Como-Boreas Pass-Boreas Mountain-Bald Mountain-Mt. Guyout-Georgia Pass-Colorado Trail
My dad gave Laura a new pair of gloves at dinner the other night, so when she said that she wanted to try them out this weekend, I knew I was in for an adventure. Seems like 25-35 miles is the correct distance to properly determine the awesomeness of a new pair of gloves, so we pulled up the topos and started searching.
7:15 am and we are parked way lower on Boreas Pass than we had planned. We started off and set a solid pace, working our way up through the yellow and orange changing aspens, 11 miles up to the top of Boreas Pass in just over 2 hours. Taking a 15 minute break, we ate salami and cheese and chatted about the old railroad grade that was once Boreas Pass.
We soon took off toward Boreas Mountain 13,082 along a good trail. Once above tree line, we made our way off trail through the alpine tundra and rock hopped our way to our first summit of the day. 
More salami, cheese and a short break later, we were headed down and on our way north toward Bald Mountain 13,690. At the base of the steep climb, I hit the wall. I was exhausted and was ready to skip the mountain and head down French Pass and back to the car. Laura and I stopped for more food and chatted about the problems you need to work through on long runs. I regained my motivation and began working my way up the steep, off trail slope toward the first of three false summits on Bald Mountain. 
From Boreas Mountain to the summit of Bald took us just under two hours. Sitting behind a rock shelter, we celebrated our high point for the day and once again ate and relaxed.
The opposite ridge from what we ascended connects Bald to Mt. Guyout 13,376. We continued forward and went down the steep and rarely traveled slope. It took us over an hour to get to the upper reaches of the Mt. Guyout ridgeline, but when we made it, Laura had hit the wall. Once again we stopped to eat and drink before continuing on. For what felt like 10 years, we traversed on loose rock piles just below the ridgeline until finally we saw the upper reaches of the mountain. We were relieved and quickly made our way up the talus to the summit of our third 13er of the day.
An hour of descent on the same loose talus and we were finally back on solid ground. We were both low on water, but rather than filtering, we asked a group of campers who happily allowed us to fill our bottles. We chatted with them for a few minutes and hung out with the herd of about 10 goats in their campsite, but quickly continued as we knew we still had 8 miles to run down the Colorado Trail back to Kenosha Pass. 
Well, 6 miles later and we learned that our 8 miles were actually 15. It was getting close to dark and we still needed to find a ride the six miles back to Como. We made the decision to bail onto a road. With 28 miles and over 6,500' of elevation gain for the day, we were happy with our day and honestly both still felt pretty good.
We hitch hiked back to the highway and then on to our truck at Como. Chatting along the way, Laura talked to me about the day and how it would compare to a 50 mile run. We concluded that it was perfect training and that a 50 miler would be totally attainable for me. A few complaints, and a lot of work later, three 13ers in a day is tough to be sure, but it is always fun in the mountains and the autumn colors made it all worth it. We will look forward to a few more long days before November. As the weather cools, I am sure Laura will be happy to get more use out of the gloves she calls "fantastic, perfect and super comfy!"
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