While doing workouts with personal training clients at the local high school bleachers, Houston in home personal trainer Melissa noticed many backpackers climbing the bleachers with full gear including hiking boots, back packs and water. This arduous workout in the Houston humidity is a great way to get in shape for a summer hiking trip but after doing a five and a half hour hike herself in Cottonwood pass Colorado, Melissa knows that even the most strenuous summer outdoor workout in sea level cities like Houston, cannot completely prepare a hiker for altitude.  The hike started innocently enough at the trail head and her plastic grocery bag with an apple and a bottle of water seemed adequate supplies for the trip. But things started off badly when the Houston Personal trainer had to take a visit to the latrine at the t railhead because she had been drinking a lot of water. That latrine was the most horrible stench filled room EVER and Melissa immediately had to fight off waves of nausea as the smell permeated her clothes even after she hurried away. Now don't be thinking she has never camped, because even though she is a "girly girl", she has camped and used other latrines and NONE came close to smelling as disgusting as the one near cottonwood pass. Five minutes later, still feeling like she was going to puke, the Houston Personal trainer started the hike (climb would be a better word in her opinion) and only twenty yards later she had to rest. TWENTY YARDS is all she could go without feeling breathless. It seemed that the path was straight up… EXACTLY like running up bleachers only a person never turns around to come back down. Hikers just keep going up, up and up. Even though her legs were not tired, her heart was beating like she had just run wind sprints and it was very annoying because the breathlessness from sparse oxygen was slowing her down.
During the hike the in home personal trainer had to concentrate on picking up her feet but even so, she kept tripping over rocks. The trail was peppered with all kinds of large and small rocks which were pretty but were creating bruises on her toes as she kept banging into them with her foot which was not protected by hiking boots. The water and apple in the bag banged against her knees and the branches pulled her hair and clothes and as she slowly made her way up the trail. Melissa began to understand why other hikers took the nature trail more seriously and were loaded with backpacks, dogs carrying packs, maps, compass’s, hats, bug spray, sunscreen, walking sticks, hiking boots, thick socks, long shorts and more.(hmmmm) Melissa stopped frequently to take photos of all of this and drink some water, and began to wonder at the intelligence of participating in this hike in short shorts, running shoes, water, a camera, an apple and a cell phone that did not get any reception. Each turn of the trail brought more elevation, sometimes accompanied by a lovely stream or a small churning waterfall with a small log bridge. When she finally reached the lake at the top of the trail, she was to tired to enjoy it as much as she thought she would because all she could think about was how she would have the energy to go all the way back down.
She did make it back down, and was grateful she had brought the water and apple because she was on the trail for so long. She also was happy to see the rocks on her way back down, the same rocks she had found annoying on the way up were now providing necessary foot placement holds because the gravel filled slope could cause a person to fall on their butt very easily. She was also grateful for the people on the trail whose friendly short conversations were interesting to the personal trainer. She met a man from Boston who was sitting at a switchback because he said the trail was too arduous for him, a couple who had been hiking for three days and had done a huge loop including some peaks, a neat lady who had a shepherd dog named Tucker who was smart enough to lie down when he was waiting for her to go further, and a family with a boy and a girl who wanted to know how much farther to the lake. The entire hike made Personal Trainer Melissa a lot more respectful of the work involved in attempting to do any high altitude hike. But even so, this workout without walls in Colorado ranked VERY high on list of favorite workouts by this personal trainer.