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to the northwest of Denver lies the city of Boulder right next to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains known as the flat irons I was in town so Thomas and I could do some hiking further west later that weekend but since Thomas still had a bit of work to do first I was going to do a roughly 9M solo hike I would start at the South Mesa Trail head in the town of El Dorado Springs and then hike North through the flat irons all the way to Boulder where I would then meet up with Thomas to continue our trip the last time I did a solo hike here was maybe 2 years ago that was the worst air quality of anywhere in the world was in Denver that day today normally you can see the mountains but you can't see it right now it's all from Canadian
Wilders thank you very much all right dude see you later see you afternoon bye Sarah bye boy go down here and then go up here go all the way up over there okay I guess this was Sylvester dowy the first settler in the area from 1858 seems like a really nice house for 1858 cuz people were pretty crafty back then okay so basically today I'm going to be hugging the foothills of these mountains 8 Miles all the way to the town of Boulder and actually the smog isn't too bad right now so I guess either the wind is blowing away the Wildfire stuff or it's just better today I'm not sure I'm currently at 5700 FT elevation the
initial plan was actually to go into some of those mountains but it's probably a good idea to get acclimated first especially since we're going to be going up even higher later this weekend historically the elevation has a fected me quite a bit so we're going to take it a little bit easy today and see if we can get acclimated without any ill effects I don't think it'll ever cease to amaze me but whenever you get to a trail and it's kind of crowded if you just get like a mile in the crowds thin out so much like when I was at that parking lot earlier there was quite a few people and I was like oh man the trail is going to be crowded and I'm not that far in and already everybody's gone
maybe this is super obvious but I just realized that when you prepare for a hike you're not preparing for the beginning of the hike because the first 30 minutes first hour no problem but the preparations are for when you get to the end you need to be in shape enough to finish and have the water and the supplies to actually survive you want to prepare for how you're going to feel at the end not at the beginning yeah that's probably too obvious okay here's a real insight all of the things that you do to stay healthy now are really for later it's for the Long Haul so when you're older you can actually still walk and you're healthy enough to enjoy life yeah
yeah it's a nice parallel so it's about 8:00 right now I'm meeting Thomas at 4:00 which gives me 8 hours to hike 8 Miles when we're hiking as a group we usually go about a mile an hour when I'm by myself I can go a little bit faster but really it's not that much faster so it's a day I can really take my time and really enjoy the sights cuz there is no rush at all wow man Colorado does not miss even with the smoke this amazing so I assume they're doing some sort of small Loop but I've been pass by the same Trail Runner three times I am going incredibly slowly but even so it's pretty
impressive I think that is one of the areas where the trail Loops back but I'm going to continue North we should be on the Mesa Trail right now and if we turn left that should keep this on it all right we might be going to Shadow Canyon but we're definitely staying on the Mesa Trail this must be where that trail Runner was looping around we're going to continue up this way I've actually already done a mile and a half which is a little bit surprising because I've been barely walking I'll walk for like 10 seconds and then I'll stop and look at the view me and Thomas were talking about this a little bit but I do wonder if you had access to Trails like this would you just start to take it for granted feel
like I don't know I feel like it'd be hard to take this for granted just look at this wow okay all we're going to do Mesa Trail not Shadow Canyon yeah that shadow Canyon's takes you around the mountain we're going to stay on this side so the trail itself is actually super nice super well paved the things I'm going to have to look out for are the sun altitude and the smoke the altitude and the smoke there's not too much I can do about it but the sun I got to stay in the shade when possible because this is uh some intensely brutal Sun good God yeah maybe there used to be a Old Homestead here or
something definitely a nice spot okay all right we're going to continue straight we're just going to continue on the Mesa Trail North like this so we'll have the mountains in view on our left side the whole time my watch is currently telling me that I have 95% blood oxygen level I don't know how accurate that is but that's a good sign it's definitely gotten in the 880s before at high elevation we actually not too high up like 5700 ft is not too bad yeah anything above 8,000 though it is hard to imagine that this is just a local Trail this is not like way out in the back country this is just a trail that people come to for the day
