Stephen Meyers

stephenmeyers@coloradoan.com

If you're hiking Mount Bierstadt this weekend to celebrate Labor Day, don't be surprised if you catch a whiff of marijuana on your way down from the summit.

Saturday is the planned date for a so-called "Hash Hike" on Bierstadt, one of Colorado's easiest and most-hiked peaks above 14,000 feet. The smoke-and-hike event was organized by a Reddit user on a subreddit dedicated to marijuana culture.

"Take only photos, leave only footprints. And fat clouds of hash vapor," wrote one Reddit user.

No word on who is supposed to bring the Cheetos.

The hikers plan to leave the trailhead at 10 a.m. — much later than is usually advised for a fourteener trip — and smoke along the way, off-trail.

Smoking weed while hiking?

Happens all the time.

Fellow hikers tell me they've been offered marijuana atop Grays and Torreys Peak. Recently, I watched a college couple discretely try to smoke weed atop Horsetooth Rock.

Last summer near Horsetooth Falls, a pair of dreadlocked dudes casually pulled out a sandwich baggie of mushrooms.

Get to the top of any fourteener, and you'll see hikers pop open a celebratory brewski. Skiers and snowboarders have long taken the opportunity during the long ski lift rides to light up before their runs.

Recreating in the Colorado wilderness and getting high or inebriated — whatever the source — isn't a new concept.

But publicly organizing a toke-and-hike may be. Planning points to you, bro.

Word of the organized hike has spread to the fourteener community on 14ers.com, which has thousands of registered users.

A post on the website's forum titled "Bunch of idiot stoners planning 'Hash Hike' on Bierstadt" has 282 comments as of Wednesday afternoon.

Many have mocked the hike. Among the points of contention:

• Smoking weed in public — and on federal land, no less — is illegal.

• The 10 a.m. start

• People don't want to breathe marijuana smoke while hiking.

• The hikers may be driving home stoned.

MORE: 14 for 2014: Sons and dad climb Colorado's fourteeners

The organizer of the event responded to criticism of the hike, saying the group plans on smoking off-trail as a courtesy to non-smokers. Nor does he advise people to smoke within an hour of driving, he wrote (he goes by a username of osufan77 on 14ers.com).

As for starting the hike at 10 a.m.? The group participating in the hash hike doesn't think it's a big deal.

More power to them, I guess. Better outrun those thunderstorms.

Though Colorado is at the forefront of marijuana legalization, people can, and do, get busted for smoking on federal land, like national forests, national parks and ski resorts.

Last ski season, Arapahoe Basin Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth said he kicked "several" people out of the ski resort and revoked their ski passes for smoking marijuana in public. He said he won't hesitate in contacting the authorities for marijuana-related offenses.

Will Pike National Forest rangers hang out near the Bierstadt trailhead to bust some stoned hikers? Unlikely.

Will the hash hikers even make it to the trailhead?

Debatable.

MORE: The deadly allure of Longs Peak

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or Facebook.com/meyersreports.