section before you get to the ridge which is a bit steeper but since I was ascending it wasn't too bad. After hanging on Mt. Columbia and studying the traverse some I decided to go for it. I used a track saved from 14ers app and also cross referenced it with a few tracks saved from peakbagger to help guide me which made the route finding pretty easy for the most part. After descending Columbia, the boulder field and talus most definitely sucked as it was a lot of maneuvering across very large boulders but nothing I would say is crazy technical just more physically exhausting. There were a few really steep sections with loose dirt and rocks where I found myself really having to dig into as I made my way up but nothing unexpected. I also saw a big herd of mountain goats off to the right which was really cool. There was a moment on this traverse where I got in my head a bit since I was doing it solo and still had a ways to go because I noticed the clouds intensifying more which made me a bit anxious. I had checked the weather multiple times and it was just forecast to be cloudy later in the day so I just kept trying to keep myself reassured with that as I continued to get further away from my potential bailing point down to Frenchman Basin if the weather did turn. After a few self pep talks along the way & 3.5 hours later I slowly but happily made it to the summit of Mt. Harvard! The trail down Harvard was smooth sailing with pretty sweet views looking back into the valley & I enjoyed being able to see the forest in the daytime going back to the car because of how beautiful, green and peaceful it was.

My total time from Trailhead-->Columbia-->Traverse-->Harvard-->Trailhead was 12.5hrs with a few long breaks included in that. I carried about 4.5 liters of water which was the perfect amount for me personally. My Garmin clocked 15.4 miles roundtrip and 5,761 elevation gain. This was a long and demanding day but very glad I did it!