© Michael D. Mangin
This was by far my most challenging hike to date, but I look forward to even more challenging and rewarding hikes in the future. 15.71 miles round trip and 11 hours 8 minutes later, Mt. Harvard (standing at 14,420 ft) is the third highest peak in the state of Colorado (fourth highest in the contiguous United States). The peak is named in honor of the university after S. F. Sharpless and William M. Davis (members of Harvard’s Mining School) climbed it in 1869.
We began our hike the night before (Friday, August 4, 2017, at around 10:21p MT) and reached our camping spot at 12:44p just below treeline and about 3 miles into the hike. Tyler Mau pitched his tent and we set camp, along with a fire. By the next morning, we loaded up and prepared for our ascent to the summit. We arrived just before 1:00p Mt when one could hear thunder in the distance. That was the sign to get moving on down the mountain. We would not be continuing on to the Columbia traverse.
Tyler was celebrating his birthday in a few days and decided to take a trek up his first Colorado fourteener. He states, “I pushed through and conquered my first 1st 14er…it was a hell of a walk in a beautiful mountain paradise!”
I brought Roxanne Hagan along because this was a mountain she has wanted to hike for some time now. We’ve talked about it before, but this time I made it happen, and I even got my favorite Java Chip Frappuccino from Starbucks before we began our journey. Overall, this was a great trip. I look forward to another in the future.
I encourage you to visit my stats page and see all of the mountains I’ve climbed to date.
“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”
~ Charles Swindoll