all right I don't think I'm taking that I think I'm continuing this way I actually don't have much in the way of food but I have infinite snacks Thomas gave me these sea salt and vinegar chips I wouldn't say sea salt and vinegar is my favorite but on occasion could be pretty exciting isn't sour good for elevation or something like sour candy am I thinking of something completely different that was good man Thomas come in Thomas come in Robbie how's it going it's going great I'm uh about 2.2 miles into the trail I think I'm below bear Peak it looks like bear Peak anyway but uh how are you doing yeah let me see I'm pulling you up on my map right here last I saw you were still pretty close yeah I guess the signal is just
not good enough okay good chips Thomas is still alive I'm still alive let's go he it's got a pretty weird contrast going here it feels like I'm out in the back country right now like as far as the environment goes and how there's nobody else out here but in the distance you can hear the sounds of the city actually that sounds like Construction
I was walking forward just now cuz I was like oh there's a great view out here then I turned around and I was like wow okay so that's got to be Peak and that's got to be neble horn something maybe that maybe that but that's definitely be Peak and if I'm not mistaken just up ahead we're going to get an amazing view of Boulder okay well it's not exactly Boulder out here Boulder is further north but still an amazing view nonetheless Denver is like super far out that way can't really see it because of all the haze but wow my blood oxygen level is still at
95% or was it 96 either way that is good pretty soon we're going to start entering the downhill section of this hike another Junction what we got here North Fork Shanahan and Fern Canyon okay we're going on Mesa Trail okay I guess the plan today is to just eat like a bird is that how birds eat I think we all know how I feel about protein bars at this point oh it's kind of melting there is no other food I go through more emotions eating than protein bars it's like you take that first bite you're like oh you sit there for a second you're like M yeah I don't know if I squint my taste buds hard enough this is almost like eating a fresh chocolate chip cookie go use your imagination okay we're about 3 miles
into the trail now there's actually only going to be 7 miles of actual hiking on trails and then the final like 1.8 miles is all going to be in the city it's uh noon right now and we were planning on meeting up at 4: but with this pace that might be asking a bit much I can always tell Thomas I'm going to be late but uh I do want to make a little more steady progress also with this bird food that I have the post meal is going to be incredible don't really care what it is as long as it's real food wow yeah there's no way if you lived out here there's no way you can take this for granted this is oh this is perfect I love a good field all right I believe that's Boulder and uh I've driven through there before but other
than that I don't know too much about it I think it's University town because there is a university in there we're going to be walking through it today so we'll get some idea of what it's like so that guy in the dog he was telling me that uh there's some sort of Creek up ahead I don't see it yet but uh that might be a good place to take a break pretty much right at the halfway mark maybe a little bit more than the halfway oh this must be the stream who it's pretty dry imagine there are times of the year where it is much more wet here but I think this is probably a pretty dry time right
now man it is hot y this sun is brutal if you weren't prepared for this even a simple Day hike like this well I was going to say it could kill you but it'd probably burn you at the minimum I will say though this is starting to feel like a good journey I think that's what I really want out of hikes is I want to feel like I've been on a journey you know I want to feel like I've been to some different locations and really had to really had to work to get somewhere okay we got another fork in the road here the Mesa Trail continues to the left here so we will continue on the left sometimes you got to remember to look behind you because the view be pretty incredible all right here we're going to keep going north and then maybe
we're going to exit over here somewhere that is one way to tell if you're accustomed to the elevation or not if going uphill immediately makes you feel like tapping out chances are you're not accustomed to the elevation yet wow that the wind is so hot it's like a sauna okay I believe that is the city of Boulder it certainly looks like a university I don't just something about those buildings look like dorms that means we're getting fairly close let's see where we're at right now oh yeah so 2 miles left of Trail and then we will be in the city hope Thomas is ready to eat it's uh 1114 that should probably put us there right around uh early dinner time I've certainly ate dinner at 4 o00 many a Time
you know what I think it's time for a little bit of a morale boost okay let's see what I got granola bars almonds cereal oh I know what we're doing fruit snacks why are these so the texture is just right excellent source of vitamins a c and e dubious okay let's see how much water I got not doing great on water I'd like to have a little bit more than I do but I think we should be fine I don't even what cereal this is Thomas just gave me this bag of cereal and was like here I love cereal I really mean this when I say this but if I could eat one food and it would give me all the nutrients and keep me perfectly healthy it'd be cereal breakfast lunch dinner got the sweet kind the nonset kind I love them all no idea what that is
property line I guess we'll assume it's somebody's property and admire it from afar I've got this little thermod drop thermometer and right now says that it is 97° out here I don't know if that's exactly right because when the sun is like right on it I don't think that's giving you the actual air temperature but uh it's actually a pretty manageable heat the wind is kind of warm but when you're in the shade it's totally fine all right it's 2:00 that's a nice 6-hour Journey oh man that City looks very inviting right now when I get to the bottom I'm going to fill up on water regroup a little bit and then we'll head into the city Thomas is already there
he's at some Cafe so we'll just kind of zigzag toward WS him heck of a trail man and I'm pretty sure I just scratched the surface there was all sorts of other places you could go to once again Colorado not sure if it's all of these houses but some sort of like summer Retreat here yeah some of these are just houses though probably very expensive houses I don't know one's got a number on it huh I'm sure those pictures are going to look great but man that looks miserable it is way too hot to be wearing a suit
today Southeast side of Ranger snacks I'm just going to relax for just a bit oh yeah was good not bad all right Thomas is basically due north of me so I think I'm going to just try to find some quiet city streets to walk down this feels really disorienting getting back into civilization just spending all day by yourself and then suddenly there's a bunch of people it's really weird oh yeah this is a nice little neighborhood oh yeah this going to be nice oh apples oh man what's the etiquette on taking apples from a tree next to a sidewalk would anybody mind probably
Stonehenge whenever I'm walking down a sidewalk I'm always hoping that I'm going to find a CRT TV huh I could be totally making this up but I feel like I heard somewhere that cemeteries want more people to visit I don't remember why exactly man cemeteries are really nice just a nice place to walk through look at the Tombstones and see when people lived like your boy John Roberts 1857 to 1907 here rests the Woodman of the world are these tombstones that old that does not look very old
uh one of the ways you could tell that this is definitely a college town is that every house looks like it's a house where 10 people live oh what is this looks like this is Boulder Creek let's check out this statue real quick oh that's the bird we saw earlier black build magpie okay let's go find Thomas somewhere in central Boulder
jeez it business Thomas so are you hungry not really but I'll follow you I want to hear about your trip I want to hear all can you unplug that for me it was awesome have you done that whole Trail before not to Boulder but I've done half of it was a journey I bet you know it was not a short trip no I'm TI I bet oh this is a terrible look at all that head I'll drink it for you milkshake so this is a $5 salmon rice ball it is a big boy it's good I thought that I wasn't hungry it's just I needed to take the first bite okay I'm very hungry for my own sake I'm glad we figured this out before we started this trip oh man is good is it better than the 7-Eleven M yeah this is an update from Michael okay I know that this time these eggs is
a that is yeah oh that was dope would you get tuna Mayo Rice Bowl with egg and avocado all right try that's good that's the type of thing I should make on my own why don't I make rice bowls on my oh dude I got the Himalayan Curry I was a little jealous of yours first I think I made the right choice take a little bit of this one of your green peppers too I know it's still so funny to me the best M we had in Japan was the place that place looks amazing dude I have had dreams about that place is this called food pretty good pricey but good okay now we've got about a 2 and 1/ half hour drive is that right but uh we're staying at a campsite tonight and tomorrow and hopefully they have some showers cuz I am filthy oh baby oh I've waited my
whole life for this you've been walking all day that's wild to me yeah that's really funny I've been walking since 7 in the morning it's 5:00 that might be the hardest hike of the whole trip for you wow man that's true yeah we should have gone to Tom's Tavern no we should have Tom D have you eaten there no how do you know we shouldn't have gone there cuz I don't know I mean I probably wouldn't want to eat at a place that had my name in it Robbie's rough roast beef rump roast be rump roast up on top of that mountain over there that's Lookout Mountain and I think that's where Buffalo Bill was buried not the Sero killer but the old west show Person okay so how long have you been living in Denver a little over two years
okay how long did you live in California just under four years which had the better hiking I know it's tough feels like it's harder for me to get alone here in Colorado because so many people in Denver are really big outdoor enthusiasts oh yeah probably a lot less people in California it was amazing how at the time at least I lived there I could in an hour and a half I could be the only person on the side of a mountain at least that's how it felt whereas out here you go to the side of a mountain and there's a long line and maybe it's just because I don't know all the secret spots yet yeah I felt like I had a lot more peace had a lot more Solitude how about the trails though
because they both are fine I mean I can't I can't compare them both everywhere I've been in Colorado has been absolutely incredible as far as Trails go I don't know of any place in the world that has better Trails than this I mean I'm sure there are better places from what we've done this is the densest best trails that I've been to well it's not raining yet at least in a quarter mile your destination will be on the left oh wow yeah okay well we're better set up Mega 10 quickly visit the night registration Box by the office door to pick up your map that off this door there wow look at
Sky find the map with your last name are you long I'm long maybe I'm long I mean we don't really need it we just need to know where we're at oh man I'm freezing all day I was boiling and now I'm freezing what sick fate is this dude look at that we got oh yeah this is great oh this is great t21 hang on a second oh this is T there's t21 right there yeah so you park all right so I guess this is our site I don't know why it's so small our tent's going to go right here and the site next to us is way bigger that's that's fine I
guess oh wow you got a mallet life has changed after I started using mallets when you properly stake a tent oh man imagine that I have no idea what that's like this is the greatest moment of my life so you can come in but make sure you take your shoes off point you come in when was the last time you could stand up in a tent man this is crazy dude yeah isn't it pretty cool massive tent what is about to happen this is awesome so you just hook up a little USB battery yeah dude this hilarious this thing here is actually a room divider it's a privacy screen for getting dressed when was last time you were able to sit on a chair in a tent never so what's the plan tomorrow I was thinking wake up at 4: get to the
trail head by 5:00 sun rises at 550 but it'll start to get light around 5 okay we are going to do our thing and we're going to get in bed we got a very early start tomorrow we'll see you tomorrow at the top of Mount Sherman thank you very much for watching hope you enjoyed the video if you did please remember to hit the like button and also consider checking out our patreon page at patreon.com Adventure you get early access to the videos bloopers commentaries live streams being Patron is the best way to support us thanks for watching we'll see you in the next tthy Thomas come in can you hear me Thomas I can hear you can hear me yes I'm using my nose to talk to you but uh it's working
this walkie-talkie feature is like really close to being amazing but out here it's it's not quite there you're problems with spicy food me neither I wonder if that's genetic but Andrew's always yeah it is he must not have gotten that Jean I'll tell you my thoughts not in a restaurant my Toyota Camera what a decision you made I'll stop in the middle of the road surely that can't be a bad decision like solid solitud solidarity Solitude oh yeah solidarity is a different word a lot more Solitude that's like we absolutely do kind of ham it up a little bit I am absolutely freezing right now you are but that reaction know all right do I or do I not talk like this all the time I won't let you back into a pole ever again even if I'm filming you thank
oh my God are we doing a fusion we didn't even fuse I texted Thomas on the plane and I was like can we stop somewhere to get something to eat and you go I'll have a warm sandwich no that's not what I said I'll have the best damn sandwich you've ever had in your life ready for you when you get here
