Flattop Mountain

We hiked Flattop Mountain in RMNP from the Bear Lake Trailhead on August 7, 2009.  This was our pre-hike to our big hiking goal of the season, which was Longs Peak.  This hike was 8.8 miles with an incline of 2849 feet.  It was very windy once we got up past the trees, and it became very hard to move forward.  We made it to the top, and the summit was very flat (hence the name).  There wasn't really much to see so we headed back down.  On the way up we had passed a lady who had to have been well into her 60s or so, and we again passed her on the way down.  We stopped to chat with her, and tell her she was almost up to the summit, and learned that she was from Philadelphia (originally from Germany) and every summer came to Colorado to hike in the Rocky Mountains. When I am that age, I want to be able to hike like that.  It was a good motivator.