Pikes Peak

According to the warning sign just beyond the trailhead, "Barr Trail climbs 7300' in 12.6 miles. 8 hours to summit at brisk pace." Not exactly the kind of words you want to read early in the morning at the start of a hike. I'll I could think was, "7300 vertical feet!!! Can't we get any closer in the car?" We started just after sunrise and immediately started to gain altitude. The trail is very smooth through the switchbacks with fence along the way. This was the first fourteener of the summer and I was already feeling the effects of a lazy winter. I had forgotten what the mountain looks like on the other side of the first hump. Pikes Peak is miles away. We trudged along, Vance was having some pain in his hip from a climb he did in the past. This pain slowed him, and thus us, down on the hike up. We didn't stop at Barr Camp (9800') we just kept going to make up time. We continued to climb and then stopped for lunch at the "A-frame" around treeline. The last part of the hike drove me crazy. The trail switches back and forth and doesn't seem to gain much altitude each switchback. Looking back, it would have been even more frustrating trying to climb straight up. 6 hours after we left the trailhead we summited Pikes Peak. This was a strange experience for me. The Cog Railway was at the top so there were people everywhere. I stood in line at the Summit House and ordered a large Coke and a King Size Snickers Bar. I took a few Ibuprofen and relaxed inside. Suddenly there was an announcement that everyone needed to board the train. Apparently the road was closed due to some recent snow so we were the only ones at the top. Vance had climbed Pikes Peak before. Since his hip was getting worse, he bought a ticket to take the next Cog down. Rick and I headed down the trail. For some strange reason we were both tired of walking so we started to jog. We made it back down to the trailhead 3 hours later. There we ran into Vance who was waiting for his ride to show. Five minutes later, his ride showed up and he went home. I was home in less than and hour (the shortest I have ever had to travel to and from a mountain. As I ate dinner, I looked out the kitchen window at the mountain I had just climbed. This is a mountain I look at everyday. I was sore for two days.

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