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| My first, of many to follow. Thank you Bierstadt |
After alot of research, planning and gathering of my gear I convinced one of my best friends to join me in what would soon be my first 14er, his 2nd the one I would always remember, no doubt about that. I have been to the top of Pikes Peak but it was via automobile and I was so young all I remember was the giftshop with the bathroom, wait, did they actually have a bathroom? who knows, anyway......
So as early as we deemed necessary we hit the TH, we were early, just not early enough. Lesson #1 learned, get there early, no not early, earlier if not the earliest!!! Parked on the road.
Hit the trail and was in instant owe of the surroundings, for we enjoy the outdoors as much as the next person and couldn‘t of been convinced we weren‘t in heaven.  An absolutly amazing day. Now for the trail, a lot muddier than anticipated after reading trail reports of people doing it in tennis shoes. Really? shoes?  Say your are sorry to your feet if you really did.....anyway not enough mud to turn anyone back so we continued and through the willows to the climb to the ridge, after the snow bridge that is a cold dip waiting to happen!!!! (Check out "Bierstadt in the fog" trip report!!! Sorry guys!!!)
We got the first look of the Sawtooth which is amazing!!! At this point I was asking myself, "They said this was the easiest one??" Definately a reality check if you have been lazily wandering down nice mountain forest trails and not scrambling up mountains of rock, boulders, moss, snow fields, trickling runoff and spontaneous patches of ice. This is where I was really questioning shoes? Serious?? Nothing extreme but definately added to the endurance level.
The snow fields were not bad but the occasional posthole is always frustrating. GO EARLY!! As the day goes on the snow melts, yeah I know weird......Took us a little under 4 hours. Yeah definately took our happy A** time and enjoyed every single second of it. The views, the air, the everso nice people, the pictures, the experiences, and the accomplishments. I probley stopped every 50ft to take a look at all that was around and think I still missed half of the beauty.
Lesson #2 Don‘t just take the sunscreen. Even if you never get burnt, put it on and remember to REAPPLY........Unless I guess you would like to explain to everyone on Monday how you got that burnt, good water cooler conversation yes, but do you need the burn? No just take good pictures!!! 
Absolutely loved it, was it easy? NO!!! But for some reason I want more and can‘t get it off my mind. Would recommend it to anyone, had a blast and hope that it‘s just the beginning of many!!!!
As for the 3,000 ft rule, I enjoy the wilderness because it gets you away from the B.S. in regular life. Just think the more time we all spend arguing about it we could be driving to that next TH!!! I do what makes me happy, hiking down a mountain to hike back up to the top does not make me happy. It makes me think I could of used my time alot more productive, like hiking another mountain, volunteering for some trail maintance somewhere, mowing the grass or even portioning my food for the next 4 day backpacking trip. But either way I will never be caught trying to brag about "OFFICIALLY" bagging every peak, worried about what other people think. Let‘s spend that time, the time wasted arguing and tell ten people about Leave No Trace, or how they could minimize their Footprint on the mountains that we love. Seriously.
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