Today three girlfriends and I traveled to Winter Park Colorado. It has been years since I have been to Colorado, and I had never even imagined myself taking on the tasks that I will be doing over the next few days.
Road construction made for a longer trip than we would have liked, but finally we could see the mountains. The numerous fires in CO have caused so much smoke that we had to be almost in denver before you could really make out the horizon outlines.
Once near Winter Park, we stopped and got out for a hike. We planned to hike before anything else so that we could adjust to the altitude. I loved the hike-climbing up to the peaks and touching the snow!
The hike went well, but as soon as we got back in the car, altitude sickness hit hard. I was very dizzy and felt sick (no fun!). Almost blacking out at the house, I got very sick, and was almost no help unpacking the car. I almost blacked out again while we were at the grocery store picking up our food for the week. I had never experienced altitude sickness before, and it is awful. I was determined not to let it ruin my time, and hoped it would be better by the morning.
With our later arrival, we didn't get a bike ride in (maybe that was good news for me!) but enjoyed a nice dinner out on the deck, and planned our first pass for tomorrow: Vail Pass. |