Let's Go For It!!

Cole and I had done (accomplished) a lot out on this trip.  So we thought that we would at least pick out a 14'er for us to try on our last day in Colorado since that had been one of the original goals driving our trip. We could have 'put it off til the next time', but decided against it for two reasons.  One, most of his 'training' had focused on summiting a 14'er and two, we were "here in Colorado" with an available day.  I had explained to Cole that sometimes you may not know if you will ever be back in a spot again to do something or have the same opportunity, so you need to make the most of opportunities as they occur.

Which Peak?

This was a little tough to decide (since Cole (7yrs) was along), but here is my reasoning which may be of help to you if you're considering a Peak with your child..  From the training and the earlier hike up to Bear Lake, I knew that Cole maintains a good pace, almost the 1000ft per hour you should do.  Thus, my primary concern was not whether he can do a 7-10 mile hike, but more so avoiding the sudden storms with a child.  As experienced hikers know, treeline is roughly at 10-11,000ft, so you generally have some minimum 2-3 miles or more of high "exposed" hiking to get to the top of a 14'er in Colorado.  With an approaching weather system, an adult can hike (okay run) down hill pretty fast, but a 7yr old is unable to do the same pace.  Thus, I needed a Peak with a smaller total trip distance.  The problem can then be that shorter trips generally mean greater altitude increase per distance and consequently a greater difficulty in the trail rating.

Our Frisco location was advantageous to the Peak selection as there were several peaks within about an hour drive that had Easy (Class 1) and Moderate (Class 2) trail routes that I thought Cole could handle.  Of consideration were Grays (and Torres), Quandry, and Mt. Democrat and I had already previously hiked all three peaks.  Although Grays has a Class1 route, Cole and I decided against it since the total trip distance was 8 miles.  Additionally, I knew that its 4+ mile one way was fairly exposed.  We decided on Mt. Democrat, which despite a Class 2 route, had a much shorter total trip distance of 4 miles.  Other factors were that it had a lake (visual interest for kids), old mining shack, and probably several others hikers on the trail as there are 3 other peaks next to Democrat which makes it a popular peak bagger destination.