We’re continuing to train for our upcoming outdoor adventures in Patagonia and finally had all of our gear together to practice hiking with our full set up.

Brian found a new area for our recent hike about an hour from home in Colorado. Our destination – the summit of Greyrock Mountain – in the Laramie Mountains range of the Rocky Mountains. While its 7,616-foot peak is not our highest summit to date, reaching it was challenging enough with 20 lb. packs on our backs!

We decided to make a loop, heading out on the Greyrock Trail, summiting the peak, and then coming back via the Greyrock Meadows trail.

We arrived at the trailhead parking area around 8 a.m., hit the facilities, and then set out on our hike. There were only a few groups on the trail, and we quickly separated and had the trail to ourselves.

Much of the Greyrock Trail was in the shade, and I was surprised to see a number of wildflowers still in bloom so late in the season. As we approached the summit, circling around the rocky peak, we could see the vast burn area to the east that’s still recovering from recent fires.

It was definitely a scramble to the top – we put away our poles and were using hands and feet to navigate big boulders until we reached a relatively flat area ahead of the summit.

The wind was crazy in the morning when we drove from Cheyenne to the trailhead – sustained 40-50 mph winds with 70 mph gusts. Although our weather apps said it was calm in this area, they lied! It was very gusty at the top and we found ourselves shoving our hats into our bags and holding on for our final push.

Happily the views from the top were worth it – beautiful blue skies and great visibility. We even got one decent wind-swept selfie before we started our descent.

I very wrongly assumed the hard part was over and the ‘meadow trail’ would be an easy, flat journey back to the car. We did initially come down from the mountain and cross a meadow, but then we had to climb back up and around a second, smaller mountain to return to the trailhead.

In the midst of the second climb I actually asked Brian exactly how many mountains we were planning to traverse today. He thought it was funny, but I was dead serious and totally beat! Happily there were a few distractions to take my mind off of things on the walk back, like the solo deer we spotted wandering through the woods.

Our hike clocked in at 7.8 miles and 2,226 feet of gain – not a small undertaking on a good day, let alone with our new through-hike gear on our backs.

It was definitely a success in terms of crossing several of our training goals off the list, and I’m happy to have learned about a new area relatively close to home that we can explore.

We’ll definitely be back to check out some of the other nearby trails, maybe even in the winter when they get repurposed for cross-country skiing and snow shoeing. Always something new to explore!