Bergen Peak
7.7 miles, a stead climb to the top of the peak
(Best Hikes with Dogs book states 7.8 miles, Hiking Colorado’s Front Range book states 8.7)
Dogs did great.
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The wilker family headed out to do their “longest hike as a family ever”!
I had started this hike with some girl friends a couple weeks ago, and because we started to late only got into it about 2.2 miles when we had to turn around! Boo.
Hubby convinced me that he really wouldn’t mind doing a hike listed at 8.7 miles as long as he knew it going in. So when we were deciding on our July 4th hike, I asked him if he’d be willing to try this one! He agreed! Suckaaah!
We slept till we fell like sleeping – well till I felt like getting up, which was nearly 7:30 – woah!
We headed out of the house around 8:30 to try and find some breakfast burritos to nourish us on our hike… Alas our stand by was closed and our second choice (someplace we had never been, but was recommended) didn’t open until 11am, and who knew on a holiday. Sigh.
We arrived at the hike around 9:30 and of course the parking lot was already full. Grumble. We were able to get some street parking not too far down, and headed into the wilderness. Since I had experiences 2.2 miles of the hike, i knew what to expect and it was not bad, a steady climb, a million switchbacks and relatively cushiey ground for hubby in is low soul shoes, and the pups!
There was shade off and on which was nice, since our hiking time took us through mid-day!
The hike had a couple splits and definitely just kept going up. Hubby and the pups kept trucking and did great!
The view at the eventual top was great, and not just the hubby with a big smile!
All in all we were glad we did it, but I ran out of water, which prompted the purchase of a go-lite bag with a 100 ounce bladder and a bigger pouch to carry all of our great – included the baby bjorn in case the pups get tired! It also was a very very long day! We left the house around 8:30 and didn’t get home till 3pm. Definitely not terrible, but also a long time to be putting 1 foot in front of the other!
It took up 2.5 hours to reach the summit, which according to our iphones was 3.5 miles.