Alex Lasky ( CLIFF GRASSMICK )

Surprisingly my craziest experience during my first week at Colorado wasn't at a party on the Hill nor was it during my first taste of college classes.

This past Saturday, I started talking to a few kids and they mentioned that they were going hiking tomorrow and asked if I wanted to tag along. I jumped at the opportunity to explore the beautiful Flatirons that tower over the CU campus. These massive mountains can be seen all over campus and I was curious as to what they had to offer.

The next day I ignorantly packed one water bottle and set off to meet my new hiker buddies. We all met up and exchanged names and headed towards the mountain.

The walk on Baseline Road was a daunting one as I stared at the incredible size of the mountains. When we got to the trailhead I bought a couple water bottles and we started heading up the trail.

This was my first hike in Colorado and I was ready to give it my all.

Slowly we started making our way up the trail as I gasped for air. At breaks I'd desperately reach for my water and guzzle it down until I felt refreshed. The incredible effort needed to hike up a trail boggled me.

It made me wonder why everyone went to the gym when they had the world's best cardio workout in their front yard. Nonetheless, I put my head down and trudged on as we went higher and higher up the trail.

My first rock climbing experience came when we stopped at some boulders beside the trail that looked like they would have a good view if you climbed them.

Full of determination, I hopped onto the rock and started climbing across to the flat ground. One wrong step and I would have fallen into oblivion as I slowly crossed the rocks.

The goal was to get to the side of the boulder that had a flat area and looked out on the town of Boulder. As I got to the end of the ledge, I jumped up onto a sturdy flat part of the boulder and took a look around.

My eyes instantly popped open and my legs, aching from the walk over, suddenly stopped bothering me. As far as you could see were lakes, mountains, greenery from many different types of nature -- and, of course, the beautiful CU campus.

When I saw my campus tucked in between so much magnificence it made me want to meet the man who chose CU's location and shake his hand. He got it right -- that's all I'm saying.

The picturesque red roofs on top of the stunning brick buildings with patches of green fields made the campus glisten in its habitat.

After the short break we decided that we wanted to get to the top of the mountain. The only problem was the trail ended far short of the peak and there was seemingly no way to get to the top.

However if there's a will there's a way, and one of the hikers pointed to a steep part of the mountain that had no trees on it. We decided it was the only chance and started our ascent.

Feeling like I was Mario traveling through one of his levels, I jumped, shimmied, climbed and crawled through the gigantic rock formations that were in my way. Twelve hundred feet and three water bottles later, we had reached the top of the mountain. The view at the top was one of the most amazing spectacles I have ever seen.

This is from a traveler who has been to the Swiss Alps and New Zealand.

All and all, it was one of the best days of my life as I made the transition from student to hiker. The beauty of CU is the amount of activities that are at your disposal each and every day.

I encourage everyone to get out there and see what the town has to offer and have a great second week of classes.

CU freshman Alex Lasky's "Joining the Herd" runs every Tuesday in the Colorado Daily. E-mail him at lasky21@gmail.com.