I’ve been leading trips for the CU Hiking Club for over a year now, and I can say with confidence that it’s not too often that you get a group of hikers who can’t get out of your head after a long weekend.
I’ll admit, I’ve been feeling a little burned out lately with the Hiking Club and with hiking in general. A few days ago I swore that this would be my last big trip until November, and that I would take a break for a few weeks out of spite for the club and for the big, long, and strenuous hikes I’ve been doing every weekend for the last several weeks.
I knew the Four Pass Loop in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen would be a beating. I knew I would have to deal with a group of hiking clubbers and I knew that it would be a long weekend. But I had no idea that I would be lying awake Sunday night after an exhausting weekend, reminiscing about the incredible people I met on the trip and the incredible wilderness we just witnessed.
It started with a mishap, where the other trip leader and one of my closest friends had to drop out of our trip after getting a gnarly cold late Friday night. Suddenly, I was on my own.
I wouldn’t have believed it if I knew a year ago that I would be leading Four Pass by myself, one of the club’s biggest traditions and hardest backpacking loop, and one of the most famous loops in Colorado. I gathered my eight other hikers and told them the situation: how we wouldn’t get to the trailhead until 1 am, how we still had to hike 1.5 miles into camp, how we’d only get four hours of sleep that night, and how they were now stuck with me. They were still somehow more stoked than I was.
I’ve never been as impressed with a group of people as I was this weekend. Four Pass Loop is notorious for its elevation gain— over 8000 feet consisting of four 12,000 foot passes with a backpack is no easy feat. Most people finish the loop in three to four days. The hiking club only has a weekend, which means we have to push 14 miles with 2 of those 12,000 foot passes each day.
There was never a moment where the moral dropped. We cheered each other on as we went up and over each pass, we high-fived and smiled on top of each as we drenched ourselves in sweat and were nearly blown away by the wind. We were as stinky and as dirty as ever by the end, but there was just as much stoke once we arrived back at Maroon Lake on Sunday afternoon as there was when we started there at 2 am two nights before. Yes, we were physically and mentally exhausted, but we laughed the whole way home.
As midnight approached on Sunday night, I lay awake in bed, body sore, but mind still reliving Four Pass. Of all the trips I’ve led, I’ve never had such a solid group of hikers. Their patience, determination, trust in me, and passion for the wilderness reminded me why the Hiking Club is so special, and just how lucky we are for the opportunities to experience places like the Maroon Bells Wilderness. I am so grateful.