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| Kansan on Mount Democrat and Mount Sherman |
Kansans on Mount Democrat and Mount Sherman: 8-22 and 8-23-08
I had not done anything in the mountains since the early 80's. I had sold at garage sales most of my backpacking equipment years ago. In the late 90's I begin to have problems with a hip that was replaced with an artificial hip in 2001. Hiking in the mountains before the hip replacement was out of the question as I could not walk without pain. One of the things that I asked the Dr. before my hip replacement was if I could walk in the mountains. The answer was yes if I was careful. As I was getting older one of the things you think about is things that you always wanted to do, but had not done yet. This year I turned 60 years of age and I had never gotten myself up a 14er. I had not even gotten up a 13er since the late 70's. It was a dream to get myself up one of the 14ers in Colorado. My wife would not let me do this alone, so I had to talk someone else into my dream to make this dream a possibility. My wife mentioned this idea to Michael Cornwell who went to high school with and he was in. Michael sold the idea to Harry Wheeler another old high school buddy.
We all got ourselves into better shape and planed the trip to Colorado. Michael did most of the planning. Mount Democrat was picked as it was a shorter hike. Democrat was done on 8-22-08. We were slow up the mountain, but we did make it to the top. The feeling of making it to the top of a 14er was just tremendous. Michael's wife is an American Indian from the Ottawa tripe. Michael brought cedar twigs from Kansas as an offering to Mount Democrat for allowing us to climb the mountain. We were instructed to break the small twigs into smaller pieces that were left on the top of the mountain. An hour passed before we started down the mountain. It was a great day with good weather and great people on the trail. I will never forget the feeling of being on top of my first 14er.
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Next day we did Mount Sherman and we were not as slow as the day before. I think we were getting a little more use to the altitude. We had just recently come from 800 feet above sea level. Again it was a great day until we got chased off the mountain by a storm. It gave us a reason to use our rain gear.
I can't wait until next year when we hope to return. We met so many nice people on the trail. There were many father and sons or fathers and daughters. One of Harry's sons has climbed many of the Colorado's 14ers and maybe we will let him come with us as long as he does not run off and leave us on the trail. My goal is to somehow get my grand kids interested in coming along. If I can pass on my love of the mountains to them I will have done something right. Until next year I will dream of the mountains.
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