Vic-TORREY?

 After being in Denver for about 24 hours Beau and I set out early Friday morning to hike a 14er.





The road to the trailhead is somewhat rough, so a good clearance vehicle is recommended.

We drove as far as we could and decided to call it quits and park the car.  So, our warm up hike started about 1 1/2 miles from the trail head to Grays peak.


Several Jeeps and other 4X4s passed us by as we hiked toward the trail head and there were actually many hikers already on there way up the well marked mountain trail.

One nice thing is with any luck and an early start they say you can hike both Grays and then hike across the saddle back to summit Torreys. 

 That sounded pretty good.  Beau has started his quest to hike all 53 14ers in the state of Colorado and already has 4 under his belt.  This was to be my first.

Although Beau and I did summit Gladstone Peak with an elevation of 13913, ranked number 67 of the Colorado Centennials and is part of the San Miguel Mountains where we've camped for years.

 If you stop at the sign and look at Gray's, you can see the main route, which is a series of switchbacks that utilize most of the face of Gray's. This is the "East Slopes" route. 

We proceeded slowly one step at a time.  I think I held Beau back a bit but it was a great opportunity for us to catch up with what's been going on.

Once we reached they summit we enjoyed the view, snacked, chatted with other hikers, had a beer and I popped a couple aleve  before making the call to save Torrey for another day and call the summit of Grays a success.

 Beau has been documenting each of his summits.

A shot of me and my first 14er no worst for the wear and tear.














Two happy hikers!